Robert Dingwall

Is this some kind of Latourian joke?

Talking about metaphors in this week's post, I conclude: "Metaphors invite us to see something as something else, but we should always ask what a metaphor makes easy to see and what it makes easy to miss!" #metaphors makingsciencepublic.com/2026/10/23/m...

Our chapel dates to 1411 but has several newer additions including: the 16th century panelling, 17th century pews, 19th and 20th century windows. A little like Trigger’s broom but still as special as the day it was built.

"One of the core goals of OA was to democratize access to knowledge, but inequality not only exists, but it has arguably grown: APCs have entrenched privilege...Transformative deals are not transforming the system" scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2026/10/02/a...

🦮 Every street should be accessible for everyone. For people living with sight loss, blocked pavements, poor street design, and the dangerous or illegal use of e-scooters and e-bikes can make everyday journeys difficult and unsafe.

The leaves are beginning to turn in #Wollaton Park

The mess started with the Open Access evangelists and their poor understanding of the economics of the sector.

Nobody embodied Chicago Bears football more than Mike Ditka, who became the face of the franchise as both a Hall of Fame tight end and a Super Bowl-winning coach.

Seems like a really odd decision, given how cheap these programmes must be. As an academic, I see Thinking Allowed, Free Thinking and The Artificial Human as vital connections between research and the public.

It's banal but the use of "inevitable" by the "research on research institute" is a performative of course It becomes inevitable because people close to centre of power keep saying it's inevitable.

'Britain’s debate about universities has become strangely one-sided. We scrutinise the supply of graduate skills....Far less attention is paid to the demand side: whether Britain’s economy is creating enough high-skilled opportunities to make full use of the talent universities produce.' Good stuff

How long before the leaders of responses to outbreaks of infectious disease will call the social scientists at the same time as they call the immunologists? The most sophisticated biomedical science is useless unless it can survive in the wild. www.socialsciencespace.com/2026/09/misi...

The more I think about it, the more the idea of treating couples who live together but choose not to marry like they've entered into a secret stealth marriage is an insult to all relationships - married and non-married alike. This week's New Statesman column www.newstatesman.com/politics/fut...

Good thing to note that social sciences are, indeed, not as simple as rocket science. Insights into China's one child policy by Susan Greenhalgh, quoted in @newyorker.com

Happy Bank Holiday Monday! Is it that sunny in York? Sadly not - it is a Bank Holiday after all. ☔️ Is that blue sky photoshopped? No that was real but who doesn’t love a cloud? 🤨 Is the Hall always that beautiful? You betcha. 😍

I am posting my metaphor focused post on the OpenAI/Huggenface affair again, but with added references to analyses done since which all sound alarm bells makingsciencepublic.com/2026/08/07/a...

"Ice is mountain glue but it is losing its adhesion. This is a a slow process but it can accelerate suddenly because it takes much more heat energy for ice to melt then merely to warm." From today's Observer editorial.That #metaphor should be more widely used in #scicomm of climate/glacier collapse.

For weekend readers, a bit of history of genetic engineering, public engagement and bioethics #histsci makingsciencepublic.com/2026/08/28/a...

This week's post is a bit of a mixture of linguistics, responsible innovation, bioethics and history of science, focusing on Asilomar and the role of the public #linguistics #histsci makingsciencepublic.com/2026/08/28/a...

This week's post is about a rather interesting #AI #metaphor: watermark, looks innocuous but isn't.... #AIMetaphorObservatory #scicomm makingsciencepublic.com/2026/08/21/a...

Important point @hepi-news.bsky.social. International students "bring different languages, educational histories, cultural assumptions & lived experiences. Students encounter different ways of thinking about knowledge, authority, responsibility, community www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/08/17/t...

A quick and rather personal reflection on #wildfires, here there and everywhere makingsciencepublic.com/2026/08/16/m...

