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 […]
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.
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.
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.
When Is It Appropriate to Call a Crime ‘Terrorist’?
Looking at the recent mass shooting in Las Vegas and the ongoing violence perpetrated by people claiming to be working for the so-called Islamic State, our David Canter examines the use of the word ;terrorism’ and asks under what contexts is it accurately applied.
Anti-Intellectualism and the Rise of the British Right
Largely missing from the debate about the growth of alt-right-ish movements and cultural currents, argues our Daniel Nehring, is sustained engagement with the consequences of the shifts that are currently underway in education.
What Does Research Say About Race, Diversity, Acceptance, and Hate?
This free collection of content from SAGE Publishing provides context in the wake of pivotal events, such as the deadly protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, that highlight the societal fault lines in the U.S. and across the globe.
Reimagining the UK Sociology Curriculum: Internationalization, Decolonialization and Employability
How well do sociology departments in the UK teach sociology that originated in the UK? Asking that surprisingly hard question may produce usable insights for academic Britain, argues our Robert Dingwall.
Through the Prism of the Past: Watergate Memories at the Nixon Library
What does the Watergate saga of the early 1970s tell us about the current furor over investigations centered on the occupant of the white House?
