Benjamin Shestakofsky (@bshestakofsky) — Bluesky Profile

3 days ago

In the Twenty-first Century, Space is the New Railroad for Billionaire Ambitions Billionaires are playing a game of orbital Monopoly, writes Janet Vertesi.

Janet Vertesi on the ways in which the pursuit of space is the new railroad fantasy. Yay for dreams of domination! ::groan:: www.techpolicy.press/in-the-twent...

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6 days ago

248 Remaking the State: Moral Economies of Gov-Tech and Automated Governance

As automated systems become embedded in everyday statecraft, they reconfigure not only
how governments operate but what governments are. This panel starts from the premise
that contemporary techno-power is co-produced through state institutions that
increasingly govern through code, contracts, and data. Across areas such as welfare
administration, tax systems, border control, public databases, and urban governance,
government data infrastructures are assetized, state legibility is monetized, and governing
knowledge becomes vendor-dependent.

From major firms such as Palantir to smaller vendors aspiring to become the “Google of” housing, transportation, public health, or immigration data, gov-tech firms insert themselves in everyday practices of public administration. What values and moral claims justify sharing state capacity with technology vendors? How do procurement regimes carve out new boundaries between public and
private authority? And how do bureaucrats, civil society actors, and grassroots movements contest and reimagine the role and limits of state-held data? These questions probe the moral economies underlying state-tech partnerships, especially as they increasingly intersect with right-wing and authoritarian political projects and with technological experiments explicitly mobilized to enforce racist, anti-immigration, and anti-poor logics.

The panel invites theoretical and empirical papers drawing on STS, political economy, and critical infrastructure studies to develop frameworks to intervene in how state authority is dramatized, contested, and monetized through data infrastructures. Submissions addressing cases in the Global Majority and pursuing comparative approaches are particularly welcome.

For this year's @4sweb.bsky.social I'm organizing an open panel on Remaking the State: Moral Economies of Gov-Tech and Automated Governance.

Do you work on data infrastructures, tech vendors & automated governance? Submit a 250-word abstract; deadline April 30: www.4sonline.org/accepted_ope...

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1 week ago

Postdoc job! I'm looking to recruit a postdoc to work on a project about research evaluation & metadata. More info here: www.yorku.ca/research/wp-...

Salary: CDN$70,000 (+ benefits)
Location: Toronto, ON (can be remote in ON)
Length: 18 months
Deadline: 31 March 2026
Start date: 1 July 2026

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1 week ago

Entrepreneuring Legitimacy: A Case Study of the Cultural Codes and Boundary‐Makings of the Tech Elite How do those who are pulling away economically justify their advantageous positions? This issue has acquired salience in the context of rising inequalities and propelled a reflourishing of sociologic...

🎉 Just published in @bjsociology.bsky.social
Tech entrepreneurs are increasingly reshaping society and politics, but how do they justify their advantageous positions? My article analyses and unpacks dominant narratives in the world's most famous and elite startup accelerator: YCombinator

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2 weeks ago

An incredible contribution by @loicriom.bsky.social and @taschn.bsky.social to our Forum on Tech Oligarchy.

🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

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2 weeks ago

2026 Pre-Conference Science, Knowledge and Technology Today: Meeting the Moment, Engendering Just Futures The Science, Knowledge & Technology (SKAT) section of the American Sociological Association (ASA) will host…

SKAT preconference deadline is April 1! asaskat.com/skattoday/

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3 weeks ago

@catherinebracy.com I don't think I ever reached out to let you know how much I enjoyed your book! And it's great for undergrad classes! I taught a chapter today alongside a chapter of The Power Law to draw out the contrasting perspectives.

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1 month ago

this one's a banger (no mash)

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1 month ago

They're not really pilots but they're always gonna be there. I like how Gray & Suri call this the last mile problem for automation. With us since the putting out process in textiles and early food factories. The question is always "who gets automated and who does the cleanup afterwards."

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1 month ago

Shaping the Political Environment: An Ethnography of Public Affairs Professionals at Work - Ece Kaynak, Stephen R. Barley, 2019 Relying on an ethnographic study of in-house public affairs professionals, this article sheds light on the process by which boundary-spanning occupations can sh...

There's also this by Ece Kaynak and Steve Barley: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

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1 month ago

“Unicorns and Hacks”: Revolving-Door Lobbyists and the Cultivation of Political Credibility - Wendy Y. Li, 2025 How do revolving-door lobbyists produce corporate political influence? The revolving door, or the circulation of personnel between government and lobbying, has ...

This piece by @wendyyli.bsky.social may be of interest: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

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1 month ago

About the Conference

I'm co-chairing the Society for Social Studies of Science @4sweb.bsky.social Conference in Toronto, Oct 2026. #STS #scipol #innovation

Theme: "TechnoPower • Technoscientific Futures".

Open panel submissions portal is open! ls!

Deadline: 2nd February 2026

www.4sonline.org/about_the_co...

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1 month ago

Just two weeks to go to submit your application for the @berkeleyischool.bsky.social and @oii.ox.ac.uk Summer Doctoral Programme 2026. Join us for a fantastic fortnight of study, collaboration and mentorship whilst building lifelong connections. Apply today! www.oii.ox.ac.uk/study/summer...

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1 month ago

The mirage of AI deregulation One of the most interventionist approaches to technology governance in the United States in a generation has cloaked itself in the language of deregulation. In early December 2025, President Donald Tr...

