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Sylvia Darling

@sylviadarli.ng

PhD researcher seating theories of information science, migration, and aspirations at her weird little dining table. If not wrangling a toddler, then writing in her cave. sylviadarli.ng

Posts Replies Media

Sylvia Darling @sylviadarli.ng · 04/02/2025

I'm so glad @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social is moving her essays—or are they anthropological sermons? cross-cutting signposts of hope? or indeed "meditations" as she calls them—to a new newsletter. This will be good for the soul and great for social media hygiene. meditations-in-an-emergency.ghost.io

meditations-in-an-emergency.ghost.io

Meditations in an Emergency

Essays and analyses by Rebecca Solnit

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Sylvia Darling @sylviadarli.ng · 03/02/2025

Writing an ethnography is a time-intensive practice in shedding your biases about whatever phenomenon you're observing. Holy crap, y'all. Easier said than done.

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Sylvia Darling @sylviadarli.ng · 01/02/2025

This is what should swell our feeds: evidence of the "resistance" ethic. And it's everywhere—California, Detroit, and maybe even your home.

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Sylvia Darling @sylviadarli.ng · 01/02/2025

This quaint, unassuming tile was made by one Bruce Weiner of Pennsylvania, who appears to sell only Ben Franklin-themed art. Niche market, niche buyer. Just look at it. It brings me interminable joy. ❤️

A quaint little tile proudly standing on a desk lamp reads a quote from one of the greats: "Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sun-dial in the shade! BEN FRANKLIN 1750"

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Sylvia Darling @sylviadarli.ng · 31/01/2025

There's nothing like being assigned to a dissertation writing group where one of your peers is an upper atmospheric and space sciences scholar to make you feel you're out of their league. It's humbling, I recommend it! 😂

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Reposted by Sylvia Darling

Naomi Klein @naomiaklein.bsky.social · 28/01/2025

I appreciate all the people recommending the Shock Doctrine. I've been thinking about what makes Trump's use of these tactics a little different. In recent decades, shock tactics were used mainly to rapidly impose neoliberal economic policies. But what Trump is doing goes way beyond that. a 🧵

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Sylvia Darling @sylviadarli.ng · 26/01/2025

On the other hand, I'm thrilled to learn that having high levels of trust can mean being better able to navigate the unknown. For my sake and for research purposes. I'd never thought of this in such terms but it makes sense! Such a great interview: pod.link/1554567118/e...

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Sylvia Darling @sylviadarli.ng · 26/01/2025

I've been thinking a lot about the premium we as a society place on transparency, how it suggests how distrustful we are when we ask for it of institutions, and how it doesn't really fix that problem because it can't guarantee that we'll understand what's behind the veil.

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Reposted by Sylvia Darling

Anja Neundorf @anjaneundorf.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

1/ Autocrats combine tools to stay in power, but most research looks at them in isolation. We map 6 strategies—repression of rights & physical integrity, co-optation through institutions & resource distribution, and indoctrination via education & media—for a full picture.

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Sylvia Darling @sylviadarli.ng · 23/01/2025

Bear with me: In my dissertation, I want to introduce a conceptual framework that describes how some folks — living in very crappy, unfair conditions — leverage information to thrive. By information, I mean institutional knowledge & gossip, eavesdropping, transient observations... the good stuff.

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Sylvia Darling @sylviadarli.ng · 23/01/2025

These are precarious times — sad and maddening, too — but they also call toward a watershed of renewed hope, the type that Vaclav Havel sees as an "orientation of the spirit." And, I really try to hold onto that.

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Sylvia Darling @sylviadarli.ng · 23/01/2025

I like the "yes, and" kind of mindset. Precarity is a word that's been choked to death in my academic tower — so vague, so unwilling to clarify whether it's a good or bad thing, although many edge toward the latter — but today, I'm OK with it.

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Sylvia Darling @sylviadarli.ng · 23/01/2025

A few years ago, I published research on undocumented immigrants' tech practices, finding their digital behaviors mirrored kinda everybody else's at the time: unaware of how companies can pass their data to law enforcement.

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