Leo McCann

@leomc76.bsky.social

130 followers 270 following 56 posts

Academic @york.ac.uk
Sociology of Professions /
Critical Management Studies / History

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Business 28%

Political science 26%

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Leo McCann @leomc76.bsky.social · Sep 16

Thinking of using #ChatGPT for 'help' with assessments? Think again. #university #AI

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

How AI is undermining learning and teaching in universities | Letter

Letter: Prof Leo McCann and Prof Simon Sweeney say student misuse of generative artificial intelligence is widespread and we must be sceptical of its usefulness

www.theguardian.com

Leo McCann @leomc76.bsky.social · 9h

Healthcare clearly needs professional and ethical managers. Some argue that NHS managers should be regulated like clinicians, via a professional register. We argue, in this piece for BMJ Leader, that such a view is unrealistic.
Comments welcome! @bmj.com

bmjleader.bmj.com/content/earl...

Placing the cart before the horse: proposals to regulate NHS managers

Doubts about the performance, value and conduct of healthcare managers continue to stir public debate. In the UK, the denigration of NHS managers as an unproductive, bureaucratic overhead is a longsta...

bmjleader.bmj.com

Reposted by Leo McCann

steve the skeptic @policyskeptic.bsky.social · 14h

The NHS is very poor at training its managers to consistent standards. But the only big policy response is not to improve training but to regulate managers. This is the wrong way to fix NHS management: bmjleader.bmj.com/content/earl...

Placing the cart before the horse: proposals to regulate NHS managers

bmjleader.bmj.com

Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Cas Mudde, Ben H. Ansell , and 68 more Jonathan Portes, Cas Mudde, Ben H. Ansell, Richard S.J. Tol, Dorothy Bishop, David M. Farrell, Will Jennings, Stefan Rahmstorf, David N. Thomas, Gavin A. Schmidt, Patrick A. Jansen, John Horgan, Steve Peers, Andrew Scott, Colin Murray, Mark D. White, Huw Price, Rosemary A. Joyce, Dirk Pilat, Charles West, Martijn W. Hesselink, Chris Hanretty, Simon Wren‐Lewis, Alison Phipps, Mary Corcoran, Anand Menon, Michelle Everson, Rebecca Tushnet, Ben Worthy, David R. Miller, Robert Wolfe, Gary D. Rawnsley, Aileen McHarg, Jacob T. Levy, Simon Glendinning, Scott A. Imberman, Julie Cupples, Lyndsey Stonebridge, Stephen Ryan, Samantha Brennan, Jonathan Birch, Anne Norton, Hubert Zimmermann, Leo McCann, Manuel Puppis, Graeme Warren, David Bartram, Lisa Diedrich, Brian Doucet, Ann Bartow, Stuart White, Pauline Stafford, Clayton Littlejohn, Rense Corten, Greg Linden, Jack Stilgoe, Jon Dean, Klaus Oschema, Christina Pagel, Daxton R. Stewart, Rune Møller Stahl, Olivier Mannoni, Camille Lefebvre, Aviel Roshwald, Colin Talbot, Tarik Abou‐Chadi, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Jeroen Van Bouwel, David Spurrett, François Guesnet, Speranţa Dumitru

Rutger Bregman @rutgerbregman.com · 14h

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.

They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

Leo McCann @leomc76.bsky.social · 1d

It's a great sequel, but I honestly think the first movie is far better. Arnie as the good killer robot is kind of naff. I much prefer the vulnerability and intensity of Reese. Soundtrack and general mood is cooler in my view. But this seems an unpopular view!

Reposted by Leo McCann

Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 1d

Posters have appeared around the building. They suggest that geography, geology, & environment staff might be a bit angry at proposed redundancies, reorganisations & closures. Rightly so.

Poster reading "Because nothing says we care about the environment more than firing the staff that research it..."

Leo McCann @leomc76.bsky.social · 4d

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Very interesting and timely paper by Tine Molendijk in @wesjnl.bsky.social. Great to see the concept of moral injury being given more sociological and contextual depth.

