Warren Pearce

@warrenpearce.bsky.social

608 Followers 244 Following

Academic. Digital methods. Climate change. Expertise. Imagery. Occasional music posts. #AcademicSky #STS Sheffield & Nottingham https://sheffield.ac.uk/spir/people/academic/warren-pearce

A pile of coloured record sleeves on a brown carpet
Ethics, Evidence, and Policy Network meeting Dear all, Welcome to the quarterly meeting of the Ethics, Evidence, and Policy Network! We are pleased to welcome sociologist Martyn Pickersgill who will discuss Novelty, Normativity, and the Neuro. In this talk, sociologist Martyn Pickersgill will discuss some of his work over the last two decades on the social circulation of neuroscience and neurotechnology. He will argue that expertise far beyond neuro-research is often necessary for its societal impacts, and reflect on some of the ethical implications of claims to novelty and significance in relation to brain technology. We will also welcome colleagues from EthUcate. EthUcateis a growing initiative aimed at educating diverse stakeholders about responsible science and ethics communication. By contributing to responsible research and innovation, enhancing public trust and fostering informed policy decisions, EthUcate seeks to empower individuals and organizations to engage thoughtfully with scientific information. Katherine Bassil will introduce the work they do and key challenges in ethics communication.
Beyond The Frame: Network, Infrastructure and Vernacular in the Making of Environmental Visuals Wer: Warren Pearce (Universität Sheffield) Wann: 16. März 2026, 17:00 CET Abstract Digital platforms such as social media and search engines have grown to become the world’s most important gatekeepers of visual culture over the last two decades. These platforms are what Noortje Marres describes as socio-technical formations, in which social processes and media technologies come together to visually configure issues. Here, I argue that these formations need to be the focus of methodologies for research into environmental visuals, analysing both visual content within the frame and the platform effects which shape the production and circulation of images. This approach is needed to better understand how certain images gain currency and improve public understanding of the impacts of digital platforms on public debates. Drawing on STS and digital media studies, I introduce knowledge infrastructures and visual vernaculars as conceptual resources for researching digital images, and visual network analysis as a flexible method for exploring these concepts. I then present our team’s recent empirical studies into environmental images on Instagram and Google Images, demonstrating diverse visual configurations across different platforms. The results highlight the importance of accounting for the role of media technologies in environmental images. In conclusion, I reflect on the theoretical and methodological implications of this research for the idea of Environments in and as Networks.
Comparison of top 10 Google Images results for climate change in Australia, Brazil, China, Mexico, Netherlands and Nigeria. The images all look very similar to each other, with images of the Earth in stylised, Photoshopped environments
Many coloured record sleeves strewn in a wooden table
A UCU placard that reads “too burnt out to think of a slogan” in front of a tower block and another placard reading “trade unionists for trans rights”
A large stage with two large screens showing the words "I'm back by popular demand" in large red capital letters on a light blue background. Pusha T and Malice from Clipse are standing in front, with a large crowd in the foreground.
Entrance of Graz train station with Graz Hauptbahnhof written in capital letters on a light coloured stone building against clear blue sky
A chart showing public awareness of media narratives about climate change, specifically that the richest 1% of the world emit more than twice as much carbon as the world's poorest 50%. Approximately one-third have heard and agreed with the claim, approximately one-third have not heard the claim
Screen shot of web page reading: From authority to similarity: how Google transformed its knowledge infrastructure using computer vision Authors Warren Pearce, Maud Borie, Laura Bruschi, Daniele Dell'Orto, Matthew Hanchard, Elena Pilipets, Alessandro Quets, and Zijing Xu
Critics argue that metascience merely reinvents the wheel of other academic fields. Through a range of disciplinary, historical and geographical perspectives, this panel asks what is new about metascience, and why it may have captured greater attention than previous research and reform initiatives. Long Abstract Critics argue that metascience is merely reinventing the wheel, as fields such as History and Philosophy of Science, Science and Technology Studies, and Science of Science have long examined issues like scientific error and alternative research structures. In response, this panel asks what, if anything, is new about metascience, and why it may have captured greater attention than previous research and reform initiatives. These questions are addressed through a range of disciplinary, historical and geographical perspectives, featuring scholars with extensive cross-disciplinary experience. Nicole Nelson & Fiona Fidler discuss how a focus on how deteriorating labor conditions of academic work have both incentivized suboptimal scientific practices, and prompted greater openness to reform, providing metascience with a greater opportunity for change than the previous statistical reform movement. Hui Li discusses the rise, decline and resurgence of metascience in China, since the 1980s, using the case of the historical development of Science of Science in Shanghai. Qi Wu will present the VirSci project—an AI-based simulation of scientific collaboration—as an example of how policy-driven Science of Science research in Shanghai is evolving toward new process-based inquiries. Felipe Romero argues that more engagement between metascience and philosophy of science can avoid reinventing the wheel. He will share insights from co-founding the Perspectives on Scientific Error Workshop, uniting philosophers and metascientists over seven editions. Bart Penders reflects on his experiences of STS-metascience encounters in which ‘good science’ and ‘quality’ are contested o…
Front page of the Daily Mail, which is a campaign to protect UK talent from AI giants stealing work for free. The campaign is supported by Elton John and Simon Cowell
Sarah Cowan, head of higher education and research policy at the British Academy, told Research Professional News: “We have called and continue to call on the government to trigger an urgent review of higher education funding to deliver a sustainable model that delivers a wide breadth of subjects and is resilient to regional inequalities in provision. “It is crucial that we secure the health of the UK’s higher education sector and fully benefit from our world-class universities.” Cowan added that the severe financial pressure is “a systemic issue affecting all disciplines, but disproportionately those within…the arts, humanities and social sciences”. ‘Precarious financial situation’ Beth Thompson, executive director of policy and partnerships at the health research funder Wellcome, also said on Wednesday said that the government should move quickly to “work with the university sector to find strategic and ambitious solutions that can put them on a stable financial footing”.  “The news of job losses is a stark reminder of the precarious financial situation facing the university sector,” she said
Title page of journal article entitled Learning the lessons of Climategate: A cosmopolitan moment in the public life of climate science written by Sujatha Raman and Warren Pearce
Nas on stage with a huge visual behind showing the Quincy Jones star from Hollywood Boulevard
Screenshot reads “Vallance is pushed now on information detailed in his diary which Andrew O'Connor KC says shows a “repeated failure” by Boris Johnson to understand things like graphs and scientific concepts, and regularly forgetting things he has recently been told. Patrick Vallance says that the prime minister acknowledges himself that he gave up science when he was 15. He notes this was not an issue unique to Boris Johnson, and recalls a meeting of science advisers from across Europe, where an adviser from one country said "the leader of that country had enormous problems with exponential curves” - something which raised a laugh in the meeting, as all the leaders had that issue.”