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Social Science Research Council
@ssrc.org
490 followers 41 following 280 posts
The Social Science Research Council is an independent nonprofit that for 100 years has mobilized social & behavioral science for global policy impact. ssrc.org
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ssrc.org
This month in Barcelona, three Just Tech Fellows from our 2023-2025 cohort will be speaking on panels at the @mozilla.org Festival, an open source festival for a healthier internet. Learn more about this cohort of intellectual and tech justice leaders: just-tech.ssrc.org/just-tech-fe...
Just Tech
The Just Tech Platform is a forum, catalogue, and showcase for researchers and practitioners at the nexus of technological development, inequity, and social justice.
just-tech.ssrc.org
November 3, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Reposted by Social Science Research Council
immanentframe.bsky.social
New Forum | Jonathan C. Gold coedits and introduces "Karmic historiography," an essay series that "draws on Buddhist concepts to create fresh perspectives on contemporary and historical issues."

tif.ssrc.org/2025/08/06/k...

@immanentframe.bsky.social @ssrc.org

#polrel #polisky
Karmic historiography
A lawyer friend explained it to me this way: Since the 1980s, lawyers with specialized expertise and exclusive relationships—especially those involved in high-stakes deals like mergers and acquisition...
tif.ssrc.org
October 30, 2025 at 4:24 PM
ssrc.org
AI technologies contribute substantially to corporate performance and risk, but investors lack information.

A new policy note from @ai-disclosures.bsky.social proposes bringing AI governance within the SEC's disclosure regime, modeled on 2023 cybersecurity rules.

www.ssrc.org/publications...
Governing AI Through SEC Disclosure: Materiality Standards and Incident Reporting—Lessons from Cybersecurity
The SSRC makes available interdisciplinary research to inform policy, academic discourse, and the public. These publications are freely accessible and include policy working papers to essays for the g...
www.ssrc.org
October 30, 2025 at 4:27 PM
ssrc.org
The SSRC has deep experience designing events and programs that bridge silos and build innovation networks connecting researchers, practitioners, and stakeholders, fostering productive new collaborations that link knowledge to practice.

Learn more: www.ssrc.org/how-we-work/...
October 29, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by Social Science Research Council
gcsocialwelfare.bsky.social
Doctoral candidate Ashleigh Washington recently published this short essay at @ssrc.org, drawing from her research on New York City Administration for Children Services (ACS)'s quiet deployment of AI tools & long-standing practices of biomedical surveillance. Check it out!
Biomedical Surveillance in the Child Welfare System
Over the past several years, New York City’s Administration for Children Services (ACS) has been one among many child protection agencies to introduce AI tools. In this essay based on her research 2024 Data Fluencies Grantee Ashleigh Washington looks at how ACS’s tactics, including use of algorithms, create a tech-enabled biomedical surveillance apparatus targeting the most disadvantaged families.
just-tech.ssrc.org
October 29, 2025 at 3:33 PM
ssrc.org
“The result is a rich, thought-provoking series of reflections on the relevance of notions of karma to historical analysis, with a particular focus on this moment.”

Read Thomas Lewis on @immanentframe.bsky.social's karmic historiography series: tif.ssrc.org/2025/10/24/k...
Karma, history, and the humanities
The “Karmic historiography” essay forum represents a convergence of two vital currents in contemporary humanities scholarship: first, an interest in enabling an intellectual space that has been domina...
tif.ssrc.org
October 28, 2025 at 3:37 PM
ssrc.org
Applications are now open for the 2026 African Peacebuilding and Developmental Dynamics fellowships. Apply now to advance your research, strengthen your networks, and shape Africa’s peacebuilding future. Please share widely!

Deadline: Jan 16, 2026

Learn more: ssrc.org/programs/afr...
Applications are now open for the African Peacebuilding and Developmental Dynamics (APDD) program’s fellowship awards — formerly known as the African Peacebuilding Network and Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa (APN and Next Gen) fellowships. Deadline: January 16, 2026, 11:59 PM EST
October 22, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Reposted by Social Science Research Council
sumitra.bsky.social
🚨 out at @apsrjournal.bsky.social 🚨

➡️ We ran a large media literacy experiment to fight misinformation
➡️ 13,500 students, 583 villages in Bihar, India
➡️Created custom misinfo curriculum of 4 months
➡️Partnered w the government to roll it out as an official course in classrooms

