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S.E.MacRae

@semacrae.bsky.social

1.1K followers 890 following 700 posts

Digital sociology ECR researching the interplay between education, politics and the digital. Previously worked in the UK public sector on drugs/sexual health policy and practice. Local library and heritage volunteer in my spare time. Own views. she/her

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S.E.MacRae @semacrae.bsky.social · May 13

I have recently been one of the editors led by @drnomyn.bsky.social with Keith Heggart of a special collection for Critical Studies in Education titled "The political life of education online". Naomi has written a great post here about the project and the other papers 1/7

Introduction to special section: the political life of education online | Naomi Barnes

Just published online! A special collection for Critical Studies in Education titled "The political life of education online" edited by myself, Keith Heggart and Dr Sheena MacRae. https://l...

www.linkedin.com

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Ben Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social · 19h

"Why would OpenAI and Microsoft spend $23 million to give 'free training' on how to use AI to teachers? Because they love teachers? No. Because they want to get their products into public schools in an attempt to cultivate the education market. ... To automate teachers, in other words."

Hamilton Nolan @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social · 1d

It takes no special technical expertise to know that
1) AI's main value proposition today is automating labor,
2) AI is going to supercharge economic inequality, and
3) If we do not get out in front of that policy-wise, we are fools.

www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/thinking-o...

Thinking of AI as a Social Problem

No need to know the unknowable. The knowable is bad enough.

www.hamiltonnolan.com

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S.E.MacRae @semacrae.bsky.social · 19h

Just saw a thumbnail on YouTube of a '1960s Motown AI cover' of Black Hole Sun complete with a smoothified image of Chris Cornell and that's enough internet for one day.

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Alex Hanna-ween @alexhanna.bsky.social · 1d

I'm not an economist but seems worrying that the whole US economy is seven companies in a trenchcoat, passing the same $20 up and down

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 1d

NVIDIA and OpenAi:

Concerns that their “increasingly complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom.“

@bloomberg.com $NVDA 👀
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

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S.E.MacRae @semacrae.bsky.social · 1d

Please excuse the many typos below but if anyone has a contact for Dr David Crook I would really appreciate it.

S.E.MacRae @semacrae.bsky.social · 1d

#historysky this might be a long shot but can anyone put me in contact Dr David Crook scholar of Robin Hood? My local heritage group hosted him for talk in 2016 and are looking to get in touch with him again.

S.E.MacRae @semacrae.bsky.social · 1d

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The Sociological Review Foundation @thesociologicalreview.org · 2d

How do we join the dots between #racism #capitalism #colonialism and #tech ? Why must we? Hear John Narayan @irrnews.bsky.social on Ambalavaner Sivanandan for our mini-series #SidewaysSociology. Engage! Share! #blackhistory #antiracism @versobooks.bsky.social buff.ly/d2BjFY7

Sideways Sociology: UK Anti-Racism
Ambalavaner Sivanandan
Tech and Anti-Racism
by John Narayan
Podcast graphic featuring central photograph of Ambalavaner Sivanandan's face, superimposed on line drawings of Black and Brown faces against a yellow background with parallel lines and arrows pointing rightward.

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Corinne Fowler @corinnefowler.bsky.social · 2d

#Handsworth could teach @RobertJenrick how to live in a global society. #BenjaminZephaniah - spirit of #Birmingham - said "Handsworth for me is...where I learnt all my skills, my communication skills, my hustling skills, my poetic skills, everything."

The Guardian @theguardian.com · 2d

Robert Jenrick complained of ‘not seeing another white face’ in part of Birmingham

Shadow justice secretary criticised for suggesting he could tell how integrated Handsworth was based on 90-minute visit Robert Jenrick complained about visiting an area of Birmingham where he “didn’t see another white face” and said it was not the kind of country he wanted to live in. After highlighting the lack of white people, the shadow justice secretary said it was not about “the colour of your skin or your faith” and he wanted people to live alongside each other. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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Sarah T Roberts, PhD @ubiquity75.xyz · 2d

Two things:

1. The NYT elevated this person to prominence through _opinion_ pages. She has never been a journalist.

2. Substack paid her and several others to come to their platform. I have no idea why so many of you are (still/ever) on there but you need to rethink it.

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Prof Gavin Yamey @gavinyamey.bsky.social · 2d

OMG, this is so vile: defunding children's education as punishment for not obeying Trump's extreme anti-LGBT agenda

"Since taking office, Trump has waged an aggressive push to roll back protections for transgender people and has targeted several school districts"

New York Amsterdam News @nyamnews.bsky.social · 2d

The #Trump administration is canceling millions of dollars in magnet school grant funding after New York City officials missed a Tuesday deadline to overhaul their policies regarding #transgender students.

Trump administration cancels NYC magnet school funding over transgender student policies

The Trump administration is canceling millions of dollars in magnet school grant funding after New York City officials missed a Tuesday deadline to overhaul their policies regarding transgender students.

amsterdamnews.com

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Ben Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social · 5d

When private equity controls the main digital infrastructures and platforms for many HE functions and data collections, it's bound to be trying to capitalize on those assets, and its business objectives may not support the public objectives of the universities locked in to the services it controls.

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Dave Infante @dinfontay.com · 5d

“'The fact that we don't have money to pay journalists, but we have money to pay Bari Weiss between $100 and 200 million is indicative of what the Ellisons' true goal here is,' a network correspondent said. 'And it's not journalism.'"

CBS News staffers are ‘literally freaking out’ about Bari Weiss taking over newsroom

EXCLUSIVE: ‘People are using words like depressing and doomsday – feels like some sort of doomsday,’ one source told The Independent about the mood inside CBS News right now.

www.independent.co.uk

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Professor Anna Vignoles @annavignoles.bsky.social · 5d

In case you missed this, we have a fabulous evening lined up talking about the importance of research and knowledge. Seems very timely and great to partner with @expeditions.bsky.social and 5x15 ... Do come along.

www.5x15.com/events/5x15-...

