David Wright

'An 1812 letter from the Luddites described their mission as fighting against “all Machinery hurtful to Commonality.” That remains a strong standard by which to judge technological gains.'
Always quite proud to live a brisk stroll away from Arnold where the Luddites kicked off.

hoping that when they say the LLM talks like a Ph.D.-level expert, they mean "holds indecipherable decades-long academic grudges expressed largely in the form of questions that are actually more of a comment"

It's all we talk about this summer but what we gonna do about it. Here's our attempt at a start 👇

I'll believe my research is '4-star plus' when it comes with free wifi and continental breakfast

We have an opening for a one-year Sociology Lectureship in Glasgow focused on teaching the sociology of class. Please share it with anyone interested. www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/lecturer...

Front cover of Labour Together’s Britcard proposal. It is red and promises a ‘progressive digital identity for Britain’. The abstract imagery suggests progress (arrows) and immigration borders (the arrows are partially interrupted)

WW2 poster- a policeman’s hand takes a National Registration ID card from a plain, citizen’s hand. Text says a citizen may be asked for the card at any time

Preparing my notes for an interview on history of identity cards, back in the news because of proposals such as Labour Together’s Britcard (left). There’s a long history (see WW2 poster, right)

Here’s a thread on recent (1980s-2010s) UK ID card history, showing how Tony Blair became keen on them

AI Should Help Fund Creative Labor Mariana Mazzucato & Fausto Gernone show how today’s innovation economy exploits the very people it relies on and propose a fairer system.

Generative AI models are a collective work of art built on the free labour of millions of creators. Rather than raising digital walls & enforcing stricter copyright, we must treat creative knowledge as a public good.

New piece with @faustogernone.bsky.social in @projectsyndicate.bsky.social

Reconstructing the Cathedral: A Drop-In Collage Workshop with Caitlin Kiely Join Birmingham-based artist and educator Caitlin Kiely to reimagine and reconstruct the iconic post-war Coventry Cathedral through the process of collage. Caitlin often takes archival material as a...

As part of the Museum of Climate Stories project @jlarkin65.bsky.social is working with artist Caitlin Kiely and Coventry Biennial, using collage to re-imagine @coventrycathedral.bsky.social at workshops this weekend. Sign up 👇

www.coventrybiennial.com/events/recon...

Vale Ozzy Osbourne. 🤘

Me, from a couple of years ago

Research Fellow at University of Birmingham Recruiting now: Research Fellow on jobs.ac.uk. Click for details and explore more academic job opportunities on the top job board

This looks like a fantastic 2 year RA job on the history of paper money in Britain C18th-C19th for those completing/or with an MA or PhD.

Headline from the Daily Mail, 11 April 1927: "Stop the Flapper-Vote Folly!"

The right-wing press is going mad over votes at 16 ("a naked attempt to twist democracy in Labour’s favour", an "election-rigging move"...)

Oddly, they said the same 100 years ago when the voting age for women fell from 30 to 21.

Let's revisit the Mail's campaign to"Stop the Flapper Vote Folly"...

Patrick Grant! Tune in for the whimsical village fete chat, stay for the critique of extractive capitalism.

Research Associate at The University of Edinburgh Recruiting now: Research Associate on jobs.ac.uk. Click for details and explore more academic job opportunities on the top job board

Postdoc at the University of Edinburgh for a project on “Instability After Adverse Parental Life-Course Events and Educational Inequality.” Open to applicants with the right to work in the UK, deadline Aug 4.
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNX731/r...

Media Whatever Podcast · MCI Media Lab · Welcome to Media Whatever, the new podcast from the Centre for Cultural and Media Policy Studies at the University of Warwick. The podcast is about research from the Media a...

If you're looking for media and creative industries content to keep you going over the summer, head over to Media Whatever, our podcast series feat. Chris Bilton, @carolinabandinelli.bsky.social and a series of guests from our research seminars 👇

open.spotify.com/show/6gMv78F...

Enjoyed this. Especially liked the observation that, while universities are imagined to be full of trans/cultural marxist/feminists etc., it's the behavioural economics & techno-solutionist folks who really get to order the best sandwiches.

Personally I long for the day an AI bot replaces this kind of thing.

CfP! With so much discussion about the current and future state of creative eduction, there’s a perfectly timed call for papers for researchers working on these issues

Zine-making the commons: Reflections on a DIY workshop - Ash Watson, Suzanne Grasso, Cora Zon, Paul Long, 2025 This article was written collectively in the spirit of the commons and homemade, do-it-yourself (HADIY) creativity. It is animated by the observation that the o...

Pleased to see this piece out at last - open access. 'Zine-making the commons: Reflections on a DIY workshop' was collectively authored with @awtsn.bsky.social Watson, Suzanne Grasso and Cora Zon and features a downloadable version of the 'zine we made together. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Thousands of BBC jobs at risk as broadcaster considers major outsourcing drive Exclusive: BBC understood to be speaking to US tech giants as it desperately seeks cost savings

With the customary pinch of salt that often needs to be sprinkled on these stories, outsourcing BBC tech capabilities to "tech giants" feels like a really, really, really bad idea www.theguardian.com/media/2025/j...

Attention @uni-of-warwick.bsky.social students, alumni, staff and former staff! As part of our Museum of Climate Stories project, @jlarkin65.bsky.social is collecting stories about encounters with the plants and animals with whom we share our campus 👇
warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/sca...

“I’m just saying we’d collect more nectar if we weren’t in meetings all day”

From the new Private Eye, out now.

Elsevier journal under fire over ‘AI-generated’ review comments Researcher who waited nearly two years for rejection claims ‘nonsensical’ criticisms of his paper must have been chatbot-generated

'A UK academic has criticised the suspected use of chatbots in peer review after he was given lengthy instructions on improving his statistical analysis – despite not including any statistics in his rejected paper.' 1/2

Very interesting discussion here. It is noticeable that, as REF ramps up, the space of possibilities for change seems to be closing down. Is it caution, or is everyone too tired and busy to think of how to do things differently?

Non-academics: if you see an interesting academic paper on here and you can’t access it due to a paywall just email the author and (depending on the state of their inbox 😜) they will generally be thrilled you are interested in their work and send you a copy.

God, they keep coming, don't they!

We Want More: Music / Sociology! Join us to explore the sociology of (popular) music – from AI to activism, labour to care. Call for papers open until 1 October 2025.

CfP! We Want More: Music / Sociology!
Call for papers | International Popular Music Studies Conference at @erasmusuniversity.bsky.social 8th April 2026, deadline for abstracts 1st Oct 2025 www.eur.nl/en/eshcc/eve...

AHRC Doctoral Focal Awards support world-class doctoral training AHRC announces Doctoral Focal Awards in creative economy, and arts and humanities for a healthy planet, people, and place.

AHRC Doctoral Focal Awards support world-class doctoral training #AHRC #AcademicSky

We're delighted to be part of @uni-of-warwick.bsky.social's partnership with @universityofleeds.bsky.social and other partners, directing @ukri.org PhD funding to the challenges of the creative industries. Details in the 🧵 #screenindustries #PhDtraining

cheers Dave