Wikipedia is an important instance of “Big Data,” both because it shapes people's frames of reference and because it is a window into the construction—including via crowd-sourcing—of new bodies of knowledge. Based on our own research as well as others' critical and ethnographic work, we take as an instance Wikipedia's evolving representation of the field of sociology and sociologists, including such gendered aspects as male and female scholars and topics associated with masculinity and femininity. Both the gender-specific dynamics surrounding what (...) counts as “notability” on the online encyclopedia and Wikipedia's relative categorical incoherence are discussed. If “Big Data” can be said to construct its own object, it is, in this instance, a curious and lop-sided one, exemplifying pitfalls as well as promise with respect to more accurate and democratic forms of knowledge. (shrink)

During the past thirty years in the social sciences, there has been a wide-ranging discussion of “class politics” in capitalist modernity. Several distinct threads have developed, largely in isolation from each other. The authors suggest that the various accounts implicitly rely on different definitions of class politics and propose a way to classify them. The classification is based on two questions: first, whether changes in the strength of the left depend on the working class specifically or on cross-class dynamics and, (...) second, whether emergent class differences in politics are largely spontaneous or constructed. The authors use this classification to assess the prospects for testing the empirical implications of different accounts and point to the more general insights potentially offered by each approach. (shrink)

Recent work by Magnuson, Solomon and Grossman(1) adds to a growing body of evidence indicating that microorganisms possess sophisticated signaling systems that enable them to sense and respond to environmental challenges. Typically, this response results in morphological, physiological and even genetic differentiation, paralleling that observed among higher organisms. These signaling systems may be interpreted as adaptations that maximize the reproductive potential of a population.