If you MUST message me about a national emergency DON’T SAY I “should not undertake any activity that could start a fire” SAY “do not do anything that could start a fire” You’re not drafting legislation, you’re talking to people many of whom have a reading age of 6.

Well, well, well. Just come across this passage, written in 1842, by Belgian statistician Adolphe Quetelet, published in English as A Treatise on Man and the Development of His Faculties (1842). The real criminal is 'society'. Robert Owen had similar thoughts a little earlier.

The Haywain 2026

For thousands of years, a solar eclipse has been a prophetic harbinger of a spectacular, epoch-making event. Just saying. #VoteBinface #Clacton

New Issue of Symbolic Interaction - Vol.49 No.3 Table of Contents - onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/15338665... #sssi #interactionism #emca

Written in response to the Wall Street Journal but also relevant to the Arday fall-out... Why Sociology Should Not Be Liquidated www.socialsciencespace.com/2026/08/why-...

For weekend readers my contribution to the AI 'going rogue' controversy, through the lens of metaphor analysis, focusing on the metaphor scenario: container-journey-container #AI #metaphor #scicomm #linguistics makingsciencepublic.com/2026/08/07/a...

I struggled a bit with writing about the AI 'going rogue' incident, but here is my take, using the concept of 'metaphor scenario' to gain some insights #Ai #metaphor #AIMetaphorObservatory makingsciencepublic.com/2026/08/07/a...

Opinion: “My investigation into alleged plagiarism was undertaken seriously – journalistic enquiries should not be a matter for Scotland Yard,” writes Times Higher Education (THE) journalist @jgro-the.bsky.social on the Jason Arday case #edusky #highered https://ow.ly/list50ZwHI8

Perhaps the UK government could be equally active?

As usual @apsmunro.bsky.social is a model of good sense More Fuss About Filters open.substack.com/pub/alasdair...

Cambridge have been left holding the parcel for failures elsewhere. How many appointment boards would read the PhD thesis of a candidate for a chair rather than trusting the examining university's award? The papers should have been read but this may say more about standards in the field.

Well said, Lewis. @chrischirp.bsky.social post rests on a lot of shaky assumptions about the effectiveness of interventions. They do not acknowledge the risks of abuse or mental disorder from home confinement. Why no case control study of key worker children in school vs kept home children?

Devastating news. Where will the residents of Belmont now go for breakfast and sugar rush?

Good point about mining & hockey pucks, but can we predict the trajectory of future jobs in the same way that expert eyes can predict a puck's trajectory? And what's happened to 'transferable skills' in the new 'skills'-fixated discourse? The 'transferable' addressed the unknown trajectory issue.

You're going to hear a LOT today about kids being trained up at school for local jobs, "vocational" work (building, scaffolding, security, care home staff) Just remember they're talking about YOUR kids. Not theirs. THEIR kids will absolutely still be going to University.

Anyone who actually knows about qualitative research knows that the interview was always a small element. Its expanded role is recent thing, driven partly by cost and partly by the ethics police.

George Arnald, View on the Ouse at York, 1803 https://botfrens.com/collections/14375/contents/1111808

This anthology of climate change blog posts seems strange in the context of a world on fire. We tried so hard to communicate, but.... #climatechange #pyrocene makingsciencepublic.com/2026/07/24/c...

Two choices do seem to be particularly worth discussion, perhaps reflecting my sociologist’s interest in the nature of order: the “law of Zeus” and the treatment of women.... www.socialsciencespace.com/2026/07/the-...

I have reviewed two manuscripts today, both of which include huge block quotes that span nearly an entire page, followed by no analysis. Your quotes illustrate your points; they don’t make the points for you. ANALYZE the data; don’t just show it to readers.

Course: Understanding the Media: A Starter Guide for Scientists July 15, 2-3 pm ET This 1-hr course teaches scientists the basics: the news landscape, what makes a story newsworthy & how to talk to reporters. www.sciline.org/learn/media-...