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Science as Culture

@sciasculture.bsky.social
1.1K followers 449 following 85 posts

Science and Technology Studies journal exploring how (arte)facts, processes, products shape & are shaped by society, since 1987! Website: www.tandfonline.com/journals/csac20

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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 14h
Volume 35, Issue 3 is finally out with the first part of the Forum on Tech Oligarchy! Edited by @keanbirch.bsky.social, the issue includes 14 articles about the emergence and the political, economic, and social implications of techno-financial elites. 🔗https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/csac20/current
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Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Our special issue on #TechOligarchy has just come out in @sciasculture.bsky.social! Our first issue has 13 articles in on lots of different topics by lots of different authors - go check it out! www.tandfonline.com/toc/csac20/3...
tandfonline.com
Science as Culture
Tech Oligarchy Forum - Part 1. Volume 35, Issue 3 of Science as Culture
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Trym Nohr Fjørtoft @trymnf.com · 03/09/2026
Elena (@elenaescalanteb.bsky.social) and I have tried our hands at science and technology studies! In @sciasculture.bsky.social, we find that most media coverage treats antitrust regulation as a depoliticized, technical exercise. We think this fails against the emerging tech oligarchy.
Softening the oligarchy: the normalization of Big Tech power

Drive along the north shore of Long Island in New York, and you will see the spoils of America’s previous Gilded Age. Vast estates of hundreds or thousands of acres, with turreted castles and residences in the style of eighteenth-century English manor houses, the more modest houses containing thirty-two rooms and the roomier estates more than twice as many – a stark contrast to the crowded New York City nearby. In the words of Robert Caro,

The huddled masses of New York City had a (…) powerful enemy. It was wealth – vast, entrenched, impregnable wealth – and the power that went with it. For it was to Long Island that the robber barons of America had retired to enjoy their plunder. (Caro, Citation1975, p. 148)
The so-called robber barons – the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, and their likes – had become rich on oil and railways and steel, in many cases obtaining monopolies in their sectors and gaining enormous political and economic power.
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
📣 New piece - Forum on Tech Oligarchy 📜 In "Epistemic oligarchisation: exploring capture and concentration through science reform," Sven Ulpts, Sheena F. Bartscherer, Bart Penders, and Nicole Nelson examine the impact of Tech Oligarchy on scientific knowledge production 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Epistemic oligarchisation: exploring capture and concentration through science reform
Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
📢 New article! 📜 In "Islands of uncertainty: promises, time, and nuclear test sites," Anton Öhman examines the speeches of French presidents throughout the late 20th century to understand how rhetorics of promise stabilized French nuclear governance in French Polynesia 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Islands of uncertainty: promises, time, and nuclear test sites
Between 1966 and 1996, French nuclear testing in French Polynesia was justified through a recurring promise/threat nexus that linked strategic necessity to development while producing enduring soci...
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
📢 Another addition to our Forum on Tech Oligarchy! 📜 In "Rite to mine: Bitcoin, ritual, and oligarchy," Owen Marshall examines crypto-mining as a foundational ritual practice of tech oligarchy. 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Rite to mine: Bitcoin, ritual, and oligarchy
Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Issue number 2 in 2026 is out (vol 35. n. 2)! The issue discusses several topics such as curatorial practice, scientization, and planetary imaginaries. It also includes book and media reviews that connect STS issues with board games, art exhibits, and journalism www.tandfonline.com/toc/csac20/c...
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
📢 In the latest contribution to the Forum on Tech Oligarchy, "Tech Oligarchy is not Tech," @sakhavi.bsky.social reflects on tech oligarchy's rejection of the immanent politics of tech practice. 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Tech oligarchy is not tech
Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)
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Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Just out! My introduction to a new special issue in @sciasculture.bsky.social on "Tech Oligarchy" - go check it out and the papers in the special issue (under "Latest" articles) #techoligarchy #assetization #techbro #bigtech www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Tech oligarchy
Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
📢 +1 for our Forum on Tech Oligarchy 📜 In "Infrastructuring tech-oligarchic futures: sociotechnical imaginaries and frontier environments in the San Francisco Bay Area," Canan Urhan examines how elite technological imaginaries become ordinary through curated environments. 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
📢 Another interesting addition to the Forum on Tech Oligarchy! 📜 The article "Brazil’s supreme court on content moderation: national sovereignty versus tech oligarchy," by @jamesfitz2.bsky.social, Carlos Eduardo Barros, Debora S., and Rose Marie Santini is now available! 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Brazil’s supreme court on content moderation: national sovereignty versus tech oligarchy
Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
📢 New open-access article just out! 📜 "Ecologies of time: interdisciplinarity and temporal misalignments in data-mediated environmental research collaboration," by Virginia Vargolskaia and @ulrike-felt.bsky.social #interdisciplinarity #knowledgeproduction #STS 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Ecologies of time: interdisciplinarity and temporal misalignments in data-mediated environmental research collaboration
Temporal misalignments pose significant challenges to interdisciplinary collaborations between ecologists and data scientists in environmental research projects. Even though data infrastructures ar...
