Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Philipp Weitzel @philwei.bsky.social · 6d

My focus: technology imaginaries—how we can counter the #data doxa of our algorithmic present through everyday practices & stories. Grateful to be part of this initiative. Stay tuned for insights & publications as we rethink narratives in culture & society.

Philipp Weitzel @philwei.bsky.social · 6d

Our team will map overlaps between sociology & literary studies while opening new terrain: from the epistemological value of literature to the sociological use of narratology. It’s about cultivating an exciting, interdisciplinary field.

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Philipp Weitzel @philwei.bsky.social · 6d

Honored to join the @princeton.edu — @humboldtuni.bsky.social research project “#Socionarratology — Mapping a Field Between Literary Studies & Social Sciences.” A 2-year initiative exploring how literature & sociology intersect to shape knowledge & society.

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Philipp Weitzel @philwei.bsky.social · 14d

Excited to present @lancasteruni.bsky.social's #practicetheory & #power workshop! I'll explore #algorithm as practices for cracking open #blackbox myths. I propose to read #code as cultural texts and am looking forward to exciting exchanges and meeting fellow praxeologists. #sociology #phdlife

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The Sociological Review Foundation @thesociologicalreview.org · Aug 25

CONTRIBUTE: The Sociological Review’s #openaccess digital magazine is inviting early career scholars to submit pitches for our #ResearchInsights series.

Editors Iris Pissaride & @juliettephd.bsky.social are seeking proposals for our December issue. Pitch deadline is 5 September.

🔎 buff.ly/Q5KZlcJ

"A vintage green typewriter with a blank yellow sheet of paper inserted, set against a solid red background."

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Royal Irish Academy @ria.ie · Aug 13

Join us in the Royal Irish Academy and online for a conference exploring the future of AI and education across the post-primary and higher education sectors on Tuesday 23 September. Book your tickets now. https://www.tickettailor.com/events/royalirishacademy/1804710

Select tickets – The future of AI and education – Royal Irish Academy

Join us for a conference exploring the future of AI and education across the post-primary and higher education sectors. About t...

www.tickettailor.com

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Matt Davies @halcyene.bsky.social · Aug 13

Interesting work from Turing, adding to the growing evidence that significant performance gains — and possibly real-world utility — can still be gleaned from smaller and previous-generation foundation models

www.turing.ac.uk/blog/why-we-...

Why we still need small language models – even in the age of frontier AI

Lean, locally run models can unlock huge benefits for public sector and compute-constrained environments

www.turing.ac.uk

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Rob Kitchin @robkitchin.bsky.social · Jul 18

Data, algorithms and the asymmetric politics of extraction by @bnjacobsen.bsky.social in The Sociological Review journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Data, algorithms and the asymmetric politics of extraction - Benjamin N. Jacobsen, 2025

The last few years have seen the rollout of several generative AI applications. Yet, it is often claimed by commentators and social scientists that these have o...

journals.sagepub.com

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The New Yorker @newyorker.com · Jul 10

We say that we “decide” to get married, to have children, to live in particular cities or embark on particular careers, and in a sense this is true. But how do we actually make those choices?

The Art of Decision-Making

Your life choices aren’t just about what you want to do; they’re about who you want to be.

www.newyorker.com

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Philipp Weitzel @philwei.bsky.social · Jul 6

The way we write shapes our thinking. We process the world through the composition of text [...]. It’s possible that the ability to write original and interesting sentences will become only more important in a future where everyone has access to the same A.I. assistants. share.google/JhKEPrOpqext...

What Happens After A.I. Destroys College Writing?

The demise of the English paper will end a long intellectual tradition, but it’s also an opportunity to reëxamine the purpose of higher education.

share.google

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Anna Schjøtt @annaschjoett.bsky.social · May 5

The first paper is a short reflection by @alexcampolo.bsky.social titled 'State-of-the-Art: The Temporal Order of Benchmarking Culture', which explores how benchmarks produce certain temporal values and expectations link.springer.com/article/10.1...

