Could Distributed Peer Review Better Decide Grant Funding?
The landscape of academic grant funding is notoriously competitive and plagued by lengthy, bureaucratic processes, exacerbated by difficulties in finding willing reviewers. Distributed […]
‘Settler Colonialism’ and the Promised Land
The term ‘settler colonialism’ was coined by an Australian historian in the 1960s to describe the occupation of a territory with a […]
The Decameron Revisited – Pandemic as Farce
After viewing the the televised version of the The Decameron, our Robert Dingwall asks what the farce set during the Black Death says about a more recent pandemic.
Pandemic Nemesis: Illich reconsidered
An unexpected element of post-pandemic reflections has been the revival of interest in the work of Ivan Illich, a significant public intellectual […]
Civilisation – and Some Discontents
The TV series Civilisation shows us many beautiful images and links them with a compelling narrative. But it is a narrative of its time and place.
There’s Something in the Air, Part 2 – But It’s Not a Miasma
Robert Dingwall looks at the once dominant role that miasmatic theory had in public health interventions and public policy.
There’s Something In the Air…But Is It a Virus? Part 1
The historic Hippocrates has become an iconic figure in the creation myths of medicine. What can the body of thought attributed to him tell us about modern responses to COVID?
Long Covid – A Contested Disorder
All pandemics of novel infectious diseases are accompanied by social pandemics of fear and action. Unless the social pandemics are artificially prolonged, […]
How Intelligent is Artificial Intelligence?
Cryptocurrencies are so last year. Today’s moral panic is about AI and machine learning. Governments around the world are hastening to adopt […]