hopeful findings👇🏽
October 15, 2025 at 3:33 PM
ssrc.org
We are excited to announce that our African Peacebuilding Network and Next Gen program is evolving into the African Peacebuilding and Developmental Dynamics (APDD) program. Read more about this exciting change below:
www.ssrc.org/news/2025/10...
African Peacebuilding and Developmental Dynamics APDD builds on over a decade of advancing African-led research and scholarship on peacebuilding, governance, and developmental changes in conflict-affected countries and sub-regions in Africa.
October 15, 2025 at 5:34 PM
ssrc.org
This past weekend, the SSRC partnered with @wallacefoundation.bsky.social for a Peer Learning Convening on the theme “Retooling for Impact: Adapting Strategy and Practice for the Future.”
Panel image: Monica Barra, Bonita Buford, Rose Ojo-Ajayi
October 8, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Reposted by Social Science Research Council
measureofamerica.bsky.social
We're also offering free demos of DATA2GO.NYC to show interested users the tool’s new indicators and other features. You can sign up now for a demo on either October 9th, 12-1pm or October 15th, 1-2pm. Learn more and register: measureofamerica.org/d2g-landing/. Feel free to share with your networks!
DATA2GO.NYC - Measure of America: A Program of the Social Science Research Council
DATA2GO.NYC is a free, interactive tool that lets you explore over 400 indicators related to human well-being and inequality across New York City's nearly 200 neighborhoods.
measureofamerica.org
October 7, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Reposted by Social Science Research Council
measureofamerica.bsky.social
Participants will get to create their own projects using data that are relevant to their needs. The program will consist of four workshops from October 29th to November 19th. Applications are open and close on October 20th—sign up for free now: forms.gle/j6vruXg2Mt9P...
DATA2GO.NYC Data Clinic Application
Thank you for your interest in our Data Clinic! We will begin reviewing applications on a rolling basis, and the deadline to submit your application is Monday, October 20, 2025.
forms.gle
October 7, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Reposted by Social Science Research Council
measureofamerica.bsky.social
Measure of America is hosting a second round of our Technical Assistance Data Clinic for NYC nonprofits. This free, interactive program is designed to empower New York City nonprofit leaders to use data to better target their services, increase their impact, and communicate their results.
October 7, 2025 at 4:11 PM
ssrc.org
The new karmic historiography forum by @immanentframe.bsky.social knits together epistemology, social history, and psychology, drawing on Buddhist ethical concepts to highlight fresh perspectives on contemporary and historical issues. Read more: tif.ssrc.org/category/exc...
October 2, 2025 at 6:13 PM
ssrc.org
In the APA's American Psychologist, a large-scale meta-analysis identifies the treatment and patient characteristics of U.S. service members and veterans who drop out of psychotherapy.
psycnet.apa.org/record/2024-...
Dropout has been identified as a significant problem among military populations seeking psychotherapy (Goetter et al., 2015; Hoge et al., 2014), yet an overall estimate of its exact prevalence and predictors does not exist. The aims of the current meta-analysis were to estimate outpatient psychotherapy dropout rates for this population and evaluate potential moderators of this event. In total, 283 articles—comprising data from 719,465 U.S. service members and veterans—met all inclusion criteria and were included in the meta-analysis. The average weighted dropout rate for all outpatient therapies was 25.6%, 95% CI [22.4%, 29.2%], and prediction interval [1.9%, 85.9%]. Furthermore, dropout was 27.0% for cognitive behavioral therapies (CBTs), 25.3% for trauma treatments, 27.6% for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), 28.9% for individual therapies, and 9.8% for intensive outpatient settings. Findings from metaregression analyses using mixed-effects models indicated that higher dropout was linked with the following after accounting for other moderators: younger age, CBTs, nonmanualized approaches, VA versus Department of Defense settings, individual versus group therapies, and weekly versus intensive outpatient formats. Dropout was not linked with other client, therapist, treatment, and research variables. Taken together, dropout estimates were obtained for a range of military populations and treatment characteristics, including theoretical orientation, presenting concern, setting, and therapy formats. These estimates may provide potential benchmarks for therapists, administrators, and policymakers serving military populations. Leveraging dropout prevention strategies with at-risk groups highlighted in this study may enhance mental health care outcomes for this high-need population.
September 29, 2025 at 6:14 PM
ssrc.org
We are thrilled to share that the African Peacebuilding Network and Next Gen Social Sciences in Africa have received a $4.2m grant from @carnegiecorp.bsky.social. 840 fellowships to date are advancing African scholarship, peacebuilding research, and doctoral training:

www.ssrc.org/news/2025/09...
Carnegie Grant Continues Transformative Support for African Social Science Scholars – Social Science Research Council (SSRC)
The Social Science Research Council fosters innovative research, nurtures new generations of social scientists, deepens how inquiry is practiced within and across disciplines, and mobilizes necessary ...
www.ssrc.org
September 24, 2025 at 7:51 PM
ssrc.org
In @amanthro.bsky.social, Kristina Nielsen’s investigation of India’s business process outsourcing industry considers the impacts of workers forced to remove their regional accents to meet industry standards.
anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
September 23, 2025 at 5:04 PM
ssrc.org
New policy brief from @ai-disclosures.bsky.social (by Sruly Rosenblat, Ilan Strauss, Tim O'Reilly & Isobel Moure) maps how Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol is reshaping the AI developer ecosystem and assesses emerging risks of concentration and gatekeeping.

