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Christopher R. Matthews

@drcrmatthews.bsky.social
4.4K followers 3.5K following 444 posts

▪︎ Reading, writing & thinking about the moral foundation of scholarship ▪︎ Author of Doing Good Social Science: bit.ly/3EgFA2z ▪︎ More about my work: immersiveresearch.co.uk ▪︎ DM for speaking/workshop requests

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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
A new one from me. This time a short 'letter to the editor' about wanting to be able to write like a human. Open access and written with love... journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com
I’d Like to Be a Machine Human - Christopher R. Matthews, 2026
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
A summer reading treat.
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 05/09/2025
I got in trouble at work for speaking too frankly about senior colleagues poor performance. This paper came from my reflections as to the foundations of my thoughts about vacuous 'leadership': www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Towards a ‘single-minded’ social science that matters - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
Social science is not as it should be – I think we have lost contact with what matters. Many scholars have made similar laments and directed their attention at disciplines in an attempt to mark out a ...
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
In my experience moral leadership in contemporary academia is largely absence or symbolic. And the senior scholars that do provide it often have to sit outside of formal power structures. It seems easier to clamber the greasy academic pole if you're a malliable coward rather than a principled leader
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Kuhnian 'normal science' or as Andrew Abbott would have it 'relentlessly unimaginative normal science'.
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Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Here’s my take on why we need to burn down sports psychology.
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
"Social science methods are not as they should be." In this paper I expand my critique of the 'epistemological fictions' that offen sit at the core of thinking & writing in disciplines such as psychology, criminology, sociology and interpretative science more broadly. Please do share 🙏
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Are there any podcasts that focus on methodology and/or qual research?
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Write like the scholar you want to become
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Colleagues who run journals or know editors, I'd like to propose a symposium/debate paper to challenge the use of 'messy' as an appropriate description for scholarship. Please to tag people below or share if you know anyone that might be interested. #socialscience #sociology #qualitative #research
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
New one. The focus here is on how the families of former pro footballers are left to pick up the finance and emotional tab from heading the ball for years. Open access: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 21/03/2026
This paper might be of interest to people working in women's health and/or sport, especially in considering the 'ontological pervasiveness' of women's bodies, also check the acknowledgements for a rant: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... #sociology #health #qualitative #socialscience
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Research, like most things, rarely goes as planned. That doesnt mean its messy. In fact, if your research is 'a mess,' i think youre either being descriptively lazy or admiting to doing poor science. There are much better terms than messy. More here 👇
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
Research, like most things, rarely goes as planned. That doesnt mean its messy. In fact, if your research is 'a mess,' i think youre either being descriptively lazy or admiting to doing poor science. There are much better terms than messy. More here 👇
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Ive learned more from regular visits to @oxfamgb.bsky.social in Beeston than anywhere else. I love the unknown twists my reading and career have taken following some of the ideas ive discovered there.
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
I've spent the last 30mins trying to write a sentence about how hard it can be to write a good sentence.
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
The Green Wave is coming but so is WW3. The Lord giveth and take away.
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Got a phd student who needs easing into philosophy of science? We wrote this chapter with them in mind. More info here: www.routledge.com/Qualitative-...
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
Someone should design a course called 'Sociological discoveries that changed the world' and record short, shape lectures for YouTube. That could be a great success for the writer and a lovely resource for the discipline. @rwjdingwall.bsky.social know anyone?
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
This post is gonna age like fine wine. Unfortunately in that time a needless amount of brains and lives will be damaged
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 13/12/2025
Down with Dons - John Carey. Recommended reading for anyone in academia, esp those 'overgrown schoolboy professors' that are so desperate to be respected for their honorifics.
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Ive been away teaching medics abouts doing research. Its been a great few days. My main take away is the false separation they see between their practice and their research projects. Hopefully we've corrected that somewhat, it seems we've inspired some different ways forward.
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Anyone else feel like an 'odd one out in academia'?
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Anyone else feel like an 'odd one out in academia'?
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Jan Fuhse @fuhsejan.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Steve Borgatti and I invite contributions to a special issue on "Social Network Theory" at the journal Social Networks. Send us a wide range of approaches and manuscripts, anything really, on the theoretical interpretation, systematization, integration, and reflection of empirical network research!
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
There are sports where kids get quite routine brain trauma. Obviously that is immoral. Counter arguments never hold children's health, well being and human rights in high enough regard. More here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Children’s rights, human development and play – rejecting performance-orientated youth sport
This commentary is distinctly personal for us. We think it should be likewise for all scholars, leaders and organisers involved in youth sport. This is because, to our minds, at the core of most pe...
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Nothing to do with the new year, but I resolve to have a footnote that is a page long at some point in my career. Obviously I'll credit Stewart Lee for leading the way.
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
Formal teaching qualifications should focus on the science of pedagogy. But not to the detriment of the social theory, politics, theology, humanities and art of pedagogy. Accepting these statements requires a radical shift in how PGCHEs & university pedagogy is structured and managed.
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
Embedded in these four books (in combo with a background of decent social theory) is a powerful reworking of academia and society more broadly. How will we get people to engage with such ideas when they are so quick to farm out their deliberations to unthinking artificial 'intelligence'?
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
If you're like me & like reading non-fiction on holiday, I couldn't recommend this more highly. Powerful, cogent, clear. Halpin is well read & his arguments are well reasoned. He writes with care & confidence. Very insightful & quite inspirational at time #education #pedagogy #sociology #theory
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
Do you see the problem of performance sport? @jackhardwicke.bsky.social and i certainly do. So we put this special issue together. Do get in touch if you have an idea. Cheers, CRM think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issu...
think.taylorandfrancis.com
The Problem of Performance Dominating Sport, Education and Society
Calling critical scholars of sport, physical education and health, submit to a special issue challenging 'The Problem of Performance Sport'.
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
There is very little reason for developing scholars to memorise information. If your pedagogy is built around such a thing, and assessing retention, I think its misguided. Helping people think > learning facts.
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 16/12/2025
Editorial doublespeak - when a journal claims to support rigorous methods but inforce restrictive word count limits on methodological discussions.
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
Formal teaching qualifications should focus on the science of pedagogy. But not to the detriment of the social theory, politics, theology, humanities and art of pedagogy. Accepting these statements requires a radical shift in how PGCHEs & university pedagogy is structured and managed.
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
This one is for the educators who have realised the world is going to hell in a handbasket... there is still hope. In fact, hope is foundational to all that is good in education, not as some passive psychology state but as an epistemological and sociological nessesity to critical assess and act.
Hope and Education by David halpin
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
'Social science is not as it should be - I think we have lost contact with what matters'
nature.com
Towards a ‘single-minded’ social science that matters - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
Social science is not as it should be – I think we have lost contact with what matters. Many scholars have made similar laments and directed their attention at disciplines in an attempt to mark out a ...
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M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
New preprint: Empathy, Thick and Thin papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... It is perhaps foolhardy to attempt to say something new about a topic as widely studied as empathy. I tried anyway! 1/

