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Daniel Cueto-Villalobos @dacuetovilla.bsky.social · 11h

New publication! 🚨 How do church leaders foster commitment + preserve organizational vitality in the face of crisis?

"There Wasn't A Playbook For This: Local Congregations and the Crises of 2020," out today in Sociology of Religion, offers insight from MN academic.oup.com/socrel/advan...

“There Wasn’t A Playbook For This”: Local Congregations and the Crises of 2020

Abstract. Using 18 months of immersive ethnographic fieldwork in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, this paper highlights how religious congregations made se

academic.oup.com

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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 1d

This is true for students too. Yes there are many factors impacting student reading, but working 30+ hours a week to be able to afford college is definitely one of them.

Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 2d

I see pieces like this a lot, often w/ a spin of lamenting cultural degeneration, but reading is a LABOR issue, it’s declined because so many people are working overtime or two jobs & employers expect after hours work. France has Earth’s highest reading rate b/c long lunch breaks & labor protections

After Dinner Conversation® @afterdinnerconversation.com · 2d

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Paul Djupe @pauldjupe.bsky.social · 9d

Excited for this to be out at PS -- discussion of our DPR program at @denisonuniversity.bsky.social that frontloads quant methods. @mdwilliamsphd.bsky.social and I also present survey evidence that the idea is popular among political scientists.

Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · 10d

#OpenAccess from @pspolisci.bsky.social -

An Undergraduate Degree in ‘Data for Political Research’: High in Demand and Student Value but Low in Supply - https://cup.org/46ZqTwK

- @pauldjupe.bsky.social & Miles D. Williams

#FirstView

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Daniel Cueto-Villalobos @dacuetovilla.bsky.social · 14d

new pub alert! 🚨

Michelle S. Phelps @michellesphelps.bsky.social · 15d

New paper out with @dacuetovilla.bsky.social today at
@socprobsjournal.bsky.social -- in it we build a model for understanding how competing movement orgs make racial demands, using the debates in Minneapolis over public safety in 2021.

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Evan Stewart @evanstewart.bsky.social · 13d

Very much looking forward to this next month. We have a great program put together for the conference! #SSSR_RRA2025

Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR) @sssreligion.bsky.social · 13d

SSSR Members ➡️ Time to complete your registration for the #SSSR_RRA2025 Annual Meeting and reserve your hotel room. We look forward to welcoming all to Minneapolis October 31 - November 2, 2025.

✍️Registration sssreligion.org/annual-meeti...

🏨Hotel Info: sssreligion.org/annual-meeti...

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Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 15d

Depolarization is not "a scalable solution for reducing societal-level conflict.... achieving lasting depolarization will likely require....moving beyond individual-level treatments to address the elite behaviors and structural incentives that fuel partisan conflict" www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

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Vincent Arel-Bundock @vincentab.bsky.social · 16d

"What I take from Aaron is that the best way to be truly productive on the margin, is to try to build for other people and connect them together."

Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 16d

The Aaron Swartz production function www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-aaron-...

The Aaron Swartz production function

Incalculable diffusion as a philosophy of doing

www.programmablemutter.com

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Bret Beheim @babeheim.bsky.social · 22d

How to quantify the impact of AI on long-run cultural evolution? Published today, I give it a go!

400+ years of strategic dynamics in the game of Go (Baduk/Weiqi), from feudalism to AlphaGo!

Miyagawa Shuntei's 1898 painting, "Playing Go (Japanese Chess)"

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Evan Stewart @evanstewart.bsky.social · 27d

We got the all clear a few minutes ago. Thankful that things seem ok now.

Evan Stewart @evanstewart.bsky.social · 27d

Monitoring this, quite worried given everything. I’m ok - not on campus today - working on checking in with folks.

NBC10 Boston @nbcboston.com · 27d

NEW DETAILS: Mass. State Police say there was an unconfirmed report of a shooting at UMass Boston that the agency is responding to, along with local authorities. on.nbcboston.com/DqhliQ6

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Evan Stewart @evanstewart.bsky.social · 27d

Monitoring this, quite worried given everything. I’m ok - not on campus today - working on checking in with folks.

NBC10 Boston @nbcboston.com · 27d

NEW DETAILS: Mass. State Police say there was an unconfirmed report of a shooting at UMass Boston that the agency is responding to, along with local authorities. on.nbcboston.com/DqhliQ6

UPDATES: Police incident at UMass Boston, school says, urging the public to avoid area

UMass Boston urged the public to avoid part of its campus amid what it described as a “police incident,” and later a “public safety threat,” Thursday.

on.nbcboston.com

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Paul Djupe @pauldjupe.bsky.social · 29d

Our special issue of Sociological Focus on Religion and Politics in American Congregations is now published and all articles are open access (at least for now). This is the highest concentration of such work ever published together and it's very good. I put the details and links in a blogpost.

New Special Issue: Religion and Politics in American Congregations

By Paul A. Djupe and Jacob R. Neiheisel We’re delighted to have edited a special issue of Sociological Focus about Religion and Politics in American Congregations that has just been published…

religioninpublic.blog

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Miray Philips - ميراي فيلبس @mirayphilips.bsky.social · Sep 5

New article on how international religious freedom actors misinterpret data on religion-based violations, claim that Christians are the most persecuted religious group worldwide, and leverage the perceived objectivity of numbers to claim ideological neutrality.

academic.oup.com/socrel/advan...

