Dave O'Brien

Hi! Come and work with me!

Thanks for recording it!!!

One interesting point in the UKRI letter is the statement that before the buckets UKRI's investment was 'tracked largely by discipline'. Is it very difficult to map this assertion onto how 'disciplines' are normally defined in research and academic contexts, or am I missing something? 2/2

UKRI shares first detailed comparisons of past and future spending under new ‘bucket’ model - Committees - UK Parliament Professor Sir Ian Chapman, Chief Executive of UKRI, has written to the Committee Chair, Dame Chi Onwurah, to provide previously unavailable information about its new 'bucket'-led approach to funding r...

Back to buckets. Four of them. Or, three buckets and a trough. 1/2

Listen! @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social spoke to @kennyailbhe.bsky.social about the hugely important "Music Refuge: Living Asylum Through Music" newbooksnetwork.com/music-refuge

The mapping shows that the curiosity-led research ('bucket one') is applicant-led research, QR, and a sprinkling of smaller items from across UKRI. Applicant-led funding and QR are increasing from financial years 2025-26 to 2026-27, but overall curiosity-led research is receiving a smaller share of the increase in 2026-27 than other 'buckets'. . From this mapping, it appears 'curiosity-led' research as UKRI are defining it, is being protected, and is over 50% of the total investment. However, as we said in our question to Sir lan, QR is not all curiosity-led, it is at best 'non-Government directed'. This eliding of definitions is part of the reason that there is confusion around the statement that curiosity research is protected. Further, the statement that curiosity-led research is over 50% of the total budget risks looking dis-ingenious when a big chunk of it is QR funding.

Response from @sciencecampaign.bsky.social says ‘the statement that curiosity-led research is over 50% of the total budget risks looking disingenuous when a big chunk of it is QR funding.’
www.sciencecampaign.org.uk/analysis-and...

A key para is this: ‘The budget for [responsive mode] in 2025/26 is
£737m. You will see above that, in 2026/27, this maps to the ‘applicant-led’ funding for
which the budget is £815m. This increases year-on-year to £821 million in FY27/28, £836
million in FY28/29, and £866 million in FY29/30.

Important on how the new science (which includes social and arts and humanities!) works

Complex UKRI diagram

Today @ukri.org has provided a bit more information about how past funding maps onto its new structures in this letter to the Science Select Committee. It’s quite a hard diagram to get your head round at first glance but the letter also gives more context
committees.parliament.uk/publications...

Going to be talking to UofM colleagues about this very point later this week!

As Maria Sobolewska and I first said in Brexitland, the legacy parties under FPP are like Tinkerbell - they need belief to survive. if people cease to believe they see the best and only options, they can die fast. Is this the moment Labour’s Tinkerbell dies?

Sutton Trust reaction to the Government's response to consultation on unpaid internships - The Sutton Trust The Government has published its response to the consultation on unpaid internships.

paid internships must be the norm, transparently advertised and properly enforced.

Opportunity shouldn’t depend on your parents’ bank balance. www.suttontrust.com/news-opinion...

with financial backing and insider networks over those with talent and potential.

We know internships are a key route into many professions. When access depends on who can afford to work for free, that isn’t meritocracy, it’s structural advantage.

If we’re serious about social mobility, 2/

The government’s response on unpaid internships is welcome but it must lead to real change.

As the Sutton has pointed out below, unpaid and unadvertised internships remain a significant barrier to opportunity. They privilege those with financial backing and insider networks over those 1/

🚀 Postdoc Alert! Are you passionate about social learning & cultural evolution? @dominikdeffner.bsky.social & I have a 3-year position with freedom to develop your research and work on cutting-edge multiplayer and immersive experiments. Apply by March 30! hmc-lab.com/SocialLearni... Pls share 🙏

Yeah, I'd say combine 2 and 5 as well. 5 is a great 'hook' for a project

The Guardian’s positive action work experience is open for applications! There are (paid) schemes for disabled, BAME, and working class wannabe journalists.

Because the media needs more people like us.

Info here: workwithus.theguardian.com/entry-level-...

Young People, Social Media and New Understandings of Mental Distress This conference brings together scholars, activists, and NGOs to explore how young people’s understandings of mental health are changing in the context of a youth mental health crisis. It focuses on d...

As the Government begins its consultation on social media and young people, we are holding a conference later in the year to strengthen the evidence base including the latest thinking on understanding young people's mental health
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/briti...

Handbook of Beauty and Inequality This open access handbook discusses theoretical views, empirical insights and scholarly debates on the relationship between beauty and inequality.

Free for all, fully open access, thanks to @erc.europa.eu

link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Two copies of the Handbook of Beauty and Inequality

Look what came in the mail

Thanks for recording it!

See also this thread with a slightly longer summary of the argument. bsky.app/profile/mivi...

Three-panel illustrated graphic explaining the “paradox of specialization.” Top panel, titled “The rationalized occupation,” shows a classical building with “productivity,” supported by columns labeled “planning” and “verification.” The caption explains that work once guided by tradition now follows formal standards, structured training, and science-based practices. Middle panel, titled “The expanding scientific toolkit,” shows a scientist pouring labeled test tubes of “physics,” “statistics,” “biology,” and “sociology” into a cauldron labeled “occupational knowledge.” The caption explains that as science becomes more complex—embracing probabilistic models, causal inference, and prediction—occupations are expected to absorb more of it. Bottom panel, titled “paradox of specialization,” contrasts a barber of the past with a barber of the present, who is surrounded by icons representing email, money, checklists, medical symbols, and legal scales. The caption explains that specialized occupations become responsible for a broader range of tasks as science reveals problems to be more complex than previously imagined.

For a super-compressed summary of the argument of The Division of Rationalized Labor, see this fabulous visualization (by www.animateyour.science)

Had a great time talking to @drdaveobrien.bsky.social about The Division of Rationalized Labor. Listen to the podcast here: newbooksnetwork.com/the-division...

Stay tuned! The book Digital Solidarity Economy in Latin America (Bristol University Press and Policy Press) is coming in October 2026! Edited by me, Belén Albornoz, and Alessio Bertolini. Foreword by Nick Couldry
bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/digital-soli...

Clearly it would have been nice if Palace had beaten them today, but, you know, respect for this.

A 1970 French interdisciplinary seminar on structuralism, organised by Gilbert Gadoffre, André Lichnerowicz and François Perroux, and attended by Suzanne Bachelard, Pierre Bourdieu, Georges Canguilhem... An interdisciplinary seminar on structuralism was held in France in September 1970. Attended by a wide range of speakers, it was an interesting moment in the French reception of this trend in ‘Fren…

A 1970 French interdisciplinary seminar on structuralism, organised by Gadoffre, Lichnerowicz and Perroux, and attended by Suzanne Bachelard, Bourdieu, Canguilhem, Foucault, Martinet, Monod, Ramnoux, Serres, Simonden and Thom
progressivegeographies.com/2026/03/01/a...

Look at these cool philosophy of physics postdocs we're advertising here at LSE!

philjobs.org/job/show/30977 and philjobs.org/job/show/30981

This looks relevant if you are interested in the ONS Longitudinal Study:

This is a great idea in the context of rich (and rightly!) highly secure datasets