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
📢 New addition to the Forum on Tech Oligarchy! 📜 "How the tech oligarchy colonizes our futures," by Jennifer Chubb and @drfuturity.bsky.social, shows how tech oligarchy conjures opposing visions of desirable and undesirable futures in their technoentrepreneurial projects. 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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How the tech oligarchy colonizes our futures
Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Twenty years ago, Science as Culture published the article "Living cities: Towards a politics of conviviality," by Steve Hinchcliffe and Sarah Whatmore. The article defended "living cities" as a paradigm for urban ecology policies. Now, the article is available free access! doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Living cities: Towards a politics of conviviality
Published in Science as Culture (Vol. 15, No. 2, 2006)
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
📢 New article just out! 📜 In "Leaving Earth behind: the semiotics of the failing planet in NewSpace online corporate imagery," Katherine Harrison shows how NewSpace capitalises on the profitable combination of private spaceflight and terrestrial precarity. 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Leaving Earth behind: the semiotics of the failing planet in NewSpace online corporate imagery
Computer-generated imagery (CGI) of Earth published online by the private space industry, or ‘NewSpace,’ produces understandings of a failing planet to justify the commercialisation of space and te...
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
📢 Forum on Tech Oligarchy welcomes a new piece! 📜 "Tech-oligarchic visions of automated science: lessons from Franz Neumann’s Behemoth," by Frank Söderberg. 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
📣New article! 📄"Harmonising automation: Challenge-driven robotics and the making of Europe," by Carlos Cuevas-Garcia, Benjamin Lipp, Federica Pepponia, and Mathieu Baudrin 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Harmonising automation: challenge-driven robotics and the making of Europe
Robotics and artificial intelligence are regularly framed as potential solutions to grand societal challenges such as climate change, staff shortages and demographic aging. The European Union has d...
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
📸 In our latest Media Review "Curating across epistemologies: art, science, and technology studies in practice," Hannah Roger Stars uses an STS lens to analyse the photography exhibition Picturing the Invisible, by Makoto Takahashi. 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
📣 New article! 📄 "Research participants as ‘pioneers’? Exploring how neurotechnology research is adapting the rhetoric of scientific risk-taking, exploration and trailblazing," by Andrew Ivan Brown, Sara Goering, and Eran Klein 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
📣New article! 📄Our latest Forum on Tech Oligarchy article examines the mechanisms through which tech oligarchy takes shape in the field of urban mobility in China. "Tech oligarchy and urban mobility in China: the case of DiDi," by @taoyue.bsky.social 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Tech oligarchy and urban mobility in China: the case of DiDi
Taking DiDi Chuxing as its case, this Forum Article examines the mechanisms through which tech oligarchy takes shape in the field of urban mobility in China. Through a digital analysis of DiDi’s pl...
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
📢New Forum article! 📜 In "Small Modular Reactors: scaling down to better scale-up?", Mathias Sabbe and Céline Parotte examine the extent to which international Small Module Reactor (SMR) proponents’ promissory discourse aligns with those involved in SMR in Europe 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Small Modular Reactors: scaling down to better scale-up?
Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
📢 NEW ARTICLE! Forum on Tech Oligarchy 📜 "The Student becomes the teacher: what the early American automotive industry taught the tech oligarchy, and what the modern industry has learned," by @mcforelle.bsky.social 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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The Student becomes the teacher: what the early American automotive industry taught the tech oligarchy, and what the modern industry has learned
Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
📢 NEW ARTICLE JUST OUT! "Governing by dismantling: tech oligarchy and the stifling of public data infrastructure," by @louravn.bsky.social, Bokar N'Diaye, Katie Mackinnon, Nanna Bonde Thylstrup, and @dmuravyov.bsky.social is another addition to our Forum on Tech Oligarchy 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Governing by dismantling: tech oligarchy and the stifling of public data infrastructure
Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
📜 New article! In "The specificity ratchet: agribusiness techniques for contesting state knowledge about antibiotics," @lansing.bsky.social shows how industry groups in the US instrumentalize knowledge production to gain favorable public opinion and regulatory advantage 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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The specificity ratchet: agribusiness techniques for contesting state knowledge about antibiotics
Powerful business groups are known to deny, block, and obfuscate public knowledge about their industries. Public comments by agricultural interest groups concerning the United States Food and Drug ...
