Bryan Boyle

Bryan Boyle

@bryanboyle.bsky.social

Sociologist. Postdoctoral Researcher @mpifg.bsky.social. Incoming Lecturer @uomsociology.bsky.social. Labour, culture & elites.

1.9K followers770 following71 posts

Bryan Boyle reposted

The Guardian
@theguardian.com

Landowners could scupper free Land Registry access plans, campaigners warn

theguardian.comLandowners could scupper free Land Registry access plans, campaigners warnProposed lifting of paywall would reveal who owns vast majority of land in England and Wales Plans by the government to give the public free access for the first time to information on who owns England’s land are at risk of being scuppered by landowners, campaigners have said. On Tuesday the government set out its proposals to lift the paywall on the Land Registry, arguing that opening it would help the UK build more houses, protect nature and improve strategic planning. The plans will be open to public consultation for eight weeks. Continue reading...
Bryan Boyle
@bryanboyle.bsky.social

Emphasis on *two years* ... the other movements showing their strength in Europe right now should also be in it for the long-run!

The Associated Press@apnews.com

The long-serving strongman leader of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, has conceded defeat in an election that pitted him and his right-wing party against a diverse student-led opposition movement that spent two years protesting his government.

bit.lySerbia’s strongman leader Vucic concedes defeat to student-led movement in seismic political shiftThe long-serving strongman leader of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, has conceded defeat in an election that pitted him and his right-wing party against a diverse student-led opposition movement that spent two years protesting his government.

Bryan Boyle reposted

Anthropology of Work Review
@anthropologyofwork.bsky.social

Still time to apply! Deadline 15 October

Anthropology of Work Review@anthropologyofwork.bsky.social

2026 @saw-anthroofwork.bsky.social Eric R. Wolf Prize: Call for Submissions. The recipient receives $250 cash award & an invitation to develop the essay further for possible publication in @anthropologyofwork.bsky.social anthrowork.org/announcement... Deadline 15 October

anthrowork.org2026 Eric R. Wolf Prize: Call for Submissions - Society for the Anthropology of WorkGraduate students, the Society for the Anthropology of Work (SAW) invites you to submit your scholarly work to be considered for the Eric R. Wolf Prize.

Bryan Boyle reposted

Sociology Department Uppsala University
@uusociologydep.bsky.social

Congratulations to our colleague Andreas Melldahl, who has been awarded funding from the Swedish Research Council for the project “Arvtagarna. Reproduktionsarbete i ekonomiska och kulturella eliter” (The Heirs: Reproductive Work in Economic and Cultural Elites). www.uu.se/forskning/fo...

uu.seArvtagarna. Reproduktionsarbete i ekonomiska och kulturella eliter - Uppsala universitetArvtagarna. Reproduktionsarbete i ekonomiska och kulturella eliter

Bryan Boyle reposted

Philipp Golka
@pgolka.bsky.social

Sign up until tomorrow!

Philipp Golka@pgolka.bsky.social

How does assetization and assetmanagement inform social conflict? Join us for an online launch event for our NPE special issue "Asset Struggles" on Sept 17th 2PM (German time), featuring: @melindacooper.bsky.social, @jenmcarthur.bsky.social, @benbraun.eurosky.social ⬇️ Signup in post below ⬇️

Bryan Boyle reposted

Sol Gamsu
@solgamsu.bsky.social

Given the role of the Crown in transatlantic slavery is in the news, resharing our paper on elite schools & their financial ties to enslavement. Charles II's funded maths education at Christ's Hospital deliberately to expand navigation & colonial economic power. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

tandfonline.comElite schools and slavery in the UK – capital, violence and extractivismElite schools in the UK are bound to the history of British colonialism. This paper examines the material ties between these schools and the transatlantic slave trade. We combine multiple sources t...
Bryan Boyle
@bryanboyle.bsky.social

👇👇👇👇👇👇

Joshua Goodman@joshua-goodman.com

🚨New working paper alert!🚨 Private tutoring chains like Kumon and Sylvan have grown rapidly. Who uses them? Do they improve kids' skills? BU econ PhD student Samuel Nitkin and I provide answers in: "Kumon Up: Private Tutoring Centers and Student Achievement" www.nber.org/papers/w35671 1/?

