💡 How is Generative AI changing our society?

Over the past two days, #WiConf26 brought together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers from around the world to discuss the societal implications of #GenAI

Key themes included #AI and democratic futures, changing forms of #labour and #inequality and shifting epistemic authority.

Thank you to all speakers, organizers, and participants for an inspiring exchange!

➡️ Recap: https://t1p.de/ex66y

#research #socialscience #digitalsociety

💼 #Job #opportunities

3 x #ResearchFellow roles to work on #ESRCfunded Connecting #Generations projects, based at the #UniversityofStAndrews

📨 Apply by 29 June. More info: https://www.cpc.ac.uk/news/vacancies/

#jobs #researchjobs #jobsearch #demography #statistics #computerscience #appliedmathematics #phd #Geography #socialscience #longitudinaldata #dataanalysis #qualitativedata #eventhistoryanalysis #population #intergenerational #family #fertility #socialsciences #migration #community

Is the iPhone Birth Control? Causal Evidence from AT&T’s 2007–2011 Carrier Monopoly
https://www.nber.org/papers/w35310

Backround: From the launch 2007
through Feb 2011, the iPhone was limited to AT&T subscribers in the US. Smarphone exposure was limited to AT&T’s cellular network making natural experiment possible

Treated counties are systematically more urban than controls. They address this imbalance through the
SDID estimator’s pre-treatment reweighting of controls and using a complementary entropy-balanced Poisson specification.

... Entropy-balanced Poisson and synthetic difference-in-differences event studies imply that access to the iPhone reduced births by 4.5–8.0% at ages 15–19 and 3.2–6.6% at ages 20–24, with statistically significant but smaller declines among older cohorts. Placebo analyses applied to Verizon and Sprint’s pre-2011 coverage footprint are null. .... National-survey evidence on time use and sexual behavior is consistent with the iPhone reducing in-person interactions, increasing pornography use, and reducing sexual frequency.

#economics #demographics #socialMedia #socialScience

How much does politics shape our personal lives? ❤️🗳️

A new study by researchers at the WiSo Faculty shows that political polarisation in the United States influences not only public debate but also romantic partner choice. Political affiliations can significantly affect who people consider a potential match.

Could political differences be a dealbreaker in your relationship?

👉 https://uni.koeln/C9RDU

#SocialScience #PoliticalPolarisation #Dating #Research #USA

@UniKoeln

Out now!!! #Anarchist Theory and #Inequality in #Archaeology

https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-anthro-041124-013242

Abstract: This article considers anarchist archaeologies and how an approach to inequality shaped by anarchist values and modes of analysis can help us narrate more complex pasts and build more equal futures. The nature and impact of inequality are central concerns across #humanities and #socialscience disciplines. Archaeologists have long studied social differentiation, focusing primarily on the origins and cross-cultural articulation of inequality. An anarchist approach to the archaeology of inequality pushes us to eschew origins in favor of the mechanisms of and #resistance to past inequality, informing struggles for a more equal present and future. It also forces us to examine the inequalities that persist in our discipline, restricting who can be an archaeologist and, consequently, contribute to archaeological knowledge production. We argue that a more equal archaeology is as necessary as a more complex view of past inequalities if we are to mobilize the past against structures of domination.

Will AI ruin the social sciences — or revolutionize them?

#AI #SocialScience

https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-01726-y

Did you know overeducation in the US rose in the early 2000s? 🎓📈 A study by Lina Tobler and Julia Leesch shows that between 2003 and 2011, more workers held jobs below their education level, while undereducation declined. The key driver? Shifts in supply and demand, not matching patterns. As education expanded, the labour market did not fully keep pace. 🌍💼

Details: https://uni.koeln/RFAV3 

#LabourMarket #EducationResearch #Overeducation #SocialScience #Demography #WorkTrends #HigherEducation