Lin Zhang

This is fascinating although I must admit is not a beach read. It makes me think that one of the big trends we’re seeing in government/public policy is the spread of third wave systems theory (into theories of statecraft, PSR, leadership training, etc). 1/2

Whither China?: Chinese communication research at the new conjuncture Published in Chinese Journal of Communication (Vol. 18, No. 3, 2025)

Here's our introduction: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

In our intro, we revisit and reimagine Chinese communication studies through three analytical lenses: China in plural, Global China from above and below, and the digital platform as a contested infrastructural space. We hope this issue will inspire new conversations and directions in the field.

This collection features six excellent articles—ranging from rural fintech & e-commerce, the political economy of TikTok, the overseas Chinese fashion industry, to new theoretical approaches for studying platforms/infrastructures, and the platformization of China’s music industry.

Chinese Journal of Communication Whither China?: Chinese Communication Research at the New Conjuncture. Volume 18, Issue 3 of Chinese Journal of Communication

New Special Issue Alert:
Our special issue “Whither China? Chinese Communication Research at the New Conjuncture” has finally been published in the Chinese Journal of Communication!
www.tandfonline.com/toc/rcjc20/1...

The History of the Personal Computer by Sheila Heti Sheila Heti on the birth, rise, and decline of the personal computer.

I like this analogy: the computer interface as the 'theatre of the screen', with an understanding of theatre (like all art) as 'a lie that tells the truth'. www.clunyjournal.com/p/history-of...

Coming March 2026

Alternative Broadband Networks: Affordable Internet for the People, One Rooftop at a Time Volunteer-based organizations like NYC Mesh aim to close the digital divide and build real-life connections.

www.cnet.com/home/interne...

Countries are struggling to meet the rising energy demands of data centers Mexico's lagging energy grid is forcing companies, including Microsoft, to use generators.

In the midst of the AI boom, countries are scrambling to meet rising energy demands from data centers. In Mexico, Microsoft has had to rely on gas generators in at least one of its data centers

The Harvard S&T in Asia online seminar series is back!

This fall features talks from affect and control in Chinese AI to American forestry in Cold War Taiwan.

We meet on Zoom on the Tuesdays listed, 10:30–11:45 am ET.

Registration: seow.scholars.harvard.edu/STinAsia

#histstm #envhist #sts 🧪

Exciting news from my colleagues @sciencehistory.org! This archive documents the early history of #MolecularBiology & efforts to determine the structure of #DNA.

@matthewcobb.bsky.social provides an overview of its contents & significance in the thread below.

#histSTM #histsci #histbio #Molbio 🗃️📜🧬

Other Tech Worlds Are Possible. Comic book is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese! Partnership with the Tech Sector of the Homeless Workers’ Movement in Brazil (MTST), @germana-fazgibi.bsky.social

English: digilabour.com.br/comic-book-o...
Portuguese: www.nucleodetecnologia.com.br/hq

Signatures needed!

Uber and Lyft drivers are on the precipice of a wage theft settlement and need to push CA AG Bonta to represent what Uber/Lyft really stole, not just a token amount.

Please sign and share this petition.
www.drivers-united.org/wage-theft-s...

Xi Launches Global Governance Initiative In addition to China’s President Xi Jinping’s diplomatic blitz at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit and this week’s upcoming military parade, he also launched the Global Governance in...

Xi Jinping launched the Global Governance Initiative, adding to China’s suite of global proposals. Centered on sovereignty, multilateralism, and UN reform, the GGI positions Beijing as a champion of the Global South in global affairs.

Front cover of Just Code: Power, Inequality and the Political Economy of IT. Black lettering in bold with trailing pastel colors.

Just Code, just published!!! Open Access of full book is now freely available, see link below, made possible by @sloanfoundation.bsky.social grant to CBI! Am so honored to partner w Con & work alongside 19 stellar, fellow interdisciplinary authors on this book! #histtech

cse.umn.edu/cbi/just-cod...