Read more:
www.ssrc.org/publications...
MCP in Practice: Mapping power, concentration, and usage in the emerging AI developer ecosystem
The SSRC makes available interdisciplinary research to inform policy, academic discourse, and the public. These publications are freely accessible and include policy working papers to essays for the g...
www.ssrc.org
September 22, 2025 at 2:19 PM
ssrc.org
In @asanews.bsky.social's ASR, interviews with currently incarcerated or recently released men provide insight into why and when people in prison politically mobilize, in a study by David Jonathan Knight.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Prior studies cast U.S. imprisonment as politically demobilizing. This article complicates that proposition by exploring when, and how, threat under penal confinement leads people to mobilize. Using interviews with currently incarcerated and recently released men across three states, I show that although imprisonment generally fosters political inaction, collective mobilization does arise under certain conditions. First, people in prison mobilize in response to embodied threats—fundamental threats eliciting visceral reactions that signal future harm (i.e., premature death or permanent incapacitation). Second, to collectively mobilize, a subpopulation of similarly threatened prisoners must be present and see the threats as a shared problem. Collective prisoner mobilization is more likely when both conditions are present; mobilization is unlikely when neither condition is present; and individual political contention is more likely when conditions are partially present. This range of political responses among incarcerated people is more dynamic than previously reported. Imprisonment has selective political effects, mobilizing the most repressed individuals within prison to devise new strategies to contest their repression.
September 17, 2025 at 2:51 PM
ssrc.org
Applications and nominations are now open for the next President of the Social Science Research Council. Appointment expected in early 2026. Learn more & apply: www.ssrc.org/social-scien...
Social Science Research Council Presidential Search
The Social Science Research Council fosters innovative research, nurtures new generations of social scientists, deepens how inquiry is practiced within and across disciplines, and mobilizes necessary ...
www.ssrc.org
September 16, 2025 at 6:46 PM
ssrc.org
In @apsrjournal.bsky.social, Christian Cox, Derek A. Epp, Michael E. Shepherd find, in a panel dataset of over 10 million rural residents, that local hospital closures are linked to lower voting rates in national elections.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
We investigate how hardships affect rural politics, considering the case of hospital closures. In the last two decades, more than two hundred rural hospitals have closed their doors or drastically reduced their services. Drawing from resource models of voting, our hypothesis is that personal- and community-level deprivations brought about by hospital closures should reduce election turnout. Empirical tests pair geographic information on the location of open and closed hospitals with data from state voter files to create a panel of over 10 million rural residents for the 2016, 2018, and 2020 national elections. Results show that individuals whose nearest hospital closed prior to the proximate election were less likely to vote than their unaffected counterparts. These effects are strongest for older and lower-income residents, but they decay over time so that voting likelihood resembles a pre-closure baseline within 12 months.
September 12, 2025 at 3:10 PM
ssrc.org
In @aeajournals.bsky.social AER, Joseph S. Shapiro and Reed Walker estimate the benefits and costs of air pollution regulation in U.S. markets and find that benefits outweigh costs tenfold. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...
We develop a framework to estimate the marginal cost of air pollution regulation and apply it to assess policy efficiency. We exploit a provision of the Clean Air Act that requires new plants to pay incumbent facilities to reduce emissions. This "offset" policy creates hundreds of local pollution markets, differing by pollutant and location. Theory and transaction data suggest that offset prices reveal marginal abatement costs. We compare these prices to marginal benefits of pollution reduction estimated using leading air quality models and find that, on average, marginal benefits exceed marginal costs by more than a factor of ten.
September 11, 2025 at 6:07 PM
ssrc.org
New research from @ai-disclosures.bsky.social has mapped of 2,874 Model Context Protocol servers, showing concentration risks and a surge in agentic browsing — with implications for APIs, local MCPs, and market design.
Read more:
asimovaddendum.substack.com/p/read-write...
Read, Write, Act: Inside the MCP server boom
A mapping of 2,874 MCP servers shows concentration risks and a surge in agentic browsing — with implications for APIs, local MCPs, and market design.
asimovaddendum.substack.com
September 11, 2025 at 6:03 PM
ssrc.org
In November 2001, in the immediate wake of 9/11, the SSRC asked social scientists to bring theoretical and empirical knowledge to bear on its events and aftermath. These reflections can be read here: items.ssrc.org/category/aft...
After September 11
Terrorist attacks on and since September 11th have stimulated public soul-searching, military and diplomatic responses, and efforts to reform public policy. Both the attacks and responses to them have...
items.ssrc.org
September 11, 2025 at 3:37 PM
ssrc.org
The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University is now accepting applications for residential fellowships for the 2026-27 academic year!
casbsstanford.bsky.social Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford @casbsstanford.bsky.social · Sep 8
Apply for a 2026-27 academic year CASBS residential fellowship. Deadline: Oct 31, 2025

More more info & link to application portal: casbs.stanford.edu/apply-casbs-...

Watch former fellows talk about it in their own words in a suite of 17 short, awesome videos:: casbs.stanford.edu/apply-casbs-...
September 10, 2025 at 4:08 PM