Too many bitter tech CEOs are working out their adolescent traumas on the rest of us

“These companies are giving these technological tools away partly because they’re hoping to addict a generation of students. […] This is part of every single class I teach now, talking to students about why I’m not using AI, why they shouldn’t use AI.”

This 🧵

Why independent bookshops strike fear in the heart of Germany’s culture tsar | Fatma Aydemir First he came for Berlin’s film festival. Now it’s books. Wolfram Weimer seems to be on a mission to curb progressive thinking, says Guardian Europe columnist Fatma Aydemir

"Whatever it is that these bookshops are accused of, I’m sure they behaved badly in the best possible way: recommending inconvenient books, hosting uncomfortable discussions, allowing readers to encounter ideas they did not know they were ready for." shorturl.at/9JqsB

Defeat as Method | Shahram Khosravi Thinking from within the ruins

'Defeat as Method' by Shahram Khosravi

Originally published in Cabinet Magazine. 2026. Issue 21 (July) www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/71/kh...

Refugee status becomes temporary in asylum shake-up Adults and accompanied children claiming asylum will only receive refugee status for 30 months under the changes.

A shameful, heartbreaking betrayal of our duties as a country that is lucky enough to be on the right side of history and on the lucky side of political geography.
How can the politicians who betray our moral duties look themselves in the eye in the mirror I will never know.

Hostile architecture: designing poverty out of sight In this month's 'Phenomena', we look at hostile architecture – design that polices and shapes cities across the world

[1/5] L’"architecture hostile" ou urbanisme défensif désigne ces aménagements urbains qui segmentent les bancs, hérissent les porches de pics ou inclinent les assises pour empêcher de s’allonger. Elle organise l’espace public et filtre silencieusement ceux qui peuvent y demeurer. #geography

Someone has sure already made this observation but the fact they can convert all those empty warehouses into prison camps means they could have converted them into housing, community centers, job training centers or, hell, libraries or schools all along. It’s always a matter of will not resources.

#OtD 18 Feb 1934 Audre Lorde, US writer was born of Caribbean parents. Lorde described herself as a "Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet", and was also a factory worker, social worker, X-ray technician, civil rights activist, communist and more stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8968...

Pop star Bad Bunny needed a Puerto Rican history scholar. UW–Madison had just the one. Bad Bunny collaborated with UW–Madison history professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo on Puerto Rican narratives that accompany the new album “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.”

Bad Bunny has a consulting historian. news.wisc.edu/pop-star-bad...

Sur visionscarto, Cristina Del Biaggio nous rappelle avec force l'essentiel de l'histoire tragique de Blessing Matthew, et avec elle, les histoires de toutes et tous ses semblables.

www.visionscarto.net/le-cri-de-bl...

#exil #migrations #migrants #morts_aux_frontières

Fully funded, everybody!

Cartographier les mouvements migratoires

www.visionscarto.net/cartographie...

Cette contribution est une réédition de l’article collectif du même nom paru en 2016 dans la REMI. Partiellement mis à jour, Il explore l’évolution de la cartographie des migrations depuis le début des années 1990.

Great collection of music on social mobility and class coming together here!

Soziologin über Merz' Stadtbild-Äußerung: „Das ist eindeutig rassistisch“ Kanzler Merz zeichne ein Bild von einer weißen Gesellschaft als Norm, sagt die Stadtsoziologin Barwick-Gross. Die wahren Probleme in Städten seien andere.

taz.de/Soziologin-u...

Au­to­r*in zur Stadtbild-Debatte: Der böse Traum vom gereinigten Deutschland Woran will Bundeskanzler Merz eigentlich das irregulär Migrantische erkennen? Seine Äußerungen zum deutschen Stadtbild sind menschenverachtend.

Au­to­r*in zur Stadtbild-Debatte: Der böse Traum vom gereinigten Deutschland taz.de/Autorin-zur-...

Ich kotze. „Fragen Sie mal Ihre Töchter“, entgegnet Merz einen Journalisten, der nachfragt, ob eine Entschuldigung angemessen wäre.

Zur Erinnerung: Junge Frauen haben die CDU kaum gewählt. Die Merz-Regierung macht keinerlei Gleichstellungspolitik.

Aber Frauen für Rassismus instrumentalisieren.

Ultimately, our findings nuance the idea that rural areas are less open, less progressive, or less connected to global issues. Instead, they reveal how rural cosmopolitanism can take root in decline and be fragilised by it.

That said, initiatives rooted in ideals of justice don’t just foster social change; they also reshape places, from the reuse of vacant housing to new community practices.

Yet, this cosmopolitanism is shaped — and sometimes constrained — by the social, spatial, and economic realities of these places leading to potential constraints for political action or increased needs for local assistance.

Local solidarity in welcoming refugees in places marked by territorial fragility is both diverse and complementary, with decline contributing to and/or strengthening rural cosmopolitanism in areas not typically associated with this concept: peripheral regions.

Through two case studies in regions marked by territorial fragility in France, we found that:

L’accueil des personnes réfugiées hors des métropoles : entre fragilité territoriale et cosmopolitisme rural Des idées pour vous

I teamed up with my friend and colleague Rafik Arfaoui to think and write about rural cosmopolitanism in places often considered 'left behind.' The article that came together along the way just came out in Espaces et sociétés and can be accessed here 👉 shs.cairn.info/tap-aw9lywgj...

Allez, on répète après moi :

ChatGPT 👏👏
n’est pas 👏👏
un moteur 👏👏
de recherche 👏👏

Thanks for writing this! I spent the morning sharing it with my academic friends :)

Area | RGS Geography Journal | Wiley Online Library With this commentary I argue that everyday relational spaces of friendship within academia have radical potential – a radically ordinary praxis? – and yet are often overlooked or undervalued. I sugge...

Here's for friendship in academia! 📚💛
Highly recommend the short piece "Friendship in academia: A radically ordinary praxis?" by @smhall.bsky.social if you still look for a Friday afternoon read!
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

# 1 Desinformation verstehen: Akteure, Mechanismen, Verantwortung Social Media begünstigt die Verbreitung von Desinformationen. Doch Desinformationen sind kein isoliertes Technologieproblem. Ursachen und Auswirkungen sind komplex – entsprechend brauchen wir viele...

🟢 Wir laden ein zu unserer Veranstaltung "#Desinformation verstehen: Akteure, Mechanismen, Verantwortung I 📅 Donnerstag, 23. Oktober 2025 I 🕕 17.00 – 18.30 Uhr I 📍 Online oder im Livestream 🎬 I Infos & Anmeldung ⬇️ calendar.boell.de/de/event/1-d...

Chi-town 🫶🥹

This looks so, so great, and I am learning about it way too late: any chance to attend some of the sessions online?

Academic friends: I’m teaching a course on Ethnography this fall. I was on sabbatical last year, so I haven’t taught it in 2 years. Do you have any recommendations for recent book length ethnographies I should include?

Many thanks in advance.