Benjamin Shestakofsky
@bshestakofsky.bsky.social
Sociologist @cornellbowers.bsky.social studying work, technology, organizations, and political economy | Author of Behind the Startup: https://www.ucpress.edu/books/behind-the-startup/paper
I'm recruiting PhD students @cornellbowers.bsky.social! Folks who are interested in the intersection of work, technology, organizations, and political economy: please consider applying! infosci.cornell.edu/phd-informat.... And if you're a faculty colleague, please send excellent candidates my way!
Apply (Phd IS)
Below, you'll find the essential information you need to prepare a strong application to our graduate program, including qualifications, expectations, and application steps.
infosci.cornell.edu
November 3, 2025 at 8:39 PM
I'm recruiting PhD students @cornellbowers.bsky.social! Folks who are interested in the intersection of work, technology, organizations, and political economy: please consider applying! infosci.cornell.edu/phd-informat.... And if you're a faculty colleague, please send excellent candidates my way!
Reposted by Benjamin Shestakofsky
Working on AI in public health? Check out this CFP!
HEB invites submissions exploring the opportunities, impacts, and ethical dimensions of AI in health education, behavior, and public health. We encourage work on equity, transparency, accountability, and real-world applications.
lnkd.in/dsCbT6aX
HEB invites submissions exploring the opportunities, impacts, and ethical dimensions of AI in health education, behavior, and public health. We encourage work on equity, transparency, accountability, and real-world applications.
lnkd.in/dsCbT6aX
October 21, 2025 at 9:27 PM
Working on AI in public health? Check out this CFP!
HEB invites submissions exploring the opportunities, impacts, and ethical dimensions of AI in health education, behavior, and public health. We encourage work on equity, transparency, accountability, and real-world applications.
lnkd.in/dsCbT6aX
HEB invites submissions exploring the opportunities, impacts, and ethical dimensions of AI in health education, behavior, and public health. We encourage work on equity, transparency, accountability, and real-world applications.
lnkd.in/dsCbT6aX
Teaching faculty search @cornellbowers.bsky.social! academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30763
Cornell University, Information Science
Job #AJO30763, 2025-2026 CORNELL INFORMATION SCIENCE FULL-TIME TEACHING FACULTY SEARCH (OPEN-RANK TEACHING PROFESSOR), ITHACA CAMPUS , Information Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, US
academicjobsonline.org
October 20, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Teaching faculty search @cornellbowers.bsky.social! academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30763
Reposted by Benjamin Shestakofsky
UC Press is looking for a Publicist! Help amplify authors, pitch stories that spark conversation, & champion bold, field-defining books. Apply here. Or spread the word!
careerspub.universityofcalifornia.edu/psc/ucop/EMP...
careerspub.universityofcalifornia.edu/psc/ucop/EMP...
October 1, 2025 at 10:42 PM
UC Press is looking for a Publicist! Help amplify authors, pitch stories that spark conversation, & champion bold, field-defining books. Apply here. Or spread the word!
careerspub.universityofcalifornia.edu/psc/ucop/EMP...
careerspub.universityofcalifornia.edu/psc/ucop/EMP...
Reposted by Benjamin Shestakofsky
JOB: TT Assistant Professor, Sociology, Western University
Health and the Life Course or Work and the Economy
universityaffairs.ca/search-job/?...
Health and the Life Course or Work and the Economy
universityaffairs.ca/search-job/?...
October 2, 2025 at 1:57 PM
JOB: TT Assistant Professor, Sociology, Western University
Health and the Life Course or Work and the Economy
universityaffairs.ca/search-job/?...
Health and the Life Course or Work and the Economy
universityaffairs.ca/search-job/?...
The Social Science Matrix @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social is hiring a Researcher/Program Manager in Finance and Democracy: careerspub.universityofcalifornia.edu/psc/ucb/EMPL...
September 6, 2025 at 2:03 AM
The Social Science Matrix @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social is hiring a Researcher/Program Manager in Finance and Democracy: careerspub.universityofcalifornia.edu/psc/ucb/EMPL...
Postdoc opportunity @cornelluniversity.bsky.social STS! academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30301
Cornell University, Society for the Humanities
Job #AJO30301, WDR-00046364 Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Science and Technology Studies, AY 2026-2028, Society for the Humanities, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, US
academicjobsonline.org
September 3, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Postdoc opportunity @cornelluniversity.bsky.social STS! academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30301
Reposted by Benjamin Shestakofsky
Heads up, #4S2025 !
So excited for my Making and Doing workshop on "How to Get Off," teaching y'all how to evade Big Tech, on Thursday 1:30-3PM!
Then reflections on long-term fieldwork on Friday at 1:30PM
And my TECH/MONEY talk Friday at 3:40 on why NASA goes over budget ...
