@martinlukk.bsky.social @kenworthy.bsky.social, Erik Schneiderhan, and I pull together threads from our recent books on donation-based crowdfunding in the Journal of Philanthropy. We argue that rather than being a disruptive new force for good, crowdfunding's benefits have been greatly overstated.

Was just notified by U.N. Special Rapporteur Olivier De Schutter that my research features in his report on how economic insecurity has fueled far-right politics, presented to the U.N. General Assembly yesterday. Study available @sociusjournal.bsky.social journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs - Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75% - Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60% - Social Sciences by 50–70% - History by 60% - Biology by 75% - The German department will lose all PhD seats - Sociology from six PhD students to zero

📢𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻!📢 We’re now accepting applications for the 𝗞𝗼𝗵𝗹𝗶 𝗙𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center @wzb.bsky.social Apply via our online portal: kohlifoundation.eu/programs-koh... 📆 Deadline 16 November 2025

Delighted to see findings from my book discussed in Sara Herschander's thoughtful @vox.com piece on the grim realities of digital crowdfunding and how to live with them. @stanfordpress.bsky.social www.vox.com/future-perfe...

"Interpretations of Topbot as measuring perceived income decile or subjective social status ... are untenable, and empirical claims made on these bases should be revisited." Important intervention relevant to many ppl studying the origins of political party support.

📶 Who’s still offline in a wired world? A new #Socius data visualization by @spencerallen.bsky.social (@um-psc.bsky.social)‬ tracks #BroadbandAccess in the U.S. from 2013–2023—showing gaps by #Race, #Education & #Poverty have narrowed, but persist. Read: doi.org/10.1177/2378...

Another outstanding @asapolisoc.bsky.social panel on Electoral Politics. #asa2025

Bocconi University in Milan is hiring in sociology at any level (open rank). Ideal candidate might focus on inequality, social policy, computational, labor markets, or similar. Happy to answer questions about my time there for anyone considering applying. More details: jobmarket.unibocconi.eu

I’m delighted to share that the August 2025 special issue of Sociological Methods & Research on Generative AI is out now. Along with my co-editor, Daniel Karell, we put together this issue to build on the conference we organized last year. Here's a thread on each of the ten papers:

Attn: the special issue of SMR on Generative AI in Sociology is now online. The whole issue is fire, but the introduction by @thomasdavidson.bsky.social and Danny Karell is a must read, covering prompting, measurement, and simulations. It's a road map for soc sci research in the genAI era. +

So I don't have the energy to redo the entire thread about the papal conclave but I will redo the part about the Latin nerdery: the announcement of a new pope is always in Latin, and uses a very traditional form.

Palate cleanser #ggplot

RCT suggests smartphones make adults dumb cc @paulgp.com @novosad.bsky.social academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

OAG data shows that passenger bookings on Canada–U.S. routes are currently down by 70% compared to last year. www.airwaysmag.com/new-post/boo...

Because Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson's "Abundance" is less a book than a discourse-generating machine (by design), I'm going to review the *reviews* (I also have a review of the actual book coming, I'm not a total weirdo). Roughly from worst to best:

Hello, #ESS2025! I'll be presenting tomorrow, Friday at the "From Polarization to Solidarity" mini-conference. Whittier, 4th floor @ 8AM. Come to find out what this map tells us about territorial identification in contemporary Europe!

As reported, the entire staff of 538 was laid off this morning. This is a severe blow to political data journalism, and I feel for my colleagues. Readers note: As we were instructed not to publish any new content, all planned updates to polls data and averages are canceled indefinitely. Huge loss :(

The tech story no one is talking about #clubhouse

PSA: Grad students can sign up for a GitHub Education account and get free unlimited access to GitHub Co-Pilot. It plugs in directly to RStudio and is extremely handy. #rstats

💰 🌨 Is your GoFundMe campaign doomed to fail? My new piece in @us.theconversation.com (with Erik Schneiderhan) discusses the unsuccesful campaigns and disappointed users the platform doesn't tell you about and what this says about the problems of for-profit philanthropy in an algorithmic age.

💡Why does income inequality matter for the success of far-right politics? My new article in Socius argues that inequality is a social status threat that consolidates group boundaries & promotes ethnonationalism, which draws voters to the far right. See journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Check out Daniela Zuzunaga Zegarra's (Queen's University) new review of my book GoFailMe: The Unfulfilled Promise of Digital Crowdfunding (@stanfordpress.bsky.social) in @hnetreviews.bsky.social! networks.h-net.org/group/review...

Glad to be quoted in this story on a recent viral crowdfunding campaign in DC and the many things that can go wrong when raising money this way.

Reporter: "if you didn’t have money on the line ... would you still be this optimistic [about blockchain etc]?" VC: "I don’t know. . . ." Hard to take seriously arguments about new decentralized tech benefitting the public good when the ppl arguing for it say stuff like this.

New research on unions helps us think about what this week's UAW victory means for other workers: Perron (@uoft.bsky.social) finds evidence that union presence promotes *cultural* norms that affect wage setting and ultimately reduce inequality between workers (the "moral economy" perspective).

My book is OUT TODAY, Bluesky! 🥳 In GoFailMe, Erik and I look at why & how people try to raise money online for basic needs, and find that services like GoFundMe fail most of their users while touting themselves as cures to today's affordability crises. ✨ Get it 20% off @stanfordpress.bsky.social!

🚨Job alert 🚨 We have 2️⃣ postdoc positions in our new interdisciplinary research priority area AI & Politics. We define both AI and politics broadly. Think 'impact of AI on politics' or 'politicisation of AI'. Please share.And apply by 🗓️ October 18 polisky commsky vacatures.uva.nl/UvA/job/Two-...