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The social codes and class identity of tech workers - LSE Review of Books Robert Dorschel's The Social Codes of Tech Workers is a sociological study of class identity among mid-level digital labourers in the age of AI.

NEW: The contradictory social codes and class identity of tech workers.

The Social Codes of Tech Workers by @robertdorschel.bsky.social @cam.ac.uk @mitpress.bsky.social, a sociological study of class among mid-level digital labourers, reviewed by @sakhavi.bsky.social 👇

Welcome to the Second Gilded Age Stanford economist Mordecai Kurz breaks down why we are living through a Second Gilded Age—and how to address it.

The First Gilded Age bred oligarchs. The Second breeds monopolies.

The latest from Mordecai Kurz, author of "Private Power and Democracy's Decline":

A Brief Global History of the War on Cannabis Prohibitionists around the world have long used rhetoric to associate the plant with violence and depravity.

"The history of marijuana farming tells us that when prohibitions are imposed, they almost always come from the ruling class."

Dad brains: How fatherhood rewires the male mind From before their babies are born, men undergo serious hormonal changes that can powerfully influence their behaviour – with consequences for their child's wellbeing.

"What's interesting is that the lower their testosterone, the more involved they become with the mother and infant postnatally," says James Rilling, who in 2024 published 'Father Nature,' a book exploring the science of fatherhood."

A graphic for an article on the MIT Press Reader featuring an assortment of 60s-era sketches above a headline that reads "The 1960s Art School Experiment That Redefined Creativity" and a subheading of "A groundbreaking study revealed taht the most compelling artists seek to find problems, not solve them. Under that, the author's name (Keith Sawyer).

A graphic for an article on the MIT Press Reader featuring a field of crabapple trees above a headline that reads "What the Crabapples Are Telling Us" and a subheading of "In Ohio, a familiar spring ritual is arriving earlier — and with it, quiet signs of a changing climate.". Under that, the author's name (Theresa Crimmins).

We're launching a new series today! "Footnotes" asks authors to reflect on a person, study, or curiosity that shaped their thinking or never quite made it into their work. This week: Keith Sawyer on creativity research & Theresa Crimmins on shifting seasons: thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/footnotes/

McDonald's backlash shows why corporate apologies keep failing From a viral McDonald’s marketing stumble to historic corporate scandals, today’s backlash economy runs on authenticity, accountability, and trust

How can companies rebuild trust after mass atrocity? Thanks to Quartz for highlighting how "Corporate Reckoning" (out this month) can provide guidance.

Memento Morbid Strange, beautiful, and unflinching conversations around death, ritual, and the finite

New podcast alert! Memento Morbid, hosted by Joanna Ebenstein, founder of Morbid Anatomy and editor of "Frederik Ruysch and His Thesaurus Anatomicus," will feature strange, beautiful, and unflinching conversations around death, ritual, and the finite. More info here:

Climate Imagination: Dispatches from Hopeful Futures edited by Joey Eschrich and Ed Finn Climate Imagination is its own eclectic assortment of puzzle pieces.

A return to the hopeful futures mines at SH (including citations of @hararereview.com’s prior writings on this topic for us): Seamus Sullivan on the Climate Imagination collection from @mitpress.bsky.social.

Really worth sitting with this essay, it’s expansive and covers a disparate book very well.

Coverage of the Fossil-Fuel Industry ‘Doesn’t Have to Be This Way’ Michelle Amazeen says oil and gas money is fueling conflicts of interest.

The war in Iran is “our latest reminder of the importance of independent, skeptical coverage of energy policy,” says @commscholar.bsky.social, “and it makes the commercial ties between newsrooms and fossil-fuel advertisers an urgent public concern.”

New book coming next year. Working title, THE GRAYSCALE: True Stories of Hackers, Outlaws and Rogues From the Digital Underground.

Thanks to @wired.com and @mitpress.bsky.social for making this one possible!

My book Infrastructural Brutalism: Art and the Necropolitics of Infrastructure is getting a Korean translation next year! You can still download a free PDF Open Access version of the book here: mitpress.mit.edu/978026253904... #MITPress #infrastructure #book

Why Black People Can’t Earn Our Way Out of Racism in Maternal Care: A Q&A With Khiara Bridges In her new book, Bridges found that healthcare provided through private markets leaves more room for discrimination and unequal care to take root than in a public program like Medicaid.