State-of-the-Art: The Temporal Order of Benchmarking Culture - Digital Society

This commentary situates the epistemic values of machine learning’s culture of benchmarking and evaluation within larger temporal structures. Beyond questions of validity, whether model comparisons ar...

link.springer.com

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Critical Inquiry @criticalinquiry.bsky.social · May 13

"To put it most provocatively, we’ve moved from a moment of masochism to one of sadism." Read Wendy Hui Kyong Chun's "Our Cruel Crude Techne?" on the CI blog.
critinq.wordpress.com/2025/05/13/o...

Our Cruel Crude Techne?

Wendy Hui Kyong Chun Our moment seems marked by cruelty: from best-selling books warning Christians against “toxic empathy” towards immigrant families to online trolls who gleefully torture their v…

critinq.wordpress.com

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Max Czollek @maxczollek.bsky.social · Apr 27

Wolfram Weimer, Gründer des für ausgewogene Berichterstattung bekannten Magazins Cicero soll Kultusminister werden. Damit hat Merz sich für eine Eskalation im rechten Kulturkampf entschieden. Weimer ist nämlich ein Hardliner. & zwar schon lange /x
www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/wolfr...

Wolfram Weimer wird neuer Kulturstaatsminister

Der ehemalige Focus-Chefredakteur und Verleger Wolfram Weimer soll neuer Kulturstaatsminister werden. Dass sich der Medienunternehmer für Kultur interessiert, war bislang nicht bekannt.

www.sueddeutsche.de

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Philipp Weitzel @philwei.bsky.social · Apr 5

Desire, pleasure, control — A deep dive into the contradictions we live every day: "Neoliberalism represents a stage in social formation that is no more liberal than a Hail Mary pass in football is a form of prayer." 👉 hedgehogreview.com/issues/after...

Captives of Desire

Neoliberalism rejected the assessment that the absence of constraints on desire undermined systemic viability.

hedgehogreview.com

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Claes de Vreese @claesdevreese.bsky.social · Apr 3

Sneak preview of the program for our exciting @algosoc.org conference The Future of Public Values next week in Amsterdam.

Featuring @marietjeschaake.bsky.social Tamar Sharon, @natalihelberger.bsky.social @ppverbeek.bsky.social @rasmuskleis.bsky.social @dvshah.bsky.social and MANY MANY more 👏🏼

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Rob Kitchin @robkitchin.bsky.social · Mar 31

Data in Motion: Creating the Possibility for Other-than-human Worlds by Katherine Reilly, Gillian Russell and Rachel Horst in Somatechnics www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/...

Data in Motion: Creating the Possibility for Other-than-human Worlds | Somatechnics

www.euppublishing.com

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netzpolitik.org @netzpolitik.org · Mar 24

Der Bundesrat will, dass die Polizei bundesweit Palantir als Software einsetzt. Das Unternehmen gehört dem rechten Milliardär und Strippenzieher Peter Thiel. Diesem Feind der Demokratie Geld und Daten in den Rachen zu werfen, ist unverantwortlich. Ein Kommentar.

netzpolitik.org/2025/palanti...

Palantir: Wer jetzt bei Peter Thiel Software kauft, hat wirklich nichts verstanden

Der Bundesrat will, dass die Polizei bundesweit Palantir als Software einsetzt. Das Unternehmen gehört dem rechten Milliardär und Strippenzieher Peter Thiel. Diesem Feind der Demokratie Geld und Daten...

netzpolitik.org

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Philipp Weitzel @philwei.bsky.social · Mar 24

#KI -Bildgeneratoren dienen nicht nur der Desinformation, sondern der optimierten #Affekt -Bewirtschaftung: Sie stilisieren „echte Emotionen“ zu lesbaren Bildern. Sie sind #Nostalgiemaschinen & Klischeeverstärker. #mustread bei @g-d-gegenwart.bsky.social

geschichtedergegenwart.ch/echte-emotio...

