International Debate

Humans Broke the Internet. Understanding Them Better Might Help Fix It
Communication
April 20, 2018

Humans Broke the Internet. Understanding Them Better Might Help Fix It

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Facebook, SSRC Bravely Reinvigorate Research Collaboration
News
April 20, 2018

Facebook, SSRC Bravely Reinvigorate Research Collaboration

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March for Science II Set for This Saturday
Announcements
April 11, 2018

March for Science II Set for This Saturday

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Democracy Threatened When Census Undercounts Populations
News
April 2, 2018

Democracy Threatened When Census Undercounts Populations

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COSSA, Others Fear Fallout from Census Including Citizenship Question

COSSA, Others Fear Fallout from Census Including Citizenship Question

UPDATED: Many academic groups that use U.S Census data for research fear the negative effects of including a question about citizenship on the 2020 count. “Adding a new citizenship question to the 2020 Census would destroy any chance for an accurate count, discard years of careful research, and increase costs significantly,” wrote The Leadership Conference, an umbrella group.

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What Exactly is ‘Psychographics’?

What Exactly is ‘Psychographics’?

Cambridge Analytica’s approach to crunching social media data represents a step change in how analytics can today be used as a tool to generate insights – and to exert influence.

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Will Cambridge Analytica Hurt Legitimate Research?

Will Cambridge Analytica Hurt Legitimate Research?

It is right to believe that researchers and their employers value research integrity, says Annabel Latham. But instances where trust has been betrayed by an academic – even if it’s the case that data used for university research purposes wasn’t caught in the crossfire – will have a negative impact on whether participants will continue to trust researchers.

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Educational Reforms Still Have No Answer for School System

Educational Reforms Still Have No Answer for School System

The Gates Foundation is regrouping after its latest school improvement disappointment, but it’s not bowing out of the education reform business. As the philanthropic powerhouse led by Bill and Melinda Gates explained in their latest annual letter to the public, it ended its effort to overhaul teacher evaluation systems after determining that these efforts were failing to generate intended results.

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Interrogating Ethnography – and Coming Up with the Wrong Answers?

Interrogating Ethnography – and Coming Up with the Wrong Answers?

A recent critique of Alice Goffman’s influential 2014 book, “On the Run,” has, in effect, put ethnography conducted in the United states on trial. Here, our Robert Dingwall argues a case for the defense.

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How Do We Head Off the Collateral Damage of Big Data?

How Do We Head Off the Collateral Damage of Big Data?

Hamish Robertson and Joanne Travaglia argue that big data quantification is now not only a mechanism for extracting information but has become an idea with social and political power in its own right. The lack of critique of quantitative methods and their application contributes to the existing and potentially coercive power of digital information systems and their attendant methods, and enhances the potential for collateral damage.

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Sexual Harassment and Universities

Sexual Harassment and Universities

Developing an effective response to sexual harassment in the academic industry — by no means a new phenomenon, notes Robert Dingwall — requires us to consider questions about institutional memory, occupational cultures, and organizational silos, rather than badly behaved individuals.

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Report Offers Guidelines for Ethics of Technology Design

Report Offers Guidelines for Ethics of Technology Design

The big questions posed by our digital future sit at the intersection of technology and ethics. This is complex territory that requires input from experts in many different fields, including the social sciences, if we are to navigate it successfully. A new report makes an effort to give a first draft of that necessary input.

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