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Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society @tapuya.org · 15/05/2026
📣Now open: Call for the next Editor-in-Chief of @tapuya.org We're looking for a leader (or editorial collective) to shape the future of one of the most distinctive open-access journals in Latin American STS.📓 🔥Read the call: tapuya.org/2026/05/15/call-for-nominations-2026-tapuyas-editor-in-chief/
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
📖 NEW BOOK REVIEW In the review article "(Un)making kinship and care through conservation technoscience," Katie Kung opens up conversations on enmity and care that resonate across environmental STS by analysing kin/non-kinship dichotomies across conservation practices. 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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(Un)making kinship and care through conservation technoscience
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
New addition to the Forum on Tech Oligarchy (ed. @keanbirch.bsky.social) "The rise of the tech oligarchy and its military entanglements: a platform approach," by Marijn Hoijtink, @jaspervdkist.bsky.social, and Laszlo Steinwärder #platform #techoligarchy #militaryindustry 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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The rise of the tech oligarchy and its military entanglements: a platform approach
Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
New Forum on Tech Oligarchy piece! In "Dictators of the future: the tech oligarchy in outer space", @renny-hahamovitch.bsky.social, @rekapatriciagal.bsky.social, Eleanor Armstrong, and @historyasif.bsky.social unpack tech oligarchy's obsession with outer space visions doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Dictators of the future: the tech oligarchy in outer space
Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)
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Ali Rıza Taşkale @alirizataskale.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Today, Palantir posted their manifesto to millions. I published an analysis of exactly this text in @sciasculture.bsky.social, arguing it functions not as political theory but as a corporate manifesto for the nationalist-militarist faction of the tech oligarchy. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
📜 In our latest open-access article, part of the Forum on Tech Oligarchy, @richardsonma.bsky.social and @arungapatchka.bsky.social dive deep into the coercive capacity of tech oligarchy 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Mil-tech oligarchy and the security state
Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
New book review out! "The Teumessian fox of Responsible AI", by @tessdoez.bsky.social. The review discusses the book "Empire of AI" (Karen Hao) doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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The Teumessian fox of responsible AI
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Jose A. Cañada @joseacanada.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
We're hiring! Looking for a #postdoc (3 years) and #PhD (4 years) in #STS and aquatic restoration! Hired researchers will join University of @oulu.fi, the amazing SAFIRE multidisciplinary research programme, and a growing team of researchers interested in water and environment. Deadline 03.05.26.
oulunyliopisto.varbi.com
Postdoctoral Researcher and Doctoral Researcher, Science and Technology Studies (STS) and aquatic restoration in the Nordic and Arctic regions
We are looking to hire highly motivated Postdoctoral Researcher and Doctoral Researcher to join the Department of Anthropology, in the History, Culture and Communications Unit at the Faculty of Humani
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keep your electric eye on me @ubisurv.net · 27/03/2026
I have another new piece just out, considering the intersection of #surveillance and #ScienceFiction, this time in the context of the the ideologies of tech oligarchs, in Science as Culture, edited by @keanbirch.bsky.social and Les Levidow... www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
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Total surveillance as a civilizational stage? Science-fiction, religion and the tech oligarchy
Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
📜 New open access article! In this piece, Henni Alava and @mw-m.bsky.social analyze the scientization of sisu, a complex, loosely defined concept historically associated with Finland, as an example of overscientization and apolitical oversimplification. 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Paradoxical scientization: sisu, Finnish exceptionalism, and the limits of universal human experience
Scientization tends to be understood as a process whereby a form of knowledge is rendered scientifically legitimate. In this way, scientists work with other experts and lay theories to move claims ...
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
📄 The Forum on Tech Oligarchy receives another addition! In this piece, Shuo (Shawn) Yang examines how tech oligarchy produces innovation without representation by looking at their capacity to consolidate epistemic, infrastructural, and symbolic power. doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Innovation without representation: epistemic, infrastructural and symbolic power in frontier AI governance
Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
📄 New Forum on Tech Oligarchy piece! (Open access) @susigeiger.bsky.social examines one ideological space that has recently received a great deal of emphasis from tech oligarchs as well as from conservative religious quarters: pronatalism. 🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
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Tech oligarchs’ obsession with pronatalism and fertility markets
Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
New open-access article! In this piece, Shiwei Chen and Stefan de Jong dive into the invisible infrastructures that shape interdisciplinary work. They look at the friction between disciplinary infrastructures and the growing need for interdisciplinary research 🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
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The sand in the gears of large-scale interdisciplinary research: uncovering bottom-up rearrangements of university infrastructure
Large-scale interdisciplinary programmes aim to tackle today’s grand societal challenges. The hope is that by pooling large amounts of funding and assembling massively interdisciplinary teams, solu...