A Contextual Model of Moral Injury: Redefining Trauma in Frontline Professions through Ethics and Context - Tine Molendijk, 2025

To date, the interrelations between mental health and ethical challenges in frontline professions, such as the military, police and health care, have remained u...

journals.sagepub.com

The Conversation U.S. @us.theconversation.com · 4d

Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.

Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq

Reposted by Leo McCann

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 4d

'The union said management had "agreed to halt all planned compulsory redundancies for academic staff until at least July 2026".'

Strikes suspended in Lancaster University staff job cuts row

The university is trying to save £30m amid rising costs and a fall in international student numbers.

www.bbc.co.uk

Leo McCann @leomc76.bsky.social · 6d

"Multiple lanyards". Nice. These hang from the doorknobs in our house as does our son's football coaching related trinkets. They are like other random stuff in the house, like a plastic bag of plastic bags, or old letters on the staircase.

Leo McCann @leomc76.bsky.social · 7d

Retailers also marketing 'AI laptops' and 'AI phones'. It's ludicrous and boring.

Leo McCann @leomc76.bsky.social · 9d

Palatino Linotype. It sounds like a brand of bathroom tiles, but it looks good.

Leo McCann @leomc76.bsky.social · 10d

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A very valuable story on the continuing fallout from 'psychic driving', MKUltra, etc. Upsetting to read.

At 16, I was experimented on by the CIA and now I'm suing

Lana Ponting is part of a class-action lawsuit against the Canadian government for its alleged role in the MK-Ultra experiments.

www.bbc.co.uk

Leo McCann @leomc76.bsky.social · 12d

Definitely the right decision. It was always an unworkable and unnecessary policy. Candidates would stand on party lines and their manifestos were all 'let's keep people safe'. That's except for the English Democrat types whose manifestos were... let's say problematic.

Leo McCann @leomc76.bsky.social · 12d

Finally a good decision from this government. PCCs never made any sense and weren't needed. Candidates were elected along party lines and all of their manifestos were basically 'let's keep people safe'.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Police and crime commissioners to be abolished, government to announce

System introduced in 2012 across England and Wales has faced criticism from police chiefs

www.theguardian.com

Leo McCann @leomc76.bsky.social · 13d

"Too many layers of management". General public and some NHS staff regularly say this. But it's not really true. Operational managers are stretched thin. Clinicians are often crying out for high-quality managerial support, expertise and visibility.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

NHS gets go-ahead to make thousands of redundancies

The compromise deal would allow the NHS to overspend this year.

www.bbc.co.uk

Reposted by Leo McCann

The King's Fund @thekingsfund.bsky.social · 13d

The NHS 10 Year Health Plan will only succeed if we strengthen management and leadership.

The King's Fund's Suzie Bailey shares some key findings from our new paper with @unibirmingham.bsky.social.

Read more: https://bit.ly/437AuPW

Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Tim Bale, Steven French , and 7 more Joanna Bryson, Tim Bale, Steven French, Jonathan Wolff, Anders Nilsson, Michelle Everson, Peter Stewart, Leo McCann, Aurélien Mondon, Pam Jarvis

Byline Times @bylinetimes.bsky.social · 14d

🧵On our revelations today about the BBC Coup and the Prescott Dossier.

The leaked ‘BBC Bias’ memo Trump used to attack the BBC was authored by Michael Prescott — a Hanover lobbyist paid by US tech/media giants tied to Trump. Full story: bylinetimes.com/2025/11/11/b... 1/12

'BBC Bias' Memo Was Authored by Lobbyist Tied to Pro-Trump Tech Giants

The leaked memo that fuelled Trump’s attack on the BBC was written by a lobbyist at a firm paid by US tech giants tied to the President

bylinetimes.com

Leo McCann @leomc76.bsky.social · 14d

With thanks to Ben Fox and Shepherd Books - some notes on my three favourite reads this year.

shepherd.com/bboy/2025/f/...

Want to know Leo McCann's Top 3 Books of 2025?

Leo's top 3 reads of 2025 include Nuclear War: A Scenario and two other amazing books. Discover what makes these books unmissable!

shepherd.com

Reposted by Leo McCann

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 14d

A puff piece that relentlessly refuses to adduce actual evidence or to consider that any aspect of 'the other side' might have any virtue. Why publish this superficial guff? The topic deserves much better.