Echte Emotionen. Generative KI und rechte Weltbilder

Die radikale Rechte liebt generative KI. Trump wie Musk teilen massenhaft KI-generierte Bilder auf ihren Plattformen, und auch die AfD hat schon lange den Nutzen von Midjourney & Co. für ihren Wahlkam...

geschichtedergegenwart.ch

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humboldtuni.bsky.social @humboldtuni.bsky.social · Mar 24

🗯️ Warum treffen manche Gruppen bessere Entscheidungen als andere? 🗯️ Mit dieser Frage setzt sich eine neue, in der Fachzeitschrift Scientific Reports veröffentlichte Studie von Forschenden des Exzellenzclusters @scioi.bsky.social auseinander.
Weiterlesen 🔗 www.hu-berlin.de/de/pr/nachri...

BU: Mohsen Raoufi (rechts im Bild) von der HU und Vito Mengers (links) von der TU Berlin forschen gemeinsam am Exzellenzcluster "Science of Intelligence" (SCIoI)
Foto: SCIoI

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Critical Data Lab @criticaldatalab.bsky.social · Feb 12

Be sure to check out the many new, excellent contributions to COUNTER-N on more-than-binary computing (by Juan Pablo García Sossa), relational computing (by Nicola Bozzi) and metabolic futuring (by Jamie Allen): counter-n.net

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Duke University Press @dukepress.bsky.social · Mar 17

"Ice Geographies" by Jen Rose Smith @sprucehen.bsky.social centers ice to critically study racialization, land dispossession, and Indigenous knowledge production about icy places, both historically and in the modern moment of climate change. Read the intro for free now! #Environment
buff.ly/f7H5UuR

Cover of Ice Geographies: The Colonial Politics of Race & Indigeneity in the Arctic. The cover features an abstract art piece by Darcie Bernhardt. The piece is titled Beluga Hunting and depicts a light pink, green, and blue marbled pattern. Forked green and white lines within the pattern evoke topographic striations.

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Georg Restle @georgrestle.bsky.social · Mar 5

Weiß nicht, was einem größere Sorgen machen sollte: Die weltfremde Rede eines US-Präsidenten, der sich für seinen Staatsstreich feiern lässt oder das infantile Gejohle und Gekreische seiner ihm hörigen republikanischen Abgeordneten. Ein williger Hofstaat, der seine eigene Entmachtung feiert.

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Dieuwertje Luitse @dluitse.bsky.social · Nov 27

Lastly, during the final session on May 14 (2025), 5:30–7 PM (CEST) the brilliant @whkchun.bsky.social @mysdick.bsky.social and Matt Canute will collectively discuss AI and the (re)shaping of intelligence — sign up: www.create.humanities.uva.nl/events/5-cri...

#5 Critical AI Seminar Series: AI and the (Re)Shaping of Intelligence

Invited lecture by Wendy Chun, Stephanie Dick & Matt Canute 'AI and the (Re)Shaping of Intelligence' Wendy Hui Kyong Chun is Simon Fraser University’s Canada 150 Research Chair in New Media, Professo...

www.create.humanities.uva.nl

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Deutsche Aidshilfe @deutscheaidshilfe.bsky.social · Mar 3

Die US-Regierung hat weltweit fast 10.000 Verträge rund um Gesundheitsangebote gekündigt, darunter lebenswichtige Programme zur #HIV- Diagnostik und HIV-Therapie, zu Tuberkulose und Malaria, gegen Mangelernährung und für sauberes Trinkwasser.

US Terminates Thousands Of Life-Saving Global Health Grants Including For HIV, TB And Malaria - Health Policy Watch

The Trump administration has terminated the contracts of nearly 10,000 global health projects funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) or

healthpolicy-watch.news

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