The NSF 2027 budget has noted that they will close out the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Science Program (SBE). This is not a good thing. nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/FY-202...

I dare Karen Bass to do the same

Abstract Many legal disputes are resolved through settlement. The dominant theory explaining settlements – known as “bargaining in the shadow of the law” – assumes that litigants are informed, rational actors inclined to bargain toward a settlement prior to court proceedings. Yet many settlements are negotiated after litigants have appeared in court expecting to go to trial. This article argues that court organizational mechanisms play an undertheorized role in facilitating settlement agreements. To build theory on organizational mechanisms, we examine the case of eviction settlements. Drawing on ethnographic observations and interviews in a California eviction court, we find that organizational rules and workgroup norms funnel mostly unrepresented tenants – sometimes, in coercive ways – into unregulated hallway conversations with landlord attorneys and/or participation in the court’s mediation program. Through relational interactions with legal professionals in these organizational spaces, tenants are taught the risks of trial and the benefits of settlement. As a result, most tenants in our sample come to recognize their legal culpability and view settlement agreements as legitimate, even as their negotiated settlements reproduce their housing insecurity. We discuss implications for bargaining theory and research on housing insecurity.

How do eviction courts funnel tenants into settlements with landlords that often reproduce housing insecurity? Check out our new article in LSR on the organizational mechanisms that compel settlements in a California eviction court.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Build baby build? Housing submarkets and the effects of new construction on existing rents Anthony Damiano and Chris Frenier aUniversity of Minnesota; bHealth Care Cost Institute ABSTRACT There is vigorous debate among scholars, and activists about the role that new market-rate apartments play in alleviating housing affordability issues at the neighborhood level. This study evaluates how new large (>50 units) market-rate apartment buildings affect rents in nearby buildings. In contrast to other recent work, we posit that the effects of new construction may vary by the quality of existing housing. We test this hypothesis by using a panel of building-level rents from Minneapolis, Minnesota, observed between 2000 and 2018. While we find no effect of new high-end housing on the market overall, we find countervailing effects of new construction on different parts of the rental market when broken out separately. We find that lower-priced rental housing close to new construction had rents 4.4% higher than those in other low-quality buildings farther away in the first 5 years after new construction. In contrast, we find that new construction had the opposite effect on higher-priced housing: rents were 1.7% lower near new construction. This study reiterates the importance of housing submarket theory and how focusing solely on average effects of housing interventions may miss important and nuanced effects across different parts of the market.

Newly published housing research! We find that the effects of new construction on rents varies by the quality of the existing housing. In the first 5 years rents went up 4.4% near low quality buildings and went down 1.7% near high quality buildings (1/x) 🧵
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

this makes me feel crazy

The journal City & Community with its gorgeous new cover in front of LA's City Hall, a tall white building

We'd love to review your article on sociological analyses of urban politics for @cicojournal.bsky.social! Here she is at LA City Hall. Where are you enjoying our new issue?
#CiCointheCity

We have a few new features we'd like to introduce starting with City Books—our new way of highlighting recently published books in urban sociology. You'll start to see these in issues over the next year, but in the meantime, let us know if you have a new book we should consider! Info below. 📚

You may have noticed that City & Community has a new look 😎 We took what we love about cities—connections, networks, public transit—and rendered them in Georgetown’s blue and grey and UCLA’s blue and gold. It’s just one of several exciting new changes you’ll see in the coming issues, so stay tuned!

Editorial Introduction - Brian J. McCabe, Ann Owens, 2026

With our March 2026 issue, we can officially welcome @annowens.bsky.social and Brian J. McCabe as the new editors of City & Community! They are excited to continue publishing the impactful research that the journal is known for. Their editorial introduction highlights the exciting changes to come.

What I wanna know is how they're still open/have so many locations when their food is certifiably bad

@cicojournal.bsky.social has a snazzy new look!

Trust and reliance on AI — An experimental study on the extent and costs of overreliance on AI Decision-making is undergoing rapid changes due to the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI), as AI recommender systems can help mitigate human…

!!! "we find that the mere knowledge of advice being generated by an AI causes people to overrely on it, that is, to follow AI advice even when it contradicts available contextual information as well as their own assessment."

I wish I had time for a whole nother research agenda because I want to spend many years studying why people assume AI will be good at things

Page 1 of a child’s handwritten letter, written in Spanish in a cursive script. Translation: “Hello I am Ender and I am 12 years old, I have been at this center  for 2 months. I arrived here for an immigration appointment and I don’t think they should grab immigrants who are innocent, like instead of grabbing criminals because I mean they prefer to lock up children than look for people who really shouldn’t be in the U.S. They told me I could only be here 21 days but I have already spent more than 60 days waking up eating the same repetitive meals, going outside and that the majority of guards never pay attention to people, eating dinner  always the same as the day before, seeing people cry every day for the same reasons, trying to sleep in that horrible uncomfortable bed, going to the doctor and that the only thing they tell you is to drink more water and the worst thing is that it seems like the water is what makes people sick here…”

Page 2 of a child’s handwritten letter, written in Spanish in a cursive script. Translation: “…going to wait for the bad answers from the judges, hearing the bad news from people who no longer have hope, having to share a room with minimum 3 families, and all that so they send us back to our countries.” Below the text is a drawing in pen of three women, titled “My family” and labeled with “Mama,” “Sister,” and “me” in Spanish.