See you in Seattle!
So excited for my Making and Doing workshop on "How to Get Off," teaching y'all how to evade Big Tech, on Thursday 1:30-3PM!
Then reflections on long-term fieldwork on Friday at 1:30PM
And my TECH/MONEY talk Friday at 3:40 on why NASA goes over budget ...
See you in Seattle!
September 1, 2025 at 1:35 AM
Heads up, #4S2025 !
So excited for my Making and Doing workshop on "How to Get Off," teaching y'all how to evade Big Tech, on Thursday 1:30-3PM!
Then reflections on long-term fieldwork on Friday at 1:30PM
And my TECH/MONEY talk Friday at 3:40 on why NASA goes over budget ...
See you in Seattle!
So excited for my Making and Doing workshop on "How to Get Off," teaching y'all how to evade Big Tech, on Thursday 1:30-3PM!
Then reflections on long-term fieldwork on Friday at 1:30PM
And my TECH/MONEY talk Friday at 3:40 on why NASA goes over budget ...
See you in Seattle!
🙏 "Behind the Startup demonstrates, more fully than any work before it, the specific structural forces that so consistently ensure that platform startups betray their stated ideals....If this book does not achieve its purpose in reorienting future research, the field and not the book is to blame."
Just posted, at last: A review of one of my favorite recent books, Benjamin Shestakovsky's "Behind the Startup"—the most rigorous and precise account I've seen of how the dominant startup model produces inequality: muse.jhu.edu/article/968586
August 29, 2025 at 7:51 PM
🙏 "Behind the Startup demonstrates, more fully than any work before it, the specific structural forces that so consistently ensure that platform startups betray their stated ideals....If this book does not achieve its purpose in reorienting future research, the field and not the book is to blame."
Reposted by Benjamin Shestakofsky
My new article "Do artifacts have political economy" out in @sthv.bsky.social - developing a constructivist #politicaleconomy as a way to understand the embedding of political economy in #technology (incl bridges, #generativeAI + #adtech)
New OnlineFirst (OA) article: "Do Artifacts Have Political Economy?" by Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social #constructivist #politicaleconomy #assetization #LangdonWinner #RobertMoses #adtech #generativeAI #techbros journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Do Artifacts Have Political Economy? - Kean Birch, 2025
Harking back to Langdon Winner's now classic essay “Do artifacts have politics?,” my aim in this article is to ask a very similar question—namely, do artif...
journals.sagepub.com
August 18, 2025 at 2:05 PM
My new article "Do artifacts have political economy" out in @sthv.bsky.social - developing a constructivist #politicaleconomy as a way to understand the embedding of political economy in #technology (incl bridges, #generativeAI + #adtech)
Reposted by Benjamin Shestakofsky
Excited to share new work with the brilliant Zothan Mawii: "Gigs North & South." We describe gig platforms as accelerants to long-term informalization under premature deindustrialization. Gigs north and gigs south look similar but are distributed differently, through a process of uneven development.
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
June 6, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Excited to share new work with the brilliant Zothan Mawii: "Gigs North & South." We describe gig platforms as accelerants to long-term informalization under premature deindustrialization. Gigs north and gigs south look similar but are distributed differently, through a process of uneven development.
Reposted by Benjamin Shestakofsky
Thanks to @wsj.com for the review of HEDGED OUT: Inequality and Insecurity on Wall Street by @megantobiasneely.bsky.social: "explain[s] the new financial order by dissecting the people who run the investment firms":
Four Books Sound the Alarm About the Power of Private Equity
Private-managers now influence the U.S. economy and politics in ways few Americans understand.
www.wsj.com
June 2, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Thanks to @wsj.com for the review of HEDGED OUT: Inequality and Insecurity on Wall Street by @megantobiasneely.bsky.social: "explain[s] the new financial order by dissecting the people who run the investment firms":
Reposted by Benjamin Shestakofsky
Such an interesting piece by Vertesi and Enriquez from our latest issue. Don't forget to check out the other fascinating contributions: sociologica.unibo.it/issue/view/1...
May 22, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Such an interesting piece by Vertesi and Enriquez from our latest issue. Don't forget to check out the other fascinating contributions: sociologica.unibo.it/issue/view/1...
40% off Behind the Startup and a boatload of other great titles @ucpress.bsky.social, use promo code MAY40!
www.ucpress.edu/books/behind...
www.ucpress.edu/books/behind...