Bryan Boyle
@bryanboyle.bsky.social

#NatalieHarp responds to Trump’s arbitrary whims, with little limit, and reorients her life to serving him. In a recent paper about contemporary butlers, I explore how this is a powerful tendency among those who work in private service to the wealthy. 1/4 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

onlinelibrary.wiley.comTwenty‐First Century Butlers and the New Spirit of ServiceMore than 50 years ago, Lewis Coser argued that the “servant” had become obsolete, claiming that such a “premodern” occupation could not function within modernity without religious legitimations. How...
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Bryan Boyle
@bryanboyle.bsky.social

We cringe at Natalie’s behaviour because it’s what we might call “servant-like”, something that the German-American sociologist Lewis Coser wrote about in the 70s. But much of this thing seems to be returning, and is likely linked to rising wealth inequalities. 3/4 academic.oup.com/sf/article/5...

academic.oup.comServants: The Obsolescence of an Occupational RoleAbstract. The servant role, it is argued, is obsolete in modern society. Even when formally based on contract, it is in essence rooted in ascribed status,
Bryan Boyle
@bryanboyle.bsky.social

We might be shocked that this still happens today in the homes of the rich. We are even more shocked to see it in government. But it fits the pattern of what Hopstein and Kopstein describe as the tendency to treat the state itself as a “family business”. 4/4 www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edi...

taylorfrancis.comPopulism or Patrimonialism? | 5 | A Weberian Approach to 21st-CenturyThe recent outpouring of scholarship on the phenomenon of populism constitutes an intellectually rich and substantively important research tradition. But there
Bryan Boyle
@bryanboyle.bsky.social

#NatalieHarp responds to Trump’s arbitrary whims, with little limit, and reorients her life to serving him. In a recent paper about contemporary butlers, I explore how this is a powerful tendency among those who work in private service to the wealthy. 1/4 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

onlinelibrary.wiley.comTwenty‐First Century Butlers and the New Spirit of ServiceMore than 50 years ago, Lewis Coser argued that the “servant” had become obsolete, claiming that such a “premodern” occupation could not function within modernity without religious legitimations. How...
Bryan Boyle
@bryanboyle.bsky.social

To be clear, butlers would never write their employers love letters. But in many other things – from being a “human printer” to always sleeping close by – they share a lot with Natalie. 2/4

Bryan Boyle reposted

Don Moynihan
@donmoyn.bsky.social

Replying to @donmoyn.bsky.social

Is this just business as usual in politics? No. Approval rates of federal disaster aid requests were about the same regardless of the state and did not vary much with the party of the President. This graph powerfully conveys the scale of the partisan discrimination now.

Bryan Boyle reposted

Hanna Kuusela
@hannakuu.bsky.social

My book, Streaming privilege. How television teaches us to accept inequality, is now out! Mixing elite sociology and cultural studies, I aim at unpacking our desire for luxury topics. The book is OA, so you may read it at @manchesterup.bsky.social manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526190055/

manchesteruniversitypress.co.ukManchester University Press - Streaming privilegeStreaming privilege - Browse and buy the Hardcover edition of Streaming privilege by Hanna Kuusela

Bryan Boyle reposted

Simone Varriale
@simov.bsky.social

Really happy to see my new article on far-right politics, touristification and the ‘political economy of taste’ published in @bjsociology.bsky.social (open access) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

onlinelibrary.wiley.comHow Cultural Taste Shapes Recognition and Redistribution Struggles: Far‐Right Politics, Touristification and the Political Economy of TasteThis article connects cultural taste to capitalist mechanisms of redistribution through the concept of political economy of taste. Building on Bourdieusian scholarship on recognition struggles and dr...

Bryan Boyle reposted

The Guardian
@theguardian.com

Parents booking air-conditioned hotels to keep babies safe in UK heatwave

theguardian.comParents booking air-conditioned hotels to keep babies safe in UK heatwaveHotels report increase in last-minute bookings, including from families attempting to escape hot homes Families, including parents with newborn babies, are booking air-conditioned rooms in hotels to escape the UK heatwave, with companies reporting a surge in demand. Data from the accommodation reservation website Booking.com shows that since 1 June, the share of searches using the “air-conditioning” filter has tripled across Great Britain coinciding with the latest heatwave in northern Europe. Continue reading...
Bryan Boyle
@bryanboyle.bsky.social

Thanks @mpifg.bsky.social! And thanks to the Labour and Labour Movement Section for this award!

Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung (MPIfG)@mpifg.bsky.social

🏆 Congratulations to @bryanboyle.bsky.social and @dvandebroeck.bsky.social on their @asanews.bsky.social Distinguished Scholarly Article Award! Their paper, “The Labor of Distinction,” is based on an ethnography of the butler profession and shows how elite status is produced through service labor.

s.gwdg.deThe Labor of Distinction: Butlers, Service Work, and the Production of Elite Lifestyles - Bryan Boyle, Dieter Vandebroeck, 2025Elites appropriate labor that produces and reproduces distinct lifestyles. This article shows how the practice of this type of labor—what we term the “labor of ...

Bryan Boyle reposted

The Sutton Trust
@suttontrust.bsky.social

✍️ "In creative and media-adjacent careers, the ladder often starts with free labour." Many young people in this country simply cannot afford to work free, but many industries still normalise free labour as a route into a career. This must be tackled.

suttontrust.comUnpaid work is killing class diversity in the creative industries - The Sutton TrustOur alum, Bethany, discusses the prominence of unpaid work in the creative professions.