5/ “I have already spent more than 60 days waking up eating the same repetitive meals…going to the doctor and that the only thing they tell you is to drink more water and the worst thing is that it seems like the water is what makes people sick here…”

From 12-year-old Ender, detained 60+ days

Liam is home now and we are grateful to @joaquincastrotx.bsky.social for traveling to Minneapolis with him and his dad.

Welcome home Liam ❤️❤️

We Found More Than 40 Cases of Immigration Agents Using Banned Chokeholds and Other Moves That Can Cut Off Breathing Civilians have had apparent seizures. One had his eyes roll back. Another had ribs broken. “I felt like I was going to pass out and die,” said a 16-year-old citizen put in a chokehold. The government ...

These people are so evil and horrible, I truly have no words

A video of ICE agents conducting door-to-door searches today in Minneapolis

The homeowner requests a warrant repeatedly, is told they don't require one, then is told they're getting it, then the agents storm in anyway

They also point a taser at her to try and disrupt filming

only 32% of respondents said that nyc is walkable? ok lol

Best TikTok thing going is the two dudes trying food from every country without leaving NYC. If you haven’t seen them yet, it’s incredible. My favorite so far is last week’s. Legit got me emotional.

Distraught woman says ICE killed her wife in video after deadly Minneapolis shooting "They killed my wife," the distraught woman says, adding, "They shot her in the head." An ICE agent shot and killed a 37-year-old woman who was driving an SUV in Minneapolis on Wednesday. / Screenshot/@Breaking911

"They killed my wife. I don't know what to do," the woman says through sobs in the footage, with a damaged SUV visible in the distance behind her. "We stopped to videotape, and they shot her in the head," the woman cries. "We have a six-year-old at school," she says, almost unable to breathe, as a chaotic scene in which federal officers prevented at least one doctor who was on the scene from assisting the shot victim unfolds. "We're new here," the distraught woman says in despair.

You and your wife drop your 6-year-old off at school. You just moved here. You see ICE terrorizing your new neighbors. You film them, as is your legal right. Your wife complies with orders. She is then shot in the head. You still have to pick up your child later today.

This could be you.

THIS THIS THIS. ALL OF THIS

THIS is why faculty resist technological strategies for teaching. There is no engaging with Edtech without this context

Potential Changes in US Homelessness by Ending Federal Support for Housing First Programs This decision analytical model estimates the change in the number of people experiencing homelessness in a year following termination of federal support for Housing First programs.

What would be the real world impacts of the loss of federal funding for Housing First programs? We modeled it: an additional 44,590 ppl beyond anticipated growth due to economic factors. @jabarocas.bsky.social @kirkfetters.bsky.social @ucsfbhhi.bsky.social url: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

NYT headline reads: "The Young People Fixated on Who Gets to Work in America For some Gen Z conservatives, H-1B visas are a hot new topic."

Excerpt reads: "Take Mitchell Boone, a 27-year-old Trump supporter. Five years after leaving a computer science program at the University of Missouri, and what he says are over 1,000 job applications later, Mr. Boone claims he has landed just a single job interview. Today, he says he keeps three part-time jobs in Greenville, S.C., and grows his own food to cut down on expenses. Having abandoned hopes of working in tech, Mr. Boone says he is exploring alternative fields like construction or farming. Mr. Boone, who said he voted for Mr. Trump in the last two presidential elections, spoke of his post-grad years with an air of exasperation. But he’s finally settled on an explanation for his bleak economic straits: the H-1B."

On his LinkedIn, it says he spent one year at University of Missouri-Columbia, studying computer science from Aug 2022 to Sept 2023. He says he dropped out to join the workforce. Skillset includes Windows and attention to detail.

This NYT story failed the reader by not digging deeper. One subject dropped out of college after one year (five years ago) and lists "Windows" as his skillset. Story should be: young conservatives who blame immigrants for their personal failures and whose lives won't be improved w/ fewer immigrants

Me transcribing interviews with developers lol

With the semester finishing, I wanted to give an update about building this intro statistics course for PhD students in sociology. Thanks to everyone who gave advice! I ended up having a blast teaching it, and students seemed to like it.

Here's the syllabus: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

*taps sign*

It's really giving live, laugh, love

Experimental evidence of the effects of large language models versus web search on depth of learning Abstract. The effects of using large language models (LLMs) versus traditional web search on depth of learning are explored. A theory is proposed that when

When people learn with ChatGPT instead of following their own searches, they end up knowing less, caring less, and producing worse advice, even when the facts are the same.

Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow.

academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

LAPD, City Attorney want to shoot more journalists; City Council disagrees - Knock LA "Shooting journalists with rubber bullets while they are covering protests is bad." - Controller Kenneth Mejia

New on Knock: Getting up early to beat the crowds? LAPD and City Attorney Feldstein Soto sought court permission to use force against journalists ahead of the No Kings protests. City Council disagreed, unanimously voting to block the attempt.

knock-la.com/lapd-city-at...

my paper with my colleague and friend Victoria Tran is finally out!