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 6d

Our horror at the genocide in Gaza, at the mass murder of civilians on Oct 7 2023, and at today's atrocity in Manchester, comes in each case from the same, inherent part of our shared humanity. We need to assert that shared humanity as loudly as possible, and in as many practical ways as we can.

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S.E.MacRae @semacrae.bsky.social · 7d

👏

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 7d

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

Reposted by S.E.MacRae

Eerke Boiten @eerkeboiten.bsky.social · 8d

Speaking of contributing, on top of the overtime and the taxes, this Indian doctor on a visa also pays £4k a year extra to the NHS for her family of 4.

Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · 9d

Krishnan Guru Murthy, "Isn't it a bit insulting to say to an Indian doctor who is working 60-70 hours a week that in order to get settled status he's got to volunteer?"

Rachel Reeves, "We want people to contribute if they come to our country"

Labour have gone utterly bonkers

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S.E.MacRae @semacrae.bsky.social · 9d

So sorry to hear that about your wee pal. It’s completely understandable to be feeling it still, it’s a big wrench losing a beloved wee creature, take care xxx

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Zoe Gardner @zoejardiniere.bsky.social · 9d

If scrapping indefinite leave to remain (ILR) entirely, as Reform would do, is racist, according to Labour, what is making ILR twice as difficult, expensive & humiliating to obtain, as Labour are doing?

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Karen Gregory @karengregory.bsky.social · 9d

Thanks to @edi.bike and @edinburghminute.bsky.social for picking up news of the @workersobservatory.org workshop this week:

We Deserve Fair Work - Workshop for Delivery Riders in Edinburgh

luma.com/3r5hmptg

We Deserve Fair Work - Workshop for Delivery Riders in Edinburgh · Luma

Food delivery workers in Edinburgh, join the Workers' Observatory and ROOM for our workshop titled "We Deserve Fair Work!" For too long, delivery workers have…

luma.com

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S.E.MacRae @semacrae.bsky.social · 10d

I don’t know but I know it hurts - pain if you eat it and pain if you miss out, it’s the human condition I suppose 😭

S.E.MacRae @semacrae.bsky.social · 10d

Age yourself with a film you saw in the cinema as a kid

S.E.MacRae @semacrae.bsky.social · 10d

Land of the free and the home of the surveilled if these guys get their way.

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 11d

Larry Ellison envisions a surveillance state in which techbros rule. '“Citizens will be on their best behavior, because we’re constantly recording and reporting everything that is going on,” Ellison said in an hour-long Q&A during Oracle’s Financial Analyst Meeting last week.'

Larry Ellison predicts rise of the modern surveillance state where ‘citizens will be on their best behavior’ | Fortune

Oracle's Larry Ellison believes citizens and police alike will be under constant surveillance of each other.

fortune.com

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Huw C. Davies @huwcdavies.bsky.social · 10d

My new article. It was very difficult to make sense of this community’s ideology & contain my analysis in 8k - could easily be a book. Historians could do a much better job of the history. But important to try as these are the backers of GBNews & The Spectator. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

‘A great awakening of men of action’: What does the ‘right-wing Davos’ represent? - Huw Crighton Davies, 2025

The Financial Times called the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship’s 2025 conference the ‘right-wing Davos’. The Alliance involves academics from elite univers...

journals.sagepub.com

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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 10d

It's not enough for Keir Starmer to wake up & realise he was five minutes away from agreeing with policies the National Front could only have dreamed of.

He has to re-examine how close his own government's plans are already to such policies.

Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 10d

Starmer says Reform's plans to remove people who came here legally are racist, immoral, & would rip the country apart.

Absolutely.

But both Labour & Tories also planning to move the goalposts for people who are legally here. Time to make clear that won't happen.

ukandeu.ac.uk/immigration_...

What about the long term? Six months ago the Centre for Policy Studies published a report claiming that, based again on OBR assumptions, allowing recent migrants to settle here permanently would have a long-term fiscal cost of well over £200 billion, and that we should therefore restrict their rights to do so. Unfortunately, the government in part adopted this agenda in the White Paper, proposing to extend the qualifying period for most migrants from 5 to 10 years.

As I pointed out at the time, however, the CPS calculation was based on two clear errors. They mistakenly assumed that new migrants earned much less than residents, and had much lower employment rates; as the data shows, this just isn’t true. Had they got their sums right, they would have found a net benefit of over £100 billion. The new Home Office research underlines this point. The CPS claimed that about 70% of those coming on work visas have less than average earnings: this appears to be almost exactly the opposite of the truth. Moreover, those who extend their stay, and their dependents, see both their earnings and employment rates increase significantly. In this light, the proposals in the White Paper appear not just unfair and vindictive, but also economically irrational.

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Paula Surridge @psurridge.bsky.social · 13d

First thought, was I know I'm tired but I didn't realise I'd slept for 3 years. This is an absolutely crazy way to use and report polling. It should not be getting this kind of priority at this stage in an electoral cycle.

Anand Menon @anandmenon.bsky.social · 13d

They’re not on course to form the next gov. Today’s polling suggests they might win if there was an election today…

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Susan Kaye Quinn is Writing Solarpunk 🌞🌱 @susankayequinn.bsky.social · 14d

They've lost the 9yos

JA Westenberg
@Daojoan@mastodon.social

My 9 year old and his classmates have started using “that’s AI” to mean “I don’t believe you.”

Me: we’re having dinosaur meat for dinner

Kiddo: that’s AI
Sep 24, 2025, 07:36 AM

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