🧵 Trump administration AI policy is widely described as deregulatory. This description is misleading. What's happening is not the absence of governance but its rearrangement--intensive state intervention operating through mechanisms we don't typically call regulation. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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2 months ago

With #TheLastHumanJob coming out in paperback January 27, I'm excited to share some upcoming appearances - it's going to be a busy spring! Come join the conversation about the value of human connection. For more info see allisonpugh.com or press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

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2 months ago

I’m a developer for a major food delivery app. The 'Priority Fee' and 'Driver Benefit Fee' go 100% to the company. The driver sees $0 of it.
I’m posting this from a library Wi-Fi on a burner laptop because I am technically under a massive NDA. I don’t care anymore. I put in my two weeks yesterday and honestly, I hope they sue me. I’ve been sitting on this for about eight months, just watching the code getting pushed to production, and I can’t sleep at night knowing I helped build this machine.

You guys always suspect the algorithms are rigged against you, but the reality is actually so much more depressing than the conspiracy theories. I’m a backend engineer. I sit in the weekly sprint planning meetings where Product Managers (PMs) discuss how to squeeze another 0.4% margin out of "human assets" (that’s literally what they call drivers in the database schemas). They talk about these people like they are resource nodes in a video game, not fathers and mothers trying to pay rent.

First off, the "Priority Delivery" is a total scam. It was pitched to us as a "psychological value add." Like I said in the title, when you pay that extra $2.99, it changes a boolean flag in the order JSON, but the dispatch logic literally ignores it. It does nothing to speed you up.

We actually ran an A/B test last year where we didn't speed up the priority orders, we just purposefully delayed non-priority orders by 5 to 10 minutes to make the Priority ones "feel" faster by comparison. Management loved the results. We generated millions in pure profit just by making the standard service worse, not by making the premium service better.

But the thing that actually makes me sick—and the main reason I’m quitting—is the "Desperation Score." We have a hidden metric for drivers that tracks how desperate they are for cash based on their acceptance behavior.

If a driver usually logs on at 10 PM and accepts every garbage $3 order instantly without hesitation, the algo tags them as "High Desperati…

“I’m a developer for a major food delivery app. The 'Priority Fee' and 'Driver Benefit Fee' go 100% to the company.

The driver sees $0 of it.”

www.reddit.com/r/confession...

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2 months ago

PostDoc Position (f/m/d) for 36 Months, University of Duisburg-Essen | Opportunities for SASE Members Application Deadline: 31 January 2026Start Date: As soon as possibleLocation: Essen, Germany

Postdoctoral Position in the Gig Economy, University of Duisburg-Essen

Applications are open for a PostDoc position within an ERC-funded research project on the gig economy & online labour markets

⏰ Deadline: 31 January

Application details: sase.org/career-oppor...

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3 months ago

Assistant Professor in AI Policy and Media About the Opportunity About the Opportunity The College of Arts, Media and Design (CAMD) at Northeastern University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in AI Policy and Media, ...

Northeastern University is hiring an Assistant Professor in AI Policy and Media. The tenure home would be either Communication Studies or Journalism, with a joint appointment with the policy school. Please apply and be my colleague :)

northeastern.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/careers/job/...

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4 months ago

Apply (Phd IS) Below, you'll find the essential information you need to prepare a strong application to our graduate program, including qualifications, expectations, and application steps.

I'm recruiting PhD students @cornellbowers.bsky.social! Folks who are interested in the intersection of work, technology, organizations, and political economy: please consider applying! infosci.cornell.edu/phd-informat.... And if you're a faculty colleague, please send excellent candidates my way!

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4 months ago

Working on AI in public health? Check out this CFP!

HEB invites submissions exploring the opportunities, impacts, and ethical dimensions of AI in health education, behavior, and public health. We encourage work on equity, transparency, accountability, and real-world applications.

lnkd.in/dsCbT6aX

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4 months ago

Cornell University, Information Science Job #AJO30763, 2025-2026 CORNELL INFORMATION SCIENCE FULL-TIME TEACHING FACULTY SEARCH (OPEN-RANK TEACHING PROFESSOR), ITHACA CAMPUS  , Information Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, US

Teaching faculty search @cornellbowers.bsky.social! academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30763

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5 months ago

UC Press is looking for a Publicist! Help amplify authors, pitch stories that spark conversation, & champion bold, field-defining books. Apply here. Or spread the word!
careerspub.universityofcalifornia.edu/psc/ucop/EMP...

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5 months ago

JOB: TT Assistant Professor, Sociology, Western University

Health and the Life Course or Work and the Economy
universityaffairs.ca/search-job/?...

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5 months ago

Congrats! They are lucky to have you at CU!

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6 months ago

Congrats, Chuncheng!

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6 months ago

The Social Science Matrix @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social is hiring a Researcher/Program Manager in Finance and Democracy: careerspub.universityofcalifornia.edu/psc/ucb/EMPL...

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6 months ago

Cornell University, Society for the Humanities Job #AJO30301, WDR-00046364 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Science and Technology Studies, AY 2026-2028, Society for the Humanities, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, US

Postdoc opportunity @cornelluniversity.bsky.social STS! academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30301

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6 months ago

Heads up, #4S2025 !
So excited for my Making and Doing workshop on "How to Get Off," teaching y'all how to evade Big Tech, on Thursday 1:30-3PM!
Then reflections on long-term fieldwork on Friday at 1:30PM
And my TECH/MONEY talk Friday at 3:40 on why NASA goes over budget ...
See you in Seattle!

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6 months ago

Thank you, @ntnsndr.in, for your generous read of the book!

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6 months ago

🙏 "Behind the Startup demonstrates, more fully than any work before it, the specific structural forces that so consistently ensure that platform startups betray their stated ideals....If this book does not achieve its purpose in reorienting future research, the field and not the book is to blame."

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