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 […]
The National Interest and the NSF
Current legislation calls for federally funded science to be in the ‘national interest.’ What does that even mean, and why do scientists fear this Republican-led effort?
Diplomacy or Destroyers: Uncle Sam’s Freedom of Navigation Choice
Amitai Etzioni argues that the U.S. shouldn’t automatically resort to the big stick when engaging in its self-imposed job as the world’s enforcer of freedom of navigation.
Suffragette – More than a Feminist Movie
With most works of art looking at the past, the real focus is the present. The new movie ‘Suffragette,’ writes Robert Dingwall, invites us to think about the consequences of political systems that are supposedly democratic but systematically exclude many voices.
How Do Europeans Really Feel About Migrants?
Given the angry images cascading off TV screens, it’s pretty clear that migrants aren’t welcome in Europe. Or are they? Three papers in a themed edition of the ‘International Journal of Comparative Sociology’ suggest a more nuanced answer.
World Bank Unveils Its Own ‘Nudge Unit’
The Global Insights Initiative, with its intriguing acronym of GINI, will bring experimentation to the World Bank’s poverty-fighting efforts by incorporating behavioral and social science into its project design and evaluation.
Bill That Seeks ‘National Interest’ Justifications for NSF Grants Advances
A bill that would require the National Science Foundation to justify, in writing, that every grant it makes is in the national interest and “worthy of federal funding” passed the science committee of the U.S. House of Representatives this morning.
Discourse and the Politics of Fear
From the margins of the political landscape to its center, Ruth Wodak examines the trajectories of populist right-wing parties in Europe in order to understand and explain how they are transforming from fringe voices to persuasive political actors who set the agenda and frame media debates.
Shutdowns: The Misfire Next Time
Although a U.S. government shutdown has apparently been kicked down the road just a little bit longer, but a potential new shutdown — and its ruinous consequences for grant-funded science –always seems to be just around the corner.
