Robert Dingwall

Thinking today of a former student in the Gulf military. Obvs in such roles, you expect you might have to put your life on the line one day. But it should be for a better cause than keeping Netanyahu out of jail and distracting US attention from Trump's involvement with Epstein.

Watching a TV show and a senior academic has bookshelves in their office with plenty of space for new books. I’m used to suspending disbelief but this is ridiculous.

Making and unmaking AI metaphors and magic Twenty years ago, Noel and Amanda Sharkey, seminal contributors to early AI debates, wrote an article on artificial intelligence and natural magic which deserves to be read again today. They focus …

Last shout-out for my post on #AI, #metaphor and #magic! makingsciencepublic.com/2026/02/27/m...

Whatever happened to phone sanitizers? Used to be quite a successful business niche....

Sufficient and Efficient Spending on Primary Care Benefits National Health and Health Systems Policy Points Primary care is undervalued and under-funded in many countries despite different care and payment models. High-quality, accessible primary care requires sustained and strategic inve...

Worth a few minutes attention from anyone who thinks the UK problems of GP service are unique.
Sufficient and Efficient Spending on Primary Care Benefits National Health and Health Systems - PHILLIPS - The Milbank Quarterly - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Presumably he also plans to teach bears where to defecate

Top earners increase at Russell Group universities despite cuts About 9,400 staff paid at least £100,000 a year across research-intensive institutions, analysis of financial accounts shows

It's not a popular message, but that there are as few as 185 people earning 100k at a big, serious uni like Cardiff is actually a signal of how low UK academic salaries are, and how much professorial salaries, in particular, have eroded comparatively.
www.timeshighereducation.com/news/top-ear...

How Birmingham is getting ahead of measles by encouraging vaccine uptake Nurses and doctors are trying to understand and assuage the concerns some patients have over vaccines.

It's not an easy task. It takes a certain kind of approach which combines listening closely and trying to understand the person on the other end of the line....The work across the city has had a real impact. Over the course of 2024, an extra 7,000 vaccinations were carried out'.

Working with the fantastic Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, we are going to send a great hospital boat to Greenland to take care of the many people who are sick, and not being taken care of there. It's on the way!!! President DJT

Healthcare in Greenland is publicly funded, free at the point of use, and despite geographical challenges considered very good.

Healthcare costs in the USA are extortionate and responsible for 60% of all US bankruptcies.

So maybe Denmark should be sending hospital ships the other way.

From Private Eye: appointment of Andrew as Trade Envoy was vigorously promoted by Mandelson and by Tony Blair who overruled the principal opponent of the plan - none other than Andrew’s big brother…It would certainly be interesting to see notes revealing why Blair ignored His Majesty’s sage advice at the time.

Via @jackieleonard.bsky.social:

NEW FROM 55(1)

"Morphology in action: Diminutives in Brazilian obstetric and gynecological consultations" by @ana-ostermann.bsky.social, Chase Wesley Raymond, Paul Drew

#Portuguese #Brazil #Gynecology #Obstetrics #Morphology #Pragmatics #Granularity #Methodology #CA
doi.org/10.1017/S004...

Departments also have no effective push-back against the costs incurred by the centre. As an HoD, I pressed for 'hit squads' of HoDs to audit central services in the same way as they would audit academic departments...one reason why I was encouraged to exit that university some years ago😳

What do you think pays for public health interventions - and prevents downstream 'deaths of despair' from addictions, mental health crises and domestic abuse? Economists understand opportunity costs and trade offs - we must always ask whether lockdowns cost more lives than they might save?

Rubio’s tone deafness in making assumptions about what would strike a chord rather than nauseate … My Yiddish and German speaking relatives were among millions who arrived in America carrying the trauma of persecution by Christians.

Also the base for the Esher review of the historic city centre in 1968.

#Spéirghorm
#Sparegollum
#speirgorm

Which reminds me of an argument I had with a Frankfurt based 'autonomous driving' researcher. He insisted all scenarios could be handled. I mentioned a winter drive: I avoided hitting a child by mindfully anticipating the kid's actions and adjusting. He argued software could do that. No and, never.

Check out Radkau's monumental biography. Includes all the stuff his widow left out...

They could have just read some sociology...
www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

Not sure how far Foucault's reputation really stands up in the wake of some of the allegations about his activities with small boys in Algeria. Not sure how well they stand up but would be careful about painting him as a saint in a contrast with Chomsky...

A complete gift to the Greens, especially in a constituency with a shed-load of student voters.

NASA discovered the sociology of organizations...

Are you a current MA/PhD student, or a recent PhD graduate? York's annual conference on Conversation Analysis is open for abstracts. Keynotes and workshops in CA skills by me and @ana-ostermann.bsky.social Ana Cristina Osterman.

Like most employed researchers in the Global North, this underestimates the way OA acts as an exclusionary mechanism for scholars who do not work for universities or for many in the Global South. It is not nice to rely on the charity of publishers and editors.

ICE: Good People and Dirty Work - Social Science Space Watching recent events in Minneapolis from the comfortable distance of several thousand miles and a large ocean, my mind turned to an […]

Watching recent events in Minneapolis...I recalled a paper by Everett Hughes. ‘Good People and Dirty Work’ asks 2 questions: How did ‘good Germans’ let the Nazis commit crimes against humanity? How did the Nazis obtain a workforce to commit these crimes?
www.socialsciencespace.com/2026/01/ice-...

©️ Emile Durkheim following Adam Smith

"Give me the Nobel Peace Prize or we'll invade Earth"

Forest banished to the far end of #matchoftheday yet again even when playing Arsenal. #BBCSPORTS

Very sad news. Sat on committees with him and always impressed with his moderation and good sense.

At least they are not misusing 'applying the precautionary principle'....!!!!