Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · 23h

This looks cool #aag

Desiree Fields @desireefields.bsky.social · 23h

Along with Will Payne and Jovan Lewis, I'm organizing an AAG session on the economic geography of scams for the 2026 conference in San Francisco. Please share widely! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

AAG 2026 CFP: Putting the ‘Con’ in Economic Geography

AAG 2026 CFP: Schemes, Scams, and Flim-flam: Putting the ‘Con’ in Economic Geography Will B. Payne, Rutgers University Desiree Fields, University of California, Berkeley Jovan Scott Lewis, University ...

docs.google.com

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Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · 6d

Funnily enough, our #Assetization book is in the #AnthropicAI settlement list - go look yourself up too!

cc/ @provokedeconomy.bsky.social

secure.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com/lookup

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Reposted by Kean Birch

Catherine Fletcher @cathfletcher.bsky.social · 6d

The Anthropic settlement list is up. Authors, check here to see if your books are included: www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com

ANT Homepage | ANT

www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com

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Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · 8d

The political economy of #generativeAI just doesn't make

Ed Zitron @edzitron.com · 8d

Newsletter: This is The Case Against Generative AI, a comprehensive analysis of a financial collapse built on myths I’ll dispel, the markets’ unhealthy obsession with NVIDIA's growth, and the fact that there is not enough money in the world to fund OpenAI.
www.wheresyoured.at/the-case-aga...

The Case Against Generative AI

Soundtrack: Queens of the Stone Age - First It Giveth Before we go any further: This is, for the third time this year, the longest newsletter I've ever written, weighing in somewhere around 18,500 wo...

www.wheresyoured.at

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Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · 9d

This looks like an interesting new paper on #assetization in #videogames || www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Digital labor turn: the impact of assetization in digital games

Labor practices in digital games have been conceptualized as playbor, highlighting their exploited yet voluntary nature. As digital play increasingly converges with assetization, it is becoming mor...

www.tandfonline.com

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Reposted by Kean Birch

Dr Dion Georgiou 🇨🇾❤️🇬🇾 @drdiongeorgiou.bsky.social · 9d

Learn lots from New Labour and also don’t let any of them (with a few exceptions) anywhere near the levers of power remains sound advice.

Inside the Tony Blair Institute

A former PM, Trump's 'CEO of everything' and NHS data - what could go wrong?

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Kean Birch

Johannes Petry @johannespetry.bsky.social · 16d

*new article*

We bring the Frankfurt School into the Spotify age — and it was a fun one to write! 😎

'From Adorno to 50 Cent: Financialized platform capitalism, Spotify, and the culture industry in the twenty-first century' in @finandsoc.bsky.social

Check it out here:
doi.org/10.1017/fas....

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Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · 13d

Seem to be a lot of #AIbubble stories out right now - another one || www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

AI investors are in for a rude awakening | Roger McNamee

There is a huge gap between investment and revenue from LLMs. Investors wrongly assume everyone will be a winner

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Kean Birch

Platforms & Society @platformsnsociety.bsky.social · 16d

A longish thread to announce that the Themed Issue "Digital Platform Economies: Value from Data?" is now fully available online
"https://journals.sagepub.com/topic/collections-pns/pns-1-digital_platform_economies_value_from_data/pns

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Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · 19d

This was the sociologist discussed in the Freakonomics book, so it makes sense as marketing copy to call him "rogue"

Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · 19d

The joy of having a decent home printer! I can actually read things again on paper!

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Reposted by Kean Birch

Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 22d

💹 As the political underpinnings of value creation become ever more pressing, Science as Culture is making available free access the commentary "On the Political Vernaculars of Value Creation," by Fabian Muniesa, released almost ten years ago.

🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...

On the Political Vernaculars of Value Creation

Published in Science as Culture (Vol. 26, No. 4, 2017)

doi.org

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Reposted by Kean Birch

UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) @unctad.bsky.social · 21d

How can we close the data gaps & ensure digital trade works for everyone?

▶️ Live from Geneva at the #WTOPublicForum!

📅 18 Sept 2025 | 10:45–12:00 CEST
🎙 Fireside chat: UNCTAD’s Pedro Manuel Moreno & WTO’s Johanna Hill
💬 Interactive panel with experts & policymakers

🔴 Watch live: ow.ly/130w50WY0YR

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Reposted by Kean Birch

Jason Kint @kint.bsky.social · Sep 8

Correct Judge Mehta didn't order Google breakup last week but late Friday night we saw DOJ is full speed ahead in its other remedies trial in 16 days and posted its PFJ (Proposed Final Remedies) now 60+ pages of brilliant detail. Let me walk you through key terms. /1

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Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · Sep 6

‘Existential crisis’: how Google’s shift to AI has upended the online news model
www.theguardian.com/media/2025/s...