How the NIH dominates the world’s health research — in charts Abrupt cuts by the Trump administration to the US National Institutes of Health threaten progress in medical research globally.

Some are embracing the fantasy that the cuts to #NIH funding will only have an impact here in the USA. As Nature reports, the NIH is the largest global funder by far and dwarfs the rest of the world’s funders of biomedical research.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

On Sinopessimism, or Junkies of Futility | Made in China Journal This essay is written precisely so that it could be dismissed. —Paul Mann (1991: 141)   Gary Gexi Zhang (2021) first coined the term ‘Sinopessimism’ as a speculative counterpart to Afropessimism, imag...

What is Sinopessimism? From lying flat to runology, Dino Ge Zhang explores a grassroots lexicon of disillusionment in China. Not just youth disengagement but a low theory of coping, refusing, and imagining alternatives amid economic and social pressures.

A short essay on the state of global digital capitalism(s) and futures in/from India and China, based on @linzhang.bsky.social 'The Labor of Reinvention' (2023)

Winning the Cold War With le Carré and Cosmopolitan Magazine

"As the trade union Solidarity established itself as the nerve center of Polish resistance, Minden’s longstanding book-running efforts morphed into an operation code-named QRHELPFUL... [It] sneaked in radios + printing equipment... Illicit text might be concealed in Tampax boxes or diapers..." 😈

Building on the great papers from our Global Mediations workshop this past April, we're launching a CFP for additional contributions to an anthology on the global contestation of computational imaging. Details below; proposals due 9/13

Higher education: How (not) to cope with a deficit Many universities are struggling financially. Budget deficits are spiralling, triggering staff redundancy programmes, department shutdowns and the mot...

I read this, and then I despaired even more deeply. They're universities, not collections of 'under-managed cluster risks'! And yet this is where we're going, because MBA Brain. (1/2) www.universityworldnews.com/post-mobile....

The AI Con A smart, incisive look at the technologies sold as artificial intelligence, the drawbacks and pitfalls of technology sold under this banner, and why it’s cr...

More summer reading! ASA member Alex Hanna ‪@dairinstitute.bsky.social‬ explores AI's pitfalls & the importance of recognizing how AI hype covers for a small set of power-hungry actors in her book The AI Con ‪@harpercollins.bsky.social‬ written w/ Emily M. Bender, U Wash.

2025 National Conference On-the-Record Livestreams

Watch: Last week D&S Exec Director @janethaven.bsky.social took part in the @cfr.org‬ national conference, discussing power, politics & the tech industry on a panel w @chinmayiarun.bsky.social, @noupside.bsky.social, & Adam Segal, moderated by Michelle Caruso-Cabrera. www.cfr.org/event/2025-n...

Also special thanks to fellow thinkers in this space, whose works are instrumental to refining my thinking. @lizhiliu.bsky.social @angela zhang

I draw inspiration from many other authors, including @msteinbrg.bsky.social @rahmuk.bsky.social @nielsvdoorn.bsky.social @grohmannrafael.bsky.social @jackqiu.bsky.social Steve Rolf& Seth Schindler, Anu Bradford, just to name a few

Understanding this new model diversifies the current conceptualization of state-market relations globally, sheds light on China’s techno-driven restructuring and global expansion, prompts questions abt the influence of geopolitical competition on China’s governance and its global implications.

Despite their monopolistic and infrastructural tendencies, Chinese platforms operate within a fragmented, state-dominated system that both enables and restrains their growth, depending on shifting political dynamics.

This “market in the fragmented state” contrasts with the current oligarchical U.S. model, where big tech firms often capture state power to serve corporate interests.

Local governments, as they adapt to the new economy, maintain a fragile symbiosis with platforms like Alibaba to advance their own political and economic objectives.

In this hybrid model, the pragmatic Leninist central state, to meet the "big tech challenge", both leverages and controls private tech giants to balance economic growth, social stability, and national security amid geopolitical tensions and a slowing economy.