Behind the Startup by Benjamin Shestakofsky - Paper
Scholarship is a powerful tool for changing how people think, plan, and govern. By giving voice to bright minds and bold ideas, we seek to foster understanding and drive progressive change.
www.ucpress.edu
May 21, 2025 at 5:17 PM
40% off Behind the Startup and a boatload of other great titles @ucpress.bsky.social, use promo code MAY40!
www.ucpress.edu/books/behind...
www.ucpress.edu/books/behind...
Reposted by Benjamin Shestakofsky
The tech we rely on is powered by millions of low-paid, invisible cloudworkers.
Our new report drops 20 May.
Join us to talk fairness, AI, and platform accountability.
🕑 2 PM BST
🔗 wzb-eu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
#Fairwork #Cloudwork #WorkerRights #InvisibleLabour #AI
Our new report drops 20 May.
Join us to talk fairness, AI, and platform accountability.
🕑 2 PM BST
🔗 wzb-eu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
#Fairwork #Cloudwork #WorkerRights #InvisibleLabour #AI
May 13, 2025 at 3:07 PM
The tech we rely on is powered by millions of low-paid, invisible cloudworkers.
Our new report drops 20 May.
Join us to talk fairness, AI, and platform accountability.
🕑 2 PM BST
🔗 wzb-eu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
#Fairwork #Cloudwork #WorkerRights #InvisibleLabour #AI
Our new report drops 20 May.
Join us to talk fairness, AI, and platform accountability.
🕑 2 PM BST
🔗 wzb-eu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
#Fairwork #Cloudwork #WorkerRights #InvisibleLabour #AI
Reposted by Benjamin Shestakofsky
🗓️ The next #STS Switzerland conference will take place in Zurich on 10-12 Sept. 2025!
Join @loicriom.bsky.social and me for our panel on:
💥What Holds #Startups Together? Exploring Infrastructures, Places, and Knowledge💥
🔗 sts-ch.org/sts-ch-2025/
@sts-ch.bsky.social
Join @loicriom.bsky.social and me for our panel on:
💥What Holds #Startups Together? Exploring Infrastructures, Places, and Knowledge💥
🔗 sts-ch.org/sts-ch-2025/
@sts-ch.bsky.social
STS-CH Conference 2025
Holding things together? Change, continuity, critique Conference date: Sept 10 – 12, 2025Venues in Zurich: University of Zurich, ETH, ZHdKKeynotes by Brit Ross Winthereik and Hannah Rogers Sp…
sts-ch.org
April 30, 2025 at 5:11 PM
🗓️ The next #STS Switzerland conference will take place in Zurich on 10-12 Sept. 2025!
Join @loicriom.bsky.social and me for our panel on:
💥What Holds #Startups Together? Exploring Infrastructures, Places, and Knowledge💥
🔗 sts-ch.org/sts-ch-2025/
@sts-ch.bsky.social
Join @loicriom.bsky.social and me for our panel on:
💥What Holds #Startups Together? Exploring Infrastructures, Places, and Knowledge💥
🔗 sts-ch.org/sts-ch-2025/
@sts-ch.bsky.social
Reposted by Benjamin Shestakofsky
For SASE members who may be interested:
MPIfG is accepting apps for its Visiting Researchers Program (Winter 2025/26). 2–12 mo stays in Cologne for researchers in econ soc & political econ.
Apply by April 30 → sase.org/career-oppor...
#AcademicJobs #SASE
MPIfG is accepting apps for its Visiting Researchers Program (Winter 2025/26). 2–12 mo stays in Cologne for researchers in econ soc & political econ.
Apply by April 30 → sase.org/career-oppor...
#AcademicJobs #SASE
Career Opportunity: MPIfG Visiting Researchers Program - SASE
Career Opportunity for SASE Members: MPIfG Visiting Researchers Program The Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (MPIfG) in Cologne is currently accepting applications for its Visiting Rese...
sase.org
April 2, 2025 at 6:21 PM
For SASE members who may be interested:
MPIfG is accepting apps for its Visiting Researchers Program (Winter 2025/26). 2–12 mo stays in Cologne for researchers in econ soc & political econ.
Apply by April 30 → sase.org/career-oppor...
#AcademicJobs #SASE
MPIfG is accepting apps for its Visiting Researchers Program (Winter 2025/26). 2–12 mo stays in Cologne for researchers in econ soc & political econ.
Apply by April 30 → sase.org/career-oppor...
#AcademicJobs #SASE
Reposted by Benjamin Shestakofsky
Lots of great positions at @mpifg.bsky.social, pls share!
- 2yr postdoc in wealth research
- 2yr postdoc in technology & sovereignty
- 3+3yr senior researcher in political economy
- 3+3yr senior researcher in economic sociology
- tenure/director-track group leader digitalization & society
- 2yr postdoc in wealth research
- 2yr postdoc in technology & sovereignty
- 3+3yr senior researcher in political economy
- 3+3yr senior researcher in economic sociology
- tenure/director-track group leader digitalization & society
Job Openings
www.mpifg.de
March 10, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Lots of great positions at @mpifg.bsky.social, pls share!
