Catarina Leão

Should you believe the AI hype? Probably not Public discourse around AI has gone beyond what its technical specifications warrant, limiting the space for democratic engagement and control.

Is hype about AI justified?

Cristobal Garibay-Petersen @lse-ei.bsky.social @mlorimer.bsky.social and @neuralisa.bsky.social argue AI discourse has gone too far, limiting the space for democratic engagement with and control of the technology @lseeuroppblog.bsky.social

So real

#Presidenciais2026 #eleicoes2026 #Portugal

Center left beats far right to Portugal’s presidency Former Socialist Party leader António José Seguro defeated far-right leader André Ventura to become the country’s next head of state.

Center-left António José Seguro was elected Portugal’s next president yesterday, defeating his far-right opponent by a two-to-one margin.

🧵 New version of our paper (@bcegerod.bsky.social) is finally online: "How Many is Enough? Sample Size in Staggered Difference-in-Differences Designs"
We show that even well-identified DiD studies are often underpowered; sample sizes needed are surprisingly large
Paper: osf.io/preprints/os... 1/6

Excited about chairing @bogatyrev.bsky.social in the @lsegovernment.bsky.social Political Behaviour Seminar at 4pm today. Konstantin will present his paper "Shifting Ground". Come along if you are in London, or join us on Zoom: www.lse.ac.uk/government/r...

Demographic cues (eg, names, dialect) are widely used to study how LLM behavior may change depending on user demographics. Such cues are often assumed interchangeable.

🚨 We show they are not: different cues yield different model behavior for the same group and different conclusions on LLM bias. 🧵👇

Book cover of "The AI Matrix" by Daniel Mügge, Regine Paul and Vali Stan, showing a world map, hands grabbing Dollar bills, a robot arm and interconnected cables

Regine Paul, Vali Stan and I have analysed how deeply #AI is entangled in global politics and corporate profit-hunting. “The AI Matrix” is the result – and the digital book-version is open access: www.agendapub.com/page/detail/... (Link doesn't work? Try this one: www.regulaite.eu/images/pdf/M...)

The Upside of Professional Rejection There’s a better way to approach no’s in your work life.  

Rejection doesn't have to be ego-shattering—and the people most likely to push through it tend to share a specific quality, Anna Holmes writes.

Y’all were laughing, but once you leave the EU you start to miss the attached bottle caps real fast.

Mafia goon: Nice house you got here...it'd be a shame if something happened to it

Media outlets: Mafia goon rules out use of force. Expresses regret at the mere thought of it

Many congratulations Dr. Carstens!!! Huge achievement 🎉

Madman theory but you're actually mad.

"What would a supervillain say"

Brilliant !

CRIS is recruiting a postdoctoral researcher for the DISEQUAL project The Discrimination-Inequality Cycle: Bridging Unequal Treatment and Unequal Outcomes across Countries, Regions and Workplaces

This is a great postdoc opportunity on a very interesting project on the association between discrimination and social inequality
@cris-sciencespo.bsky.social

www.sciencespo.fr/cris/en/news...

Portugal is having a presidential election tomorrow (Sunday).

It is a fairly unusual one, which is representative of how much the political landscape has changed in the country.

Here is some quick context about it, in case that is of interest:

1/9

#tugasky: não deixem de votar hoje. Todas as eleições importam e estas, num momento em que o país está a definir o panorama político no pos-bipartidarismo, não o são menos.

The ENDOW project is seeking a Research Officer in Research Data Management to be based at the London School of Economics. - Oversee and extend our database covering geospatial, demographic, economic & social network data from 50+ communities in 30+ countries! - Contribute to research on the dynamics of social and economic inequality! - Join a stellar interdisciplinary team! - funded by the ESRC and the NSF [world map showing location of ENDOW communities; photos of some of the team members and some of the ENDOW communities showing their diversity

Research Officer in Research Data Management Salary from £43,277 to £48,220 pa inclusive of London allowance Fixed-term appointment for 18 months This research officer position is to work with Eleanor Power as part of the ongoing "ENDOW" project (Economic Networks and the Dynamics of Wealth Inequality), funded by the UKRI and US National Science Foundation. The research officer will be based in the Department of Methodology, a leading centre for research and education in social science research methods. While we expect this to be a full-time appointment, we are open to considering the possibility of a part-time appointment. The post entails overseeing and extending the database of the "ENDOW" project, which includes data from over fifty communities around the world, comprising economic, demographic, and social network data characterising each community, its resident households, and the individuals within them. The research officer will be responsible for the expansion of this database to include longitudinal data from each community site, implementing a robust data infrastructure to manage and curate this information. The research officer will work closely with Dr Power and data contributors to ensure data quality, standardisation, and appropriate governance. They will contribute to core analyses of the ENDOW project and develop tools and resources that will be of wide utility for the collection, curation, and analysis of cross-cultural data. This role is central to building the data infrastructure that will enable meaningful, productive comparisons across these diverse field sites and will ultimately serve as a resource for the broader scientific community. The successful candidate will: Have a completed PhD, be close to completing a PhD, or have other research experience that demonstrates the capability to produce independent original research Have experience with database design, data management and data governance Have experience with programming in R or Python

🚨Job alert! The ENDOW project is hiring a Research Officer in Research Database Management, to be based at @lsemethodology.bsky.social.

Oversee & expand our database & contribute to research on social & economic inequality.

Deadline 15 February. Share & reach out!
jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

Calling it “a regime-change war” fully obscures what’s actually happening right now.

I doubt Trump is concerned with democratization as much as he is with waging a war to distract from problems at home, with oil extraction as a perk.

Very important work imo. We know surprisingly little about what “good” description actually looks like.

Repeat after me: replication papers are not the academic equivalent of diss tracks.

went to bed with a mass shooting, waking up with a different mass shooting

📢 📢 Call for Papers

IV Yale–UB Historical Political Economy Workshop

Organized by @Didacqueralt.bsky.social & @Cescamat.bsky.social

🎤 Keynote: Lisa Blaydes (Stanford)

📍 University of Barcelona
🗓 June 29–30, 2026

Submit your papers by Jan 21, 2026:
shorturl.at/oZTNy

#pleaseRT

PhD opportunity at the University of Oxford. The Morelli scholarship funds a doctoral student to work with me on on democratic backsliding, strategies of democratic defense and regeneration, or the rise of illiberalism. Deadline Jan 9. More information at users.ox.ac.uk/~ssfc0073/

Applications are open for the best Postdoctoral position I’ve had the pleasure of holding. Two years of full-time research in the amazing AxPo community. I couldn’t recommend it more!

‼️Last chance to submit your paper or panel proposal to EPSS 2026 conference in Belfast is TODAY!

Don’t miss out - it will be full of great political science and fun social events! 👩‍🏫🥳

epssnet.org/belfast-2026...

New paper 🚨 “Vicarious denial: war crimes & online deliberation in Serbia” 🇷🇸 with @denisakost.bsky.social

We scrape 4 news sites + reader comments and blend text-as-data (keywords; neg. binomial/logistic; BERTopic/SBERT) with critical discourse analysis to track on-topic debate & denial.

Plotting heterogeneous treatment effects in RDDs

I also have to deeply thank the @sciencespo-cee.bsky.social for their support (and in particular @ffaucher.bsky.social and @jrovny.bsky.social). Everything I have learned these two years wouldn’t have been possible without my affiliation to the CEE.