The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly accelerated a trend in academic meetings and conferences to move from real world to digital environments. Whilst this has potential gains in accessibility and inclusivity, drawing on a study of physicists, Harry Collins an…
Category: Featured
Western voices dominate research in Asian feminist academia – Why?
Drawing on her study of authors and publications across various journals focused on Asian Feminism, Francesca Earp finds that Asian feminist voices continue to be underrepresented. As these voices are critical to both the relevance of research in the r…
We’re more and more aware of digital harms, but what is the digital good?
Research and media stories often highlight how digital technologies have had a negative impact on our lives. But what might it mean to set out a vision of the ‘digital good’? Director of a new ESRC-funded network focused on the digital good, Helen Kenn…
Seeing families as data will change the state’s relationship to society
Rosalind Edwards and Pamela Ugwudike discuss how the increased use of linked social data and predictive machine learning is changing the state’s relationship to families, from the here and now to an anticipated future and from one grounded in a sociolo…
Building Institutional Memory for Research Projects – Why education is key to long-term change
Research Impact, especially as conceptualised in the Research Excellence Framework, is often seen as bounded within a clearly defined project timeframe. In this post, Ryan Nolan, discusses how the National Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Research (N…
Racism and classism in elite universities are deliberate mechanisms used to maintain privilege
Racist and classist mechanisms within higher education are often presented as abstract intangible processes that produce unequal outcomes for those attending university from non-traditional backgrounds. Drawing on evidence from their new book, Kalwant …
Book Review: Digital Lethargy: Disparities from An Age of Disconnection by Tung-Hui Hu
In Digital Lethargy: Disparities from An Age of Disconnection, Tung-Hui Hu explores digital lethargy as the burnout, exhaustion and restlessness experienced under digital capitalism. Neo Yee Win recommends this thought-provoking and innovative book to …
Transformation by design or by disaster – Why we need more transformative research now
Global society is beset with many ‘wicked problems’ that are unlikely to be resolved by traditional disciplinary research methods. In this post, Kristina Bogner, Michael P. Schlaile and Sophie Urmetzer discuss the concept of transformative research and…
ChatGPT will not replace Google Search
As speculation mounts that ChatGPT might replace Google Search, Tristan Greene cuts through the hype, arguing ChatGPT at present cannot replicate Google’s search function – “Saying ChatGPT will replace search is like saying podcasts w…
Paying to play – Professional academic communication should be factored into research funding
Reflecting on the ongoing professionalisation of academic communication and increased opportunities for researchers to engage, Andy Tattersall argues researchers and research funders should be mindful of the communication requirements of their projects…