- 2yr postdoc in wealth research
- 2yr postdoc in technology & sovereignty
- 3+3yr senior researcher in political economy
- 3+3yr senior researcher in economic sociology
- tenure/director-track group leader digitalization & society
- 2yr postdoc in wealth research
- 2yr postdoc in technology & sovereignty
- 3+3yr senior researcher in political economy
- 3+3yr senior researcher in economic sociology
- tenure/director-track group leader digitalization & society
Reposted by Benjamin Shestakofsky
At the release party for
Fairwork US Ratings 2025: When AI Eats the Manager
"In the US, we've found the distribution is only at the bottom." And this is an org that has, to this point, largely focused on AI sweatshops in the so-called Global south.
Fairwork US Ratings 2025: When AI Eats the Manager
"In the US, we've found the distribution is only at the bottom." And this is an org that has, to this point, largely focused on AI sweatshops in the so-called Global south.
Fairwork US Ratings 2025: When AI Eats the Manager
fair.work
March 5, 2025 at 5:39 PM
At the release party for
Fairwork US Ratings 2025: When AI Eats the Manager
"In the US, we've found the distribution is only at the bottom." And this is an org that has, to this point, largely focused on AI sweatshops in the so-called Global south.
Fairwork US Ratings 2025: When AI Eats the Manager
"In the US, we've found the distribution is only at the bottom." And this is an org that has, to this point, largely focused on AI sweatshops in the so-called Global south.
Reposted by Benjamin Shestakofsky
We have extended the call for abstracts until 28 February! The WORK2025 conference welcomes presentations from a wide variety of interdisciplinary, empirical and theoretical perspectives. Submit your abstract at www.work2025.fi and join us in Turku, Finland, or online!
Etusivu - WORK2025
WORK2025 is the seventh international multidisciplinary WORK conference on work and working life research. Welcome!
www.work2025.fi
February 18, 2025 at 8:14 AM
We have extended the call for abstracts until 28 February! The WORK2025 conference welcomes presentations from a wide variety of interdisciplinary, empirical and theoretical perspectives. Submit your abstract at www.work2025.fi and join us in Turku, Finland, or online!
Reposted by Benjamin Shestakofsky
We will hear an interesting keynote speech from Associate Professor @bshestakofsky.bsky.social (USA) titled “Venture Capitalism and Beyond” on the second day of the WORK2025 conference!
Abstract submission is open until February 20th at www.work2025.fi!
Abstract submission is open until February 20th at www.work2025.fi!
February 12, 2025 at 11:49 AM
We will hear an interesting keynote speech from Associate Professor @bshestakofsky.bsky.social (USA) titled “Venture Capitalism and Beyond” on the second day of the WORK2025 conference!
Abstract submission is open until February 20th at www.work2025.fi!
Abstract submission is open until February 20th at www.work2025.fi!
Reposted by Benjamin Shestakofsky
I’m co-editing an “AI and society in China” special issue for Chinese Sociological Review. Paper proposal due on 04/30. Full manuscript due on 09/15. Let me know if you have any questions! More info:
think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issu...
think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issu...
A.I. and Society in China
think.taylorandfrancis.com
February 11, 2025 at 12:57 PM
I’m co-editing an “AI and society in China” special issue for Chinese Sociological Review. Paper proposal due on 04/30. Full manuscript due on 09/15. Let me know if you have any questions! More info:
think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issu...
think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issu...
Reposted by Benjamin Shestakofsky
The International Sociological Association @isa-sociology.bsky.social invites the global community of sociologists to an online tribute to the life of Michael Burawoy, Saturday, Feb. 8, noon Eastern. Follow the YouTube live transmission bit.ly/414VbLC.
February 6, 2025 at 6:34 PM
The International Sociological Association @isa-sociology.bsky.social invites the global community of sociologists to an online tribute to the life of Michael Burawoy, Saturday, Feb. 8, noon Eastern. Follow the YouTube live transmission bit.ly/414VbLC.
The sudden and tragic loss of Michael Burawoy is devastating beyond words. A peerless scholar, mentor, teacher, activist, and friend, with a wry wit and an enormous heart. The only consolation is that he brought so many of us together, an extended family of kin who strive to carry on his legacy.
February 5, 2025 at 1:07 AM
The sudden and tragic loss of Michael Burawoy is devastating beyond words. A peerless scholar, mentor, teacher, activist, and friend, with a wry wit and an enormous heart. The only consolation is that he brought so many of us together, an extended family of kin who strive to carry on his legacy.