@melaniesmallman.bsky.social
Professor of Science & Technology Studies and Director of Scicom @stsucl.bsky.social Author Governance Democracy & Ethics, ex-Chair SERA Labour Environment Campaign. Science & society, tech, inequality & populism, climate change & tech ethics. EASST.
Next London PUS Seminar coming up on 25th March when we have the amazing Dr Margo Boenig- Lipstin from ETH Zurich on "Between Human and Machine".
londonpus.wordpress.com/2026/03/11/m...
Still a few hours to submit a paper for my panel on populism, expertise and science at EASST.
I'd love a gender balanced panel, so if you're a woman who is hesitating because you don't know me, aren't sure your paper will fit (etc) please submit and we can worry about those things together later!
I've had some really great submissions to my panel on Populism, science, expertise & society for @easst.bsky.social and there's still time for more. Join us here:
easst.net/conference/e...
Or getting most of its energy from home-grown renewable sources - which would have been possible if governments had acted a decade ago.
what even is the fucking point
Next London PUS Seminar coming up 25th Feb. "Ex Cathedra: Preaching and Teaching the Positivist Creed" with Dr Guillaume Lancereau from the Central European University in Budapest. Comes and join us.
londonpus.wordpress.com/2026/02/17/f...
This would be nonsense with any other funding arrangement - including a graduate tax.
I didn't get the kind of experience I expected during 2020-21 either - mainly because I was working 12 hours a day trying to ensure that these students didn't lose out on learning. Glad it has been appreciated.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
I am also sickened to hear men (who could have done something to help long ago) now trying to implicate the one man who has done concrete things to help women - not least transforming rape and sexual assault laws as DPP - and who stands a chance to do more as PM.
The news at the moment is triggering some really horrible memories of what it was like being a young woman trying to build a career in the 1990s and the difficult/predatory situations that we regulalry found ourselves in.
A neat short video that introduces our Science and Technology Studies degree programmes at @stsucl.bsky.social
Please share if you like what we do! #histsci #philsci #sts
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYYE...
I'm convening a panel @easst.bsky.social on "More than Politics: Science Technology and Expertise in the age of Populism" (p231). It should be a fascinating discussion, so if you want to join us, we are open for papers until 9th March.
easst.net/conference/e...
This important, under reported but great news - especially given the wider global context. If more governments had moved sooner on decarbonisation and emissions reductions, the arctic region wouldn't be opening up. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
The latest UK Public Attitudes to Science Survey is out today (link below). We will be discussing it in this month's London PUS Seminar 4pm on Wednesday 29th January at LSE. DM if you want room details (in person only): pas.ipsos.com
I can't help wondering how things would have turned out if the US had got behind the Paris Agreement and invested in renewable and low carbon tech instead.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Show me swathes of working class kids getting professional jobs without going to Uni and I'll agree. Until then, I question who we appoint as uni leaders if they no longer believe that higher ed is the key to social mobility. Because there is nothing else.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Happy Christmas emails. Sigh.
Tech investment usually produces profits that are shielded from UK tax - which is why the digital services tax is necessary. The ££ jobs go to metropolitan regions, while elsewhere gets the low paid insecure digital platform jobs, fuelling regional inequality.
Income from digital services tax will do more to tackle inequality and improve public services than the promised investment would. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
When I became an academic, I completely underestimated how much of my time would be spent setting up passwords, finding them then logging into systems of my own university, other universities and various publishing companies. So fulfilling.
I've been saying this for years to AI engineers who seem to think they are developing the 'luxury' service. Nope, it's the rubbish option that rich people will upgrade from.
Glad to see it finally acknowledged that things could have been very different but 23,000 unnecessary deaths is shameful. We can't let entitlement be more important than competence again.
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Having Johnson & Cummings in Downing Street when Covid struck was, just like Brexit, an entirely avoidable disaster caused largely by utterly appalling journalism. And now exactly the same clowns, arses & bigots with bylines are rolling out the red carpet for Farage.
www.thetimes.com/article/1b15...
To list them:
DrDoctor
Care Information Exchange
NHS App
Patients Know Best
PATCHS
That's 8 bodies with access to my data, when only 3 need it - me, the consultant and my GP.
Privacy issues aside, how is this improving efficiency in NHS?
I've just received an appointment letter from @imperialnhs.bsky.social via 2 texts and an email. Each connected to a different 3rd party app, that I had to register & sign consent with. So it seems my medical correspondence is being shared with at least five organisations (inc gp & hosp). Not OK.
Great. So trains are to become even more of a noisy hellscape.
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Late but huge thanks to the authors of this (very useful) paper for flagging the Multiscale Ethics Framework as an emerging idea in #AIethics in healthcare. I am worried about future of NHS is we don't think about impact of tech beyond individuals.
journals.plos.org/digitalhealt...
The problem is, spread as well as size matters. £8 return on £1 investment could be driving inequality in the UK if the £1 comes from everyone and the £8 goes exclusively to those owning tech companies, by passing the treasury.
A call for papers for a special collection of #CitizenScience Theory and Practice - Citizen Science for Evidence-based Policy and Decision-Making. Deadline for abstracts of 250 words is 15 December. Do you have an example? participatorysciences.org/2025/10/15/c...
It's also creating a new admin burden for academic staff who have to set up and monitor registration systems, hold doors open when human security staff are no longer employed etc etc. (If you can even book a room without ££). All a part of the sad, incremental erosion of academic life in the UK.