Universities risk irrelevance by failing to engage fully with AI

It is difficult to think of another sector that has so dismally failed to strategically engage with the transformative potential of IT, says Ian Richardson

www.timeshighereducation.com

Reposted by Will Jennings, Steve Peers, Jonathan Hopkin , and 6 more Will Jennings, Steve Peers, Jonathan Hopkin, Leo McCann, Graham Dutfield, Molly Scott Cato, Steven Fielding, Ian Loader, Steven H. Seggie

Leo McCann @leomc76.bsky.social · 17d

Or indeed any stylistic attempts to make the paper more readable, more memorable etc. Unacceptable.

Reposted by Leo McCann

Hadas Weiss @hadas.bsky.social · 17d

peer reviewers when you try to sneak in irony

Reposted by Paolo Crosetto, Leo McCann, Brian Weatherson

Experimental Philosophy @xphilosopher.bsky.social · 19d

There’s growing evidence that something was going seriously wrong in the classic early work on cognitive dissonance

Latest revelation: The story in When Prophecy Fails seems to have been fabricated in the most egregious way

But this is not the only one…

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Debunking “When Prophecy Fails”

In 1954, Dorothy Martin predicted an apocalyptic flood and promised her followers rescue by flying saucers. When neither arrived, she recanted, her group dissolved, and efforts to proselytize ceased....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Leo McCann @leomc76.bsky.social · 20d

Fascinating new article by Yagil Levy about various militaries' use of body counts and how such metrics are a key element of 'war managerialism'.

@gregorydaddis.bsky.social @drjlhazelton.bsky.social @cmsbisa.bsky.social

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The logic of body counting: from Korea to Gaza

This study examines body counting practices of enemy combatants across six critical conflicts: Korea (1950–1953), Vietnam (1955–1975), Iraq (2003–2011), Afghanistan (2001–2014), Israel’s operations...

www.tandfonline.com

Reposted by Richard Hall, Leo McCann

Plashing Vole @plashingvole.bsky.social · 20d

Very useful starting point: here's my slide for the Research Methods class:

A Keynote slide listing links to critiques of AI in higher education, with a picture of The Terminator and a newspaper headline about Grok servers poisoning a Black area of Memphis.

Leo McCann @leomc76.bsky.social · Oct 26

Sounds fascinating. The Falcon was one of Robert McNamara's most successful projects when he was a manager at Ford. So it seems his Cold War connections go deeper than we already know. I look forward to reading this.

Reposted by Cas Mudde, Adam Gamoran, Karen Benjamin Guzzo , and 9 more Cas Mudde, Adam Gamoran, Karen Benjamin Guzzo, Jonathan Hopkin, Andrew L. Whitehead, Adrian Vickers, Mary L. Dudziak, Leo McCann, Lisa Diedrich, Rense Corten, Cullen S. Hendrix, Beth Tellman

Sheila Liming @seeshespeak.bsky.social · Oct 26

BREAKING: economist discovers “second shift,” a concept coined by sociologists almost 50 years ago; gives it new, stupider, and less explicitly labor-oriented name

Highlighted quotation: “As an economist, Low searched for a more precise term to describe how she and other working moms often find themselves stretched for time and energy. She came up with “the squeeze”, and it’s backed by data that shows how women often get burnt out trying to manage competing demands at home and work, especially when they are parenting young children.”

Reposted by Victor Asal, Leo McCann

Renata Keller @renatakeller.bsky.social · Oct 24

I just published an article about my book and its connections to current politics with @us.theconversation.com! I highly recommend working with them, if you're interested in helping expand the public reach of your work. (1/2) #History 🗃️
theconversation.com/the-lost-his...

The lost history of Latin America’s role in averting catastrophe during the Cuban missile crisis

A common US-centric narrative holds that the Cuban missile crisis ended when Washington stood firm against the Soviets. But that story ignores a whole continent.

theconversation.com

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Leo McCann

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · Oct 14

'While researchers typically publish in academic journals and books, the authors found, higher education managers are more likely to consult practice-oriented journals, newsletters, conference inputs and social media platforms such as LinkedIn.'

Physician, heal thyself.