Working Papers

The paper explores evolving definitions and practices surrounding archives and repositories in the digital era. It highlights the challenges of distinguishing between these terms and the political complexities inherent in defining archives. The discussion draws from critical archival theory and its emphasis on appraisal, preservation, and description, and analyses the influence of digital platforms, like (…)

This article contends that Silicon Valley’s apparent rightward turn reflects a structural continuity rather than a rupture with its founding ideology. Reconstructing the genealogy of the Californian Ideology, it shows how the fusion of libertarian market thought and countercultural individualism evolved into technocracy, meritocracy, and state platform capitalism. These formations exhibit clear affinities with neo-reactionary (…)

Theodor Adorno’s concept of the administered world describes a reality in which anything that cannot be reduced to numbers is rendered useless, with managers and administrators as its true maintainers. This paper examines how this reduction of humanity to data is depicted in Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We (1921), Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (1985), and Australia’s Robodebt scheme (…)

This working paper presents the comprehensive methodological framework of a transnational research project examining the changing role of religion in societies emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic. The study compares four contexts—Canada, Germany, Ireland/Northern Ireland, and Poland. The research employs a mixed-methods approach organized around three core areas: discourses about health, illness, and science; relationships with (…)

Fake controversies have influenced policy-making on health and environmental issues for decades, leading to major setbacks in the implementation of environmental conservation policies worldwide. In this paper, we expand on Rajão et al (2022) to examine fake controversies produced by a small group of Brazilian scientists that have had serious impacts on environmental conservation in (…)

Election polls and their news coverage function as a form of chained gatekeeping, shaping voters’ perceptions of fellow citizens’ preferences. The recent proliferation of polling firms equipped with low-cost, novel methods has not only multiplied competing results— confusing the perception of public opinion—but also compelled news outlets to selectively rely on trusted pollsters. To examine (…)