Rob Smith

Harvey Sacks and Ethnomethodology: The Prospect of an Alternate and Adequate Sociology Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis have made major inroads into the disciplines that make up the social sciences. Although commonly run together under the title of EMCA, what their relationshi...

You can get this from your local, independent bookshop next week!
www.routledge.com/Harvey-Sacks...

Game over for pure LLMs. Even Turing Award Winner Rich Sutton has gotten off the bus. One by one, all the big names have turned around. What should we do next?

‘Practically the only people still pretending scaling LLMs is “all you need” are grifters.’ garymarcus.substack.com/p/game-over-... by @garymarcus.bsky.social

Game over for pure LLMs. Even Turing Award Winner Rich Sutton has gotten off the bus. One by one, all the big names have turned around. What should we do next?

Turing Award laureate Rich Sutton now critiques pure LLMs—echoing @garymarcus.bsky.social . Time to move beyond science fiction and refocus on scientific rigour. #AI #LLM #Neurosymbolic #RichSutton #GaryMarcus

garymarcus.substack.com/p/game-over-...

A devastating piece from an anonymous Cardiff Uni academic:

“Huddled under blankets in my freezing office, because the anti-suicide lock on the window has seized slightly ajar, I am – like everyone –frantically trying to make it work for the students.”

voice.cymru/huge-cardiff...

📢Meet the IIEMCA27 Keynote Speakers.

Read about their work on the conference website:
www.iiemca27.org/about

#EMCA #MCA

👋 Sociologists in Solidarity with Palestinians @socispal.bsky.social have joined Bluesky

Give them a follow for resources, events and upcoming actions calling on sociological professional bodies to us their platforms to stand with Palestinian

If you want to get involved email socispal@proton.me

In June 2024, a special issue CFP on the Chicago School sparked a collaboration with @robinjsmith.bsky.social, Terry, Erik & Patrik. Inspired by Sacks' (1992:27) appreciative critique, we explored how CS ethnography may relate to the development of #EMCA. Our paper is now out #OpenAccess: t.ly/Has34

“The banana is big, but its skin is bigger.”

“The banana is big, but its skin is bigger”

Chapter, verse, etc: if you’re an early career researcher with some serious writing to get done, Strictly Come Writing might hold the answer.

Apply by 1 September to join the Sociological Review Foundation's annual funded and facilitated writing retreat in beautiful rural Wales.

buff.ly/HGegMPZ

This really shouldn't be in question: Do not rely on "generative AI" to bullshit out legal writings that could mean literal life-changing or *-ending* consequences for another person, or yourself.

And if you do it, & bad consequences arise, the harmed party should get to sue you & the "AI" company.

Computer-vision research powers surveillance technology - Nature An analysis of research papers and citing patents indicates the extensive ties between computer-vision research and surveillance.

New paper hot off the press www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We analysed over 40,000 computer vision papers from CVPR (the longest standing CV conf) & associated patents tracing pathways from research to application. We found that 90% of papers & 86% of downstream patents power surveillance

1/

Yes! Super relevant. I had to cut a discussion of the metronome tutorial from my stretcher lift coordination paper.
See also;

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

This is one of the most important conversations in sport. Thank you very much for giving it the focus it deserves, @hebagowayed.bsky.social and @nickocchiuto.bsky.social.

Just 5 days left to submit an abstract…

Forensic Conversations symposium (17 Sep Lboro/online)

‼️ Abstract submission deadline ‼️

📅 15 June 2025

Impenetrable undergrowth/bracken

Just spent a while looking for a photo from a missing person search for a talk I’m giving next week. This. This was the photo…
Fortunately, there’s more in the detail* of the account that goes with it!

#ethnography
#fieldwork

Hand written instructions from a paper map was a vibe.
And everyone was good at holding a map on the steering wheel, between the thumbs. Always worked out ok… ish…

Thank you @robinjsmith.bsky.social for an inspiring 3 and a half days of exploring #MCA and potential projects for @iiemca27.bsky.social. We are already looking forward to your next visit.
#EMCA

Definitely struggling with the cold winter here. Bring a coat!

#IIEMCA27

Oh man, what to say about these three days?!
We went from “baby cried” and the search for help, through headlines, making sense of political events, memes, comedy sketches, to observations in public space. A brilliant bunch! Cheers @interactemca.bsky.social @cathtam.bsky.social and all!
#MCA
#EMCA

The title and abstract of Joyce et al "accessing and using data without informed consent: guiding principles from conversation analysis" in Rolsi 2025

A run through of the articles in the Special Section on "The Ethics of Collecting, Curating and Sharing Data in Conversation Analysis", now online (1st of 6 posts)

#EMCA

1. Joyce et al
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Main building of Wits University. A grand affair with colonial style pillars at the rear of a large lawn.

First visit to the Wits campus. A real honour to be Visiting Professor in the School of Human and Community Development until 2028.

What a great first day in Johannesburg!
Already looking forward to
#IIEMCA27
@iiemca27.bsky.social

Holding the actual thing felt a bit special.
There’s just so much care gone in to this and it shows in the introductory chapters.

#emca

The MSCA Post-doctoral Fellowship competition is open for internal review at Cardiff University. Please do get in touch with me if you have an idea for a project involving #ethnography, #ethnomethodology, and/or #membershipcategorisation

#EMCA

VERY much looking forward to this!!
#EMCA
#MCA

Human Practices and the Observability of the ‘Macrosocial’ How are we to conceive of the relationship(s) between classical depictions of „macrosocial“ phenomena and the empirically observable world of situated human practices and interactions? Sociologists si...

2. Coulter (1996) Human Practices and the Observability of the ‘Macrosocial’. Zeitschrift für Soziologie 25:5 337-345

www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

Thanks to @robinjsmith.bsky.social & Patrik Dahl for the recommendation

#JeffCoulter #EMCA

Very sad to hear Jeff Coulter died in hospital in Boston 29-04-25 after a short illness.
Jeff leaves a body of work that people will continue to read for years to come, combining insights from ordinary language philosophy and Wittgenstein with EMCA.

we've started up a new thing @uoncompsci.bsky.social

the Social Interaction and Technology (SIT) group advances the adoption and deployment of interaction-oriented studies of tech-in-use, particularly #EMCA approaches

for more info, we have a website here: people.cs.nott.ac.uk/pszsr/sit/