‘Existential crisis’: how Google’s shift to AI has upended the online news model

Media sites are taking action on several fronts as traffic referrals dry up and AI companies plunder their content

www.theguardian.com

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Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · Sep 5

The Economist is sometimes astonishingly vapid - perhaps it's a consequence of clickbait journalism

Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · Sep 5

I'm quoted in Financial Post article abt recent remedies in US antitrust case agn #Google. Remedies = zero impact. I also think judge's claims abt #generativeAI upending online search is wrong; reverse is true b/c keeps more traffic in ecosystem.

#BigTech win

financialpost.com/technology/g...

'The problem of monopoly': Why Google's light anti-trust penalties could pose a dilemma for Canada

Tuesday's U.S. court ruling could "slow down any case against Google" in Canada, or encourage Canada to devise its own remedies. Read on.

financialpost.com

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Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · Sep 4

David Dayen on the #Google remedy ruling this week: no end to #bigtech #monopoly || prospect.org/justice/2025...

Embarrassing Ruling Allows Google to Maintain Its Search Monopoly

Judge Amit Mehta found Google guilty of illegally monopolizing search, and then allowed the company to keep doing it.

prospect.org

Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · Sep 4

At what point does it make sense for us to start boycotting doing research on #artificialintelligence?

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Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · Sep 2

#TechPower at work - no consequences for #Google despite finding of illegal monopolization

Open Markets Institute @openmarkets.bsky.social · Sep 2

Statement from Executive Director Barry Lynn on the woefully inadequate remedies imposed on Google following the finding it has illegally monopolized the search market:

WASHINGTON, DC - Open Markets Institute Executive Director Barry Lynn released the following statement following Judge Mehta’s failure to force Google to divest from Chrome and Android following his finding the company has maintained an illegal monopoly on search:

“Google for years has wielded its vast power over all layers of the digital economy to crush competitors, halt innovation, and rob Americans of their right to read, watch, and buy what they want without being manipulated by one of the most powerful corporations in human history. Judge Mehta’s order that Google share search data with competitors and cease entering into exclusive contracts does nothing to right those wrongs. Instead, it lets Google and every other monopolist know that even the most egregious violation of law will be met with a slap on the wrist.

“After making the legally sound and morally courageous decision to find Google liable for illegal monopolistic practices, Judge Mehta apparently decided that actually enforcing the law was more than he could stomach. Any order requiring the corporation to divest any component of Google’s vast, sprawling, tentacular power system would be “incredibly messy and highly risky,” Mehta wrote. Actually, what is messy and risky is failing to address a concentration of power that threatens US democracy and the liberty of every American. What is messy and risky is the failure to deliver justice.

“We call on the Department of Justice and state Attorneys General who pursued this case to appeal these remedies.”

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Reposted by Kean Birch

Alondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · Aug 20

Call for Papers! 🧵

The Public's Science–A New Social Contract for American Research Policy a Special Issue of The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science

Editors: Alondra Nelson (IAS) and Jenny Reardon (UC, Santa Cruz)

Abstract Deadline: Sept 19

www.ias.edu/stsv-lab/pub...

Public Science

Call for Papers Special Issue of The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social ScienceThe Public's Science–A New Social Contract for American Research Policy

www.ias.edu

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Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · Aug 19

Ah, I was more interested in how govt/business is framing technology neutrality (rather than thinking that tech could ever be neutral)

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Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · Aug 19

Anyone know of any research on the concept of "technology neutrality"? (primarily in reference to policy or governance mechanisms - ie these mechanisms should be neutral wft technologies)

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Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · Aug 18

My new article "Do artifacts have political economy" out in @sthv.bsky.social - developing a constructivist #politicaleconomy as a way to understand the embedding of political economy in #technology (incl bridges, #generativeAI + #adtech)

Science, Technology, & Human Values @sthv.bsky.social · Aug 11

New OnlineFirst (OA) article: "Do Artifacts Have Political Economy?" by Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social #constructivist #politicaleconomy #assetization #LangdonWinner #RobertMoses #adtech #generativeAI #techbros journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Do Artifacts Have Political Economy? - Kean Birch, 2025

Harking back to Langdon Winner's now classic essay “Do artifacts have politics?,” my aim in this article is to ask a very similar question—namely, do artif...

journals.sagepub.com

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Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · Aug 8

Sadly, you're no doubt right

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