Mapping Society (UCL free book)
From a rare map of yellow fever in eighteenth-century New York, to Charles Booth’s famous maps of poverty in nineteenth-century London, an Italian racial zoning map of early twentieth century … Continue reading
Innovation, Intellectual Property, and Development
This paper aims to provide an intellectual basis to think about the relationship between development, intellectual property and innovation; where we currently are and what alternatives are available. For the … Continue reading
Human Rights as an Ideology? Obstacles and Benefits
[Behind paywall] Sociology has an important part to play in understanding human rights. In this article, I trace obstacles within sociology to theoretically conceptualize human rights as an ideology. These … Continue reading
Technology, migration and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
“In this briefing, we discuss the technology–migration nexus and show its significance to a range of SDGs and achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We demonstrate that migrants are … Continue reading
Central Banks, Technocratic Power, and the Fear of Democracy — Economic Sociology and Political Economy
Jacqueline Best has an interesting new article that starts with catchy and provocative analogy and then presents thought-provoking discussion and arguments: “What do border guards and central bankers have in … Continue reading
Induced Demand – Linking roads and increased traffic
As the urbanist aphorism goes: Widening roads to reduce congestion is like loosening your belt to cure obesity. Yet nearly all freeway expansions and new highways are sold to the … Continue reading
On the Ways of Knowing and Understanding Informality
In the mainstream international development discourse, one often finds a general dualistic outlook in classifying the concept of (urban) informality, seen to be strikingly different from the formal, regulated economic … Continue reading
The Global Encyclopaedia of Informality
Broadly defined as ‘ways of getting things done’, these invisible yet powerful informal practices tend to escape articulation in official discourse. They include emotion-driven exchanges of gifts or favours and … Continue reading
Defending Politically Vulnerable Organizations Online
A new report published by the Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity (CLTC) details how media outlets, human rights groups, NGOs, and other politically vulnerable organizations face significant cybersecurity threats—often at the … Continue reading