Abstract

When we empathize with someone going through something, we often draw on our past experiences with the someone and the something. These kinds of experiences ground "thick empathy", a form of empathy that has been largely overlooked in the psychology and neuroscience literature. Consider how a mother, empathizing with her daughter about to give birth, can draw on her own experience of childbirth, and her relationship with her daughter, to deeply grasp what her daughter is going through in a way that others who lack those experiences cannot. I argue that thick empathy deserves more empirical attention because it is associated with well-being and helps us build networks of effective mutual social support. My analysis highlights novel risks and dilemmas posed by "empathy machines" that promise to enhance or even replace human empathy and are becoming increasingly popular as a potential solution to widespread loneliness. Even when empathy machines provide value to individuals, their widespread adoption risks imposing collective emotional and epistemic costs that ultimately make it harder for us to empathize well.

Keywords: empathy, understanding, experience, thick description, ethnography, phenomenal knowledge, interpersonal knowledge, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, chatbots
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 13/12/2025
One should have good vocabulary but also swear too much
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 13/12/2025
Down with Dons - John Carey. Recommended reading for anyone in academia, esp those 'overgrown schoolboy professors' that are so desperate to be respected for their honorifics.
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 06/12/2025
Love a good beer fueled creative edit of a paper
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Another day, another American war crime.
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
All scholarship is inherently reductive. I'm beginning to think the majority might be overly so.
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
I spent a decade as an academic not understanding truth and i didnt even know. Do you think most academics spend much time deeply considering the nature of truth?
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Kyle Green @kylethegreen.bsky.social · 25/11/2025
can't claim hero status but I am proud and happy to provide a space for nerds like @drcrmatthews.bsky.social!
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Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
One of the giants of social psychology was a serial sexual harasser. This new report reveals how Miles Hewstone touched, bullied, and sexual harassed numerous women during his 18 years at the University of Oxford. It's amazing how often bullying and sexual harassment go together in academia.
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
I'm convinced that much of academia has lost contact with what really matters. Why would this be the case? An overly confident faith in a reductively understood notion of science born of the enlightenment, I think. So, we need a reenchanting & I'm working to make that happen. Anyone fancy joinin me?
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
@kylethegreen.bsky.social is a hero for providing nerds like me 🤓 a space to get into ideas. Here we discuss loads of stuff but specifically a 'soulful approach to the sacred act of scholarship' - thesocietypages.org/theory/2025/...
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Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
Very gratified to learn that we were nominated for UNC Press' inaugural Readers' Choice Award. We'd appreciate it if you would consider voting for *The End of College Football*! uncpress.org/readers-choi...
Vote for The End of College Football in the UNC Press Readers' Choice Award
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Christopher R. Matthews @drcrmatthews.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Causally putting 90s pop music themed puns into scholarship is peak academia, and I am very proud of myself for doing so.
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