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Yoehan Oh @yoehanee.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
New pub alert! My article is out in Science as Culture sciasculture.bsky.social! 'Tech oligarchy meets developmental state: translating developmentalist and regulatory imaginaries to platform capitalism in South Korea' Read it here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
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Tech oligarchy meets developmental state: translating developmentalist and regulatory imaginaries to platform capitalism in South Korea
Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
New article (Forum on Tech Oligarchy) Dmitrii Zhikharevich and Vassily Pigounides present tech oligarchy as a regime of performative maintenance and institutional consolidation of an exceptional status: the ability to stay above regular regimes of accountability www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
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Charisma without routinization, or how tech entrepreneurs turn into tech oligarchs
Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
An incredible contribution by @loicriom.bsky.social and @taschn.bsky.social to our Forum on Tech Oligarchy. 🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
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Thinking tech oligarchy through venture capitalization
Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
🎲 What does it feel like to act as a scientist in modern board games? 🎴 In our latest media review, Stefan Sulzenbacher, Stephan Voss, and Michael Penkler review the games "The Search for Planet X", "Alchemists", and "Weather Machine." www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
NEW ARTICLE 📄👀 In our latest article, Larissa Kaiser investigates how scientists sustain epistemic credibility under conditions of visual and conceptual ambiguity 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Modes of visual framing in neuropsychological deception detection research
In the German context, where legal skepticism toward polygraph-testing intersects with emerging concerns about AI-based deception detection, neuroscientists position their work through methodologic...
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Is tech oligarchy a proper term to describe the conditions of current-day political economies? In our latest forum contribution, @ulyssespascal.bsky.social, Cheng Fang, and David Bassens see merit in deploying the concept, but also consider its empirical limits. 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Decentering tech oligarchy
Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
📜 In our latest book review essay, @keanbirch.bsky.social evaluates the relevance of STS approaches to the study of venture capitalism, including its financing logics, structures, and practices. 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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Technoscience and the logics of (venture) capital
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AusSTS @aussts.bsky.social · 08/02/2026
The CFP for #AusSTS2026 is now live! This year’s theme is ‘Antipodean Interruptions’. We invite submissions for presentations, written workshop papers, meet-ups, and Making and Doing sessions. Deadline is Friday 3 April (11:59pm NZST). Full details on our ✨NEW WEBSITE✨ aussts.org/aussts2026
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Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
DEADLINE EXTENSION! Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) has extended the deadline for conference Open Panel submissions until 9th February 2026. The conference is being held in Toronto, 7-10th Oct 2026. Conference Theme: TechnoPower • Technoscientific Futures 4sonline.org/call_for_ope...
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LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
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Linda Huber @puellaludens.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
New commentary by @cellllla.bsky.social, @perhaxis.bsky.social and myself: "The tech worker movement and the rise of the tech oligarchy". www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
The tech worker movement and the rise of the tech oligarchy
Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
📜 New article! 👉 As part of our 'Forum on Tech Oligarchy," @Jonathan Roberge, Nicolas C., and Victor Galaretta analyse the crystallisation of tech oligarchy during the tumultuous months following the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the US 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950...
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DOGE Blitzkrieg: on Musk's artificial intelligence statecraft
Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
📕 📽️ 🎧 Science as Culture is accepting book and media reviews. Check our updated list with potential books, fictional pieces, movies, and podcasts to review. We are also open to suggestions for new material. More info: 👇 🔗 tinyurl.com/sacrev
docs.google.com
SaC Book and Media Reviews
Reviews Science as Culture https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/csac20/current Updated Sept 2023 Book and Media Reviews For more information or to make a submission, contact the Reviews Editors Mascha Gug...
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Science as Culture @sciasculture.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
A blast from the past! We are (re)releasing an old gem free access: the article "Arts, Sciences and Climate Change: Practices and Politics at the Threshold," originally published in 2011, by Jennifer Gabrys and Kathryn Yusoff 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0950... #stsbluesky #climatechange
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Arts, Sciences and Climate Change: Practices and Politics at the Threshold
Within climate change debates, writers and scholars have called for expanded methods for producing science, for proposing strategies for mitigation and adaptation, and for engaging with publics. Ar...
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