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The Manhattan Project is often invoked as a model for mission-driven research projects, such as the search for a Covid-19 vaccine. Daniel P. Gross and Bhaven N. Sampat argue that the broader U.S. approach to mobilising science and technology in World War II, led by the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), provides a … Continued

AI and algorithmic decision-making tools already influence many aspects of our lives and are likely to become increasingly embedded within businesses and governments. Drawing on recent research and examples from across the social sciences, Frederic Gerdon and Frauke Kreuter outline where and how social science is vital to the ethical use of algorithmic decision-making systems. … Continued

Four aspects of the Supreme Court's ruling in 303 Creative suggest that the ruling will similarly protect online platforms' First Amendment right not to speak in future cases regarding social media.
The post How the Supreme Court's Decision About Same-Sex Wedding Websites May Affect Social Media Regulations, Part II appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.

Is academic writing thinking, or simply the written output at the end of a research project? Morten Hansen argues that as large language models become better at producing academic copy educators should focus on the fundamentally developmental and human aspects of research writing. My students, like many others, have noticed the power of artificial intelligence. Let … Continued

For their supporters, narrative academic CVs present a means to bypass aspects of a research evaluation culture that is overly focused on the volume and venue of publications. Drawing on a sample of work promoting this format, Frédérique Bordignon, Lauranne Chaignon and Daniel Egret, show how these texts more often foreground the problems they are … Continued

This blog is based on an article in the Journal of Social Policy by Gianluca Scarano. Click here to access the article. Of the various aspects of activation policies, marketisation has probably been discussed and investigated most. It is frequently argued in the public debate that contracting out public employment services (PES) to private providers… Continue reading Outcome-based Contracting and Gaming Practices in Marketised Public Employment Services. Dilemmas from the Italian Case →

Research Impact is the ‘raison d’etre’ of the LSE Impact Blog. This review brings together a selection of posts exploring different aspects of impactful research featured on the LSE Impact Blog over the past year. Want to find even more? You can read a selection of posts on research impact and evidence based policy via the links … Continued

The Attorney General of Missouri, Andrew Bailey, is investigating private advocacy group Media Matters over its advocacy campaign against Elon Musk's social media site X, formerly known as Twitter. The most ridiculous aspect? Bailey's claim to be promoting free speech.

With Giudizio Universale, climate litigation has found its way to Italy. This case has many aspects in common with the general transnational phenomenon, both in terms of the structure and content of the legal arguments used. The case highlights the difficulties that courts face in view of the high social expectations connected to this kind of proceedings.

Alina Felder & Merli Tamtik Even though barrier‐free access to student mobility has become a significant policy problem for governments (Cairns, 2019), issues of social justice have been largely absent from institutional strategies of higher education (HE) internationalisation (Buckner et al., 2020a; Özturgut 2017). With our research we contribute to this aspect, offering a comparative […]
The post The Role of Inclusion in Macro‐Regional Policies for Student Mobility appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Alina Felder & Merli Tamtik Even though barrier‐free access to student mobility has become a significant policy problem for governments (Cairns, 2019), issues of social justice have been largely absent from institutional strategies of higher education (HE) internationalisation (Buckner et al., 2020a; Özturgut 2017). With our research we contribute to this aspect, offering a comparative […]
The post The Role of Inclusion in Macro‐Regional Policies for Student Mobility appeared first on Europe of Knowledge.

Despite its small size, with a population of only 3.4 million, and its geographical location, sandwiched between two giants such as Brazil and Argentina, Uruguay frequently features in the international press. These regular appearances are generally to highlight positive aspects regarding its solid institutions, its democratic credentials, its economic stability and predictability, its social protection […]
La entrada Uruguay's high public debt and low credit risk puzzle: 'what you don't see is what you get' se publicó primero en Elcano Royal Institute.

Is the world better off now that Elon Musk owns Twitter? The $44 billion acquisition is the largest leveraged buyout of a technology company in history, and also the first time in well over a decade that the ownership of a global social media platform has changed hands. It also begs the evergreen question that this podcast explores: Is the saga an example of Capital-Is or Isn't?

Bethany and Luigi debate and discuss the many different aspects of the deal: how Musk might be forced to run Twitter as a traditional business even if he initially claimed otherwise, his content moderation experiments to prevent it from becoming a "free-for-all hellscape", the effects of mass layoffs, and much more.

