According to recently released discovery materials, Meta directly targeted Jonathan Haidt by trying to stir up academics to oppose him. The odd thing is that many of us scholars who disagree with him knew nothing about this and weren’t not involved in it. And so now scholars like the
The “Census Bureau” is currently seeking comments to a proposed new set of residence rules for the 2030 census. Comments are due on November 2, 2026. In reality, the actual proposal is a tirade written by the current administration pretending to be in compliance with the rules governing agencies like
A few weeks ago, I launched my new book - Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the US Census. To my sheer delight, many friends have stepped up to host events and join me on stage and I'm now
Ten years ago, I started asking questions about the census. Little did I know that I entered a Hotel California-esque vortex. Each question led to another question as I started to discover just how infrastructural the census is. Want to understand American democracy? The census is the key. Curious
tl;dr: "American democracy depends on the census. Trump is undermining it" is my new op-ed at the Guardian. Check it out! For census geeks, this summer has been one eeeek after another. Planks of the Jenga tower keep getting pulled out. First, the White House announced
In one month, my new book will be in folks' hands. "Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the US Census" tells the story of what it takes to produce democracy's data - and how hard it
The Project of AI is a world-building endeavor, wherein those who fund and develop AI systems both operate through and seek to sustain networks of power and wealth. Janet Vertesi, Alex Taylor, Ben Shestakofsky, and I teamed up to try to disentangle the technical systems we call “AI” from
tl;dr: Read "Social Media Is Now Parasocial Media" The lovely folks at the Social Media + Society journal asked me to contribute to their anniversary issue by reflecting on the trajectory of social media. Ooof. Snark exuded from my pores as I tried to figure out what I
There's something uniquely demoralizing about editing and editing and editing a book manuscript. The words all start to blur together and you start thinking that every sentence is crap, no one will ever want to read this, why bother completing the book. I was definitely in this state.
The world is on fire - and I've often been at a loss for how to constructively contribute to public discourse. For decades, I have shared knowledge gained through fieldwork to offer a different perspective on complex sociotechnical matters. Too often these days, I find myself banging my head
Virtual Convo! On Monday, November 3 at 7PM ET, Lee Vinsel, Cory Doctorow, and I will be jamming in a livestream about Cory's new book Enshittification. I love this book and I love that I'll get to brain jam with two people I adore. So please
Earlier this week, Alvaro Bedoya published a story-forward account of his experience as an FTC commissioner in the US. It's the kind of story that makes an ethnographer swoon. Through his accounting, he demonstrates how his perspective on politics changed by talking with people around the country.