Bryan Boyle reposted

Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation
@wolgjournal.bsky.social

Bryan's article is not only a great read but also highly topical - offering a glimpse into the hidden labour processes in the elite world that surrounds the likes of Epstein and the (con) artist formerly known as Prince Andrew

Bryan Boyle@bryanboyle.bsky.social

Very happy to be a part of this special issue on “Hierarchies of Domesticity – Spatial and Social Boundaries", which is out now in @wolgjournal.bsky.social! www.scienceopen.com/journal-issu...

Bryan Boyle
@bryanboyle.bsky.social

Guest edited by @sebchauvin.bsky.social, Claire Cosquer, and Julien Debonneville, the issue aims to approach domestic work "not merely from the standpoint of professions and services but by considering the varied forms of domesticity shaped by diverse social and spatial conditions".

Bryan Boyle reposted

dr. thrasher, an american writer in ex(archia)(xile)
@thrasherxy.bsky.social

There is a genre of "AI" labor that is as horrofying to read as Upton Sinclairs The Jungle—and just as important data-workers.org/michael/

data-workers.orgThe Emotional Labor Behind AI Intimacy, by Michael Geoffrey Asia.Imagine confiding your most private fantasies to what you believe is an unfeeling algorithm that cannot judge or remember. Now imagine that on the other side of that conversation is a man sitting in a...
The Guardian@theguardian.com

‘In the end, you feel blank’: India’s female workers watching hours of abusive content to train AI

theguardian.com‘In the end, you feel blank’: India’s female workers watching hours of abusive content to train AIWomen in rural communities describe trauma of moderating violent and pornographic content for global tech companies

Bryan Boyle reposted

Sam Friedman
@samfriedman.bsky.social

Great new paper! A similar study in the U.K. is long overdue. A lot of elite employers in the U.K. have begun to take class background seriously, but universities remain woefully behind

Anna Stansbury@annastansbury.bsky.social

📢now forthcoming in ECMA! The Class Gap in Career Progression: Evidence from US Academia Class is rarely a focus of research or DEI in elite US occupations. Evidence suggests it should be: we find a large class gap in at least one occupation - tenure-track academia...🧵

Bryan Boyle reposted

Christian Breunig
@breunig.eurosky.social

🚨 Postdoctoral Position at the University of Konstanz 🚨 We’re hiring a post-doc for our @excinequality.bsky.social project on political elites and decision-making. 4-year position | Deadline: Feb. 20 | Start: Sept 2026 Please share widely 🙏 The ad is here stellen.uni-konstanz.de/jobposting/f...

stellen.uni-konstanz.dePostdoctoral Position at the Cluster of Excellence “The Politics of Inequality”Deadline: 20 February 2026, 12:00 pm CET

Bryan Boyle reposted

Rebecca Montacute
@beckymontacute.bsky.social

A college spending resource on this instead of access efforts, given the woeful current state of access (particularly to unis like Cambridge), is a regulatory failure. Unis should have access targets and face real consequences if they don't meet them. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

theguardian.comCambridge college to target elite private schools for student recruitmentExclusive: Trinity Hall’s new policy described as a ‘slap in the face’ for state-educated students

Bryan Boyle reposted

Ingrid Robeyns
@ingridrobeyns.bsky.social

First official working day of 2026 - and we'll restart our attempts to understand what to do with our political economy. On Wednesday, I'll give a talk at the Max Plank Institute in Köln on whether limitarianism is compatible with capitalism (open to the public): www.mpifg.de/events/43416...

mpifg.deAre Limitarianism and Capitalism Compatible?Ingrid Robeyns introduces limitarianism as regulative ideal to keep striving for, the view that there should be a cap on how much personal wealth each individual can have.

Bryan Boyle reposted

Heejung Chung
@heejungchung.bsky.social

Are you outside of the UK and want to come do a post-doc with me? Consider using this opportunity.internal EOI deadline is Jan 29th so you will need to get in touch before 15th. Only projects on remote/flexible working, ideal worker culture, gender roles www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...

thebritishacademy.ac.ukInternational Fellowships 2026The International Fellowships Programme enables researchers to work for two years at a UK institution with the aim of building a globally connected, mobile research and innovation workforce.

Bryan Boyle reposted

Tiffany J. Huang
@tiffjhuang.bsky.social

New in @socprobsjournal.bsky.social w/ @estelabdiaz.bsky.social: the rapid growth of the admissions consulting industry has raised questions about inequality, privilege, and merit. We combine two original data sources to ask how consultants make sense of their work. academic.oup.com/socpro/advan...

academic.oup.comInequality and moral meaning-making in the admissions consulting professionAbstract. Prior research has described how middle-class and affluent families draw on private supplemental educational resources to help their children mai