Higher education is at the core of the political challenges confronting the Albanese government, principally of boosting capital accumulation whilst safeguarding aspects of social reproduction. The Albanese government has prioritised skills training and an industry policy focusing on green energy, but this is at the expense of social reproduction including in areas of education.
The Accord is designed to support the production of 'labour power' via skill training and subsidisation of employers for job training but notably recognises that higher education is at the heart of the current social reproduction crises – evident in the shortages in trained employees in areas that are essential to ensure that labour is available for capital. Yet, at the same time, it shifts the cost of this to students - international and domestic- whilst remaining committed to fiscal austerity. The current student debt crisis speaks directly to this contradiction. By 2024 student debt is around $78 billion, ten times the figure of 2005, caused by governmental policies particularly three rounds of student contribution increases and the Coalition government's student loan schemes, plus high inflation that is indexed into yearly HECS/HELP repayments, which has resulted in 3 million students in debt.
The post The University Accord: Plus ça change… appeared first on Progress in Political Economy (PPE).

Erec Smith


There is no such thing as a panacea; few things are actual cure‐​alls in themselves, especially when it pertains to social issues. However, the closest thing to a panacea for contemporary social injustice—both actual and perceived—is the concept of individualism. It is the closest foil to what is, arguably, the most dangerous aspect of critical social justice activism: race fatalism, i.e., the idea that especially minoritized groups have no locus of control and are at the mercy of their hegemonic oppressors.
Unfortunately, too many social justice activists embrace this fatalism and, both implicitly and explicitly, demonize individualism as an inherently oppressive, white supremacist concept.
Race fatalism cannot exist without the idea that all people from a given race experience the world similarly (race essentialism), and that we are forever defined by our home environments (linked fate), concepts that could not be more opposed to individualism. Thus, to embrace individualism is to relinquish faith in the fundamentals of critical social justice.
Fortunately, when individualism destroys these fundamentals steeped in powerlessness, it gives birth to agency and freedom conducive to an empowered and fulfilled life.
The most egregious aspects of critical social justice activism—now wryly and/​or disdainfully referred to as "woke" activism—can be considered footnotes of fatalism: skin‐​color and or gender determine if you are a perpetual oppressor or a perpetual victim; racism will never go away and can only be managed; black kids can't learn math like other kids; all people who look the same or live in the same area are bound to a particular outlook and particular fate. All these suggest the "truth" of race essentialism, that racism is always already present, and that even words, if coming from an oppressor, are literal violence.
The power of this fatalism is weakened by the concept of methodological individualism, what can be understood as an embrace of free will with an acknowledgement that we live an interdependent existence, i.e., "no man is an island."
In recent essays, I describe such individualism as an antidote to race essentialism and linked fate. In "Individualism is a Social Justice Issue," I insist that the embrace of individualism can enhance racial justice through its implied refutation of linked fate and its conduciveness to defensive confidence.
Regarding linked fate, I write, "linked fate denotes the use of the social standing of a group as a proxy for one's individual identity, i.e., an individual's fate is inevitably and intricately linked to that of the group. Any individual that seems to escape this fate is considered an exception." Linked fate depends on the debunked stimulus‐​response theory in behavioral science: the idea that people who share the same race or culture experience the world the same way. Senator Tim Scott's passionate rebuttal of linked fate focuses on the idea that educational reform is the thing that can unlink fate most efficiently and instill a sense of agency in students, a sentiment elaborated upon by Ian Rowe.
Agency, or "agential fate," a concept of individual efficacy I support in "Ditching Our Discourses of Doom" (excerpted here), "can be construed as a confluence of pre‐​established circumstances—one's life experiences—combined with free will." This concept necessitates the belief "that each individual in a particular context may react to stimulus in different ways; that they each may have a different desired future state; and that their decisions and choices matter in relation to achieving those future states, we enter into a place of agency, possibility, and hope."
This agency, possibility, and hope imply the concept of defensive confidence I reference in a recent Discourse article. If people have defensive confidence—the confidence that one can successfully defend one's ideas in given situations—they are more likely to engage the world more courageously as individuals unbeholden to a group and is, ironically, more likely to have one's mind changed precisely because of this willingness to engage.
These concepts suggest the benefits individualism can have to a sense of social justice and, especially, in combatting the fatalism of social justice activism. Individuals can think independently, adapt to circumstances, and, therefore, more effectively exercise agential fate and defensive confidence, thus better ensuring an attempt to communicate across differences.
Sadly, the concept of individualism is almost anathema in critical social justice circles, in which group identity is favored and individualism is considered an oppressive concept. Race essentialism, which implies concepts like linked fate and group consciousness, is a foundational concept in critical social justice that is diametrically opposed to individualism.
Individualism is not only the best thing for curing the ills of social injustice; it is also, by nature, the downfall of critical social justice ideology. For this reason, maybe "panacea's" more colloquial synonym, "magic bullet" would be more apropos.