The result of two years of investigation, "Expecting Inequity" exposes structural inequities within the healthcare system that are inescapable no matter your income or wealth.

Privacy's Defender EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn's Journey Inside the Privacy Battles That Shaped Today's InternetEFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn has devoted her life to the fight for digital rights. She’s

Cindy has three free, public events in New York City next week to discuss her memoir, “Privacy’s Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digital Surveillance” from @mitpress.bsky.social. Check them out! www.eff.org/deeplinks/2....
And buy the book - proceeds benefit EFF! www.eff.org/Privacys-De...

Are we ever truly free to make decisions? New study tracks a universal process in the brain Your brain is constantly gathering evidence for making decisions – even when there’s only one option to pick from.

Your brain is constantly gathering evidence for making decisions – even when there's only one option to pick from. More from the authors of a new study in our journal Imaging Neuroscience:

Pigs Could End the Transplant Waiting List Animal-to-human organ transplants promise a future where survival no longer depends on another person’s death.

“I know, this sounds like science fiction. But as recently as the 1950s, so did human-to-human organ transplantation.”

Excellent piece by transplant surgeon Joshua Mezrich:

Tech billionaires want Christians to believe in AI For Peter Thiel and JD Vance allies, the tech right is framing AI as a moral—even divine—mission.

"In Silicon Valley’s embrace of Christianity, @gregmepstein.bsky.social sees a marriage of convenience: 'They’re trying to imbue wealth with meaning,' he said. 'But they’re also trying to imbue a certain kind of meaning with wealth.'"

Lure of the black hole: from science to art – Physics World An excerpt from art historian and author Lynn Gamwell’s book Conjuring the Void: the Art of Black Holes

"The art – and, by extension, the artists depicted in Conjuring the Void – shows how the human conceit of 'nothingness' links us to black holes." Lovely review and excerpt from Lynn Gamwell's "Conjuring the Void": physicsworld.com/a/lure-of-th...

Thanks @physicsworld.bsky.social!

“Imagine a curiosity that aims less to know and more to make connections, build constellations, find links, and follow threads, functioning within a webbed network of relations between knowers, methods of knowing, and knowledges”

A Southern Waterway Scarred With Secrets Beneath the beauty of the Inner Passage lies a hidden history of enslaved labor.

"It's important to be willing to look at things that make you feel uncomfortable. To look very hard—instead of looking away—at histories that are conflictual and brutal. We should understand that, and rather than being afraid to look at these histories, we should reckon with their complexity."

Curiosity Is No Solo Act It gains its real power when embedded in webs of relationship and shared meaning-making.

"As an antidote to this 'disease' of curiosity, then, Plutarch recommends a suite of ascetic practices, including not opening a letter upon its receipt, not consummating a marriage, and, upon hearing a theatrical performance in the distance, walking in the other direction."

Thank you to @laurenwatsonjourno.bsky.social at @columjournreview.bsky.social for discussing my book #ContentConfusion from @mitpress.bsky.social and how the #FossilFuel industry is corrupting journalism.

Clowns Are Everywhere. Is It a Sign of the Apocalypse? Why has the culturati developed such an appetite for the oft-maligned performance mode? A new anthology from Michelle Tea might have the answer.

"I’ve always loved the clown—for its abjection and patheticness, to be honest."

Great Q&A with Michelle Tea of Dopamine books:

Silvia Danielak provides the first comprehensive account of infrastructure building in United Nations peace operations in “Peace Infrastructures”: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255361...

“Youth Well-Being by Design” presents fresh approaches to tech and youth well-being that go beyond blame and simplistic solutions: mitpress.mit.edu/978026205254...

This edited volume introduces and explores the concept of Bayesian entrepreneurship, a novel framework for how entrepreneurs can use Bayesian reasoning to make decisions: mitpress.mit.edu/978026205215...

In this introduction to embodied cognition and the design of interactive systems, Sile O’Modhrain argues for turning the interaction design process inside out: mitpress.mit.edu/978026205239...

In the newest installment of the October Files, André Rottmann traces the work of the influential contemporary French artist Pierre Huyghe: mitpress.mit.edu/978026205265...

In “Artificial Religion,” Mark Coeckelbergh reveals how AI is shaped by Western religious culture and universal existential aspirations—and why we think we need it in the first place: mitpress.mit.edu/978026205221...

New this week from the MIT Press. Congratulations authors! 📚👇