The Social Construction of Christian Persecution Through Quantification in International Religious Freedom Advocacy

Abstract. A perception that Christianity is under attack has animated American political culture, shaping domestic politics that advance Christian politica

academic.oup.com

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Samuel Coavoux @scoavoux.bsky.social · Sep 5

Do streaming platforms trap us in cultural filter bubbles? We like to think so but the evidence says otherwise. In a new paper @abelaussant.bsky.social and I find the use of streaming platform to be associated with an increase in consumption diversity. sociologicalscience.com/articles-v12...

Screenshot of the title and abstract of the article. the title is
Streaming Platforms, Filter Bubbles, and Cultural Inequalities. How Online Services Increase Consumption Diversity. The abstract reads: Do digital technologies affect diversity in cultural tastes? Digital sociologists have warned of “filter bubbles,” whereas sociologists of culture have shown that diversity in consumption is valued as a marker of upper-middle-class status. We estimate the effect of using streaming platforms on the diversity of cultural consumption using a matching technique applied to 2018 survey data from France. We find a statistically significant positive effect of using streaming platforms on the diversity of cultural consumption as well as on cosmopolitanism, on three domains, music, movies, and TV shows. The magnitude of this effect is much higher for TV shows. The study brings new evidence against the filter bubble thesis; it shows that platforms do reinforce cultural inequalities by increasing the social gap in consumption diversity. It further suggests that the effect of technology on cultural consumption might mainly operate through its impact on cultural markets rather than changes in cultural experience.

Main figure of the article. Difference in number of genres consumed, liked, and disliked between streaming users and non-users. Streaming users consume more genres than non-users after controlling for confounders. The difference is small for music (0.1 sd), moderate for movies (0.2 sd), and high for TV shows (0.46 sd). However, differences
in number of genres liked or disliked are small or not significant. SMD before (light) and after (dark)
adjustment through matching, with error bars indicating 95 percent confidence interva

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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · Aug 28

When I got my first academic job, hundreds of miles from where I grew up, my family asked why I couldn't just teach at a college nearby. I explained: Those schools only need a few sociologists. Kind of like K-12 districts only need a few music teachers... 1/

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Prof Dynarski @dynarski.bsky.social · Aug 28

Get him, Professor Cook

www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08...

Trump Administration Live Updates: Fed Governor Lisa Cook Sues President Over Firing She Calls ‘Unprecedented and Illegal’

www.nytimes.com

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Evan Stewart @evanstewart.bsky.social · Aug 27

I think the study has merit. She wants better attention to the conceptualization and operationalization. 🤷‍♂️

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Evan Stewart @evanstewart.bsky.social · Aug 27

Catching up on peer reviews today. If you don't like my comments, blame Reviewer 2.5.

A photo of a black cat chilling out on the bottom shelf of a bookshelf.

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Evan Roberts @evanrobertsnz.bsky.social · Aug 25

Not to be the bearer of bad news, but in North America the university semester is starting ... This table of different types of classes has been useful for me in explaining to students* the structure of the class that I'm teaching
* and to myself ... see next post
drive.google.com/file/d/1-hKG...

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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · Aug 23

ChatGPT and other LLMs aren't about to produce superintelligence, but if this is it, it's still changed the world. Not necessarily for the better.

I did a big picture look at AI, comparing it to search and social media, On business, politics, education, misinfo, ability to grasp reality, and more.

The Third Algorithm

ChatGPT and other generative AI isn't about to create superintelligence, but even if what we see now is it, the impact is on the scale of Google search and algorithmic social media, except maybe worse

www.arcdigital.media

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Evan Stewart @evanstewart.bsky.social · Aug 22

Also, in my experience, teaching students about the concept of alienation seems to help a lot, because it more precisely names a feeling that often gets mislabeled as "tired," "sad," or burned out.

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Evan Stewart @evanstewart.bsky.social · Aug 22

I’m increasingly convinced that even if Marx isn’t your favorite social theorist (he’s not mine), alienation continues to be really useful for *all this.*

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Evan Stewart @evanstewart.bsky.social · Aug 22

Alienation from the work - “why does it matter/just use ai”

Alienation from fellow workers - “group work is always awful/no participation”

Alienation from species being - “….what are you interested in? (Blank stare)”

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Evan Stewart @evanstewart.bsky.social · Aug 22

“Schooling has been on a steady march of alienating students.”

That’s it. That’s the whole thing. By the time students get to my classes, I’m trying at the very least not to make it worse and - at best - to provide a bit of a salve.

John Warner @biblioracle.bsky.social · Aug 22

I think we (or at least I) have a pretty strong idea of what writing is as an act/experience. Every so often I take a step back and realize that over my lifetime, schooling has been on a steady march of alienating students from the act/experience of writing, replacing it with a kind of simulation.

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Per Engzell @pengzell.bsky.social · Aug 21

Good to see growing support for abduction or 'inference to the best explanation', recently by Spirling and Stewart in @thejop.bsky.social. This is...

www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10....

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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · Aug 19

New study in Nature Communications (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-62452-z): "3 stages of religious decline around the world."

We find a secular transition begins at different times in different places. Over generations, drops in religious:
1. Participation
2. Importance
3. Belonging

The three stages of religious decline around the world - Nature Communications

Religious decline is happening around the world. Here, the authors show that countries are at different stages of a common global sequence of decline in religious participation, personal importance of religion, and religious belonging.

www.nature.com

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