Bring back matron! We’ll be talking about age and politics later this afternoon, 1730, Senate House www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

''Matron was a substitute God': Aging, Nostalgia, and Encounters with the National Health Service'

Life Cycles

history.ac.uk

🚨The Politics and Policy of London: Elections, Demography and the Reshaping of Power in the Capital is now available for pre-order.🚨 www.routledge.com/The-Politics...

The Politics and Policy of London: Elections, Demography and the Reshaping of Power in the Capital

This book examines the changing demographics, attitudes and electoral behaviours of Londoners over the last 50 years and considers the impact these changes have had on the policy agendas of the capita...

routledge.com

Good article on PBSAs. Finishes with the usual hand washing we’ve come to expect from this and previous governments www.theguardian.com/education/20...

‘I didn’t know what to do’: collapse of providers of high-end digs leaves students in shock

Cost of living crisis and drop in international students hits market for purpose-built accommodation

theguardian.com

This is an excellent analysis of the construction of ‘left behind’ working-class voters by @jmoss88.bsky.social and @emilyrobinson.bsky.social.

Popular perceptions of the politics of class in Brexit Britain: perspectives from Mass Observation

The 2016 EU Referendum and 2019 General Election placed class back on the agenda as many political scientists turned to historical narratives to account for political change. In doing so, they ofte...

doi.org

For my new research unit Politics of Democracy at the Berlin Social Science Center @wzb.bsky.social, we have 3 open research positions. 2 postdocs: 4 + 2 years (100%) 1 doc: 2 years (75%) Starting date: 1 March 2027 (negotiable) Application deadline: 1 November

Event 🎟️ 'Responsible access at scale: The strategy behind AM's most complex collections' 🎟️ 7 October, 5 - 5.45 Sign up here: lnkd.in/ebPnEeVT

My six monthly reminder for U.K. academic authors to make sure you’re signed up. Especially if your works are used as teaching materials.

ALCS@alcs.co.uk · 3w ago

Happy distribution! This week we're paying over £12million to over 30,000 writers 🙌🍂 We hope this autumn payment can make a bit of difference to our members - are you saving or spending yours?

Due out January...

Will Jennings📉🗳️@drjennings.bsky.social · 3w ago

*Every time* I am somehow surprised by how long it takes to 'finish' a book after finishing writing the thing. Copy-edits, indexing, abstracts, alt-text, cover design, proofs, more proofs, marketing, op-eds, launches, the list goes on!

Happy weekend! This Saturday brings you the rare joy of a 🙌job🙌 in: surveys! democratic attitudes! experiments! three years!! research only (if you want)!!!! with @rikkidean.bsky.social @sotonpolitics.bsky.social !!!!!! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DTB393/r...

Research Fellow - Political Process Preferences in Europe (PoPPiE) project at University of Southampton

Apply now for the Research Fellow - Political Process Preferences in Europe (PoPPiE) project role on jobs.ac.uk - the leading job board for higher education jobs. View details.

jobs.ac.uk

Had a UKRI funded grant proposal rejected at the "AI triage stage". "This AI-based triage was used only to identify approximately 50% of the strongest proposals to take forward to full human review." 🧪 #academicsky

Please excuse me while I scream into a cushion at the thought of ALL the articles I had to write on the "UK productivity puzzle" in the 2010s www.ft.com/content/c819...

Ahead of the Budget, our new explainer takes a look at how the amount of tax the government collects, and the amount of tax paid by the ‘average worker’, compares historically and internationally.

What is the UK’s ‘tax burden’ - and how much tax is paid on workers’ earnings? – Full Fact

Ahead of the Budget we’ve taken a look at how the so-called ‘tax burden’ is changing, and how taxes on earnings in the UK compare both historically and internationally.

fullfact.org

Gerry Stoker, @daisyblackburn.bsky.social, @nickclarkegeo.bsky.social, and @drjennings.bsky.social outline how place-based policies can address populist dynamics: doi.org/10.1111/1467...

How Place‐Based Policy Could Counter Populist Discontent

Resentment felt by people in areas that have suffered from social and economic decline is a significant driver of populist backlash—‘the revenge of the places that don't matter’. An effective place-b...

doi.org

And a reminder that if you'd like to contribute to our archive applications to be one of our regular writers are now open! More info here: massobs.org.uk/the-archive/...

Write for the archive - Mass Observation Archive

Writing for Mass Observation You can apply to write for the archive here. Current Observers If you are one of our current Observers you may find our handbook for new Observers helpful. This has all th...

massobs.org.uk

So much of the right these days have a massive patriotism problem. This guy: - is a tax exile (left long before this govt) - hates his own country while complaining he doesn’t get big enough subsidies from it - laments the manufacturing hit from a Brexit he supported www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Billionaire Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe says he has lost confidence in UK

Ineos founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe tells the BBC he thinks the country is "on the slide" and calls for more investment in the North Sea.

bbc.co.uk

🚨 Job alert 🚨 Come and join me and @paul-kindermann.net researching European process preferences. 3-year postdoc @sotonpolitics.bsky.social with travel and training budget. Potentially of interest to those attending #EPOP2026. Details at: jobs.soton.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx... #polisky

Job Opportunity at the University of Southampton: Research Fellow - Political Process Preferences in Europe (PoPPiE) project

We are delighted to welcome applications for the position of Research Fellow within a new ERC-funded research group on Political Process Preferences in Europe (PoPPiE): Rethinking Conceptual, Ontologi...

jobs.soton.ac.uk

The brutal reality of universities' suppression of wages (in KPMG's report for DfE on cost of undergraduate provision in England) assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6aabfa...

Race, Mass Observation, longitudinal approaches I've mentioned this article by Khaleda Brophy-Harmer to numerous people recently. It's now published. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Performing, feeling and racializing ‘ordinariness’ and ‘deviance’ in the Mass Observation Archive: an individual longitudinal case-study, 1990–2009

The Mass Observation Archive (MOA) has long collected writing from UK residents about their everyday experiences, placing the ‘ordinary’ at its centre. This article examines what the concept of ‘de...

tandfonline.com

Race, Mass Observation, longitudinal approaches I've mentioned this article by Khaleda Brophy-Harmer to numerous people recently. It's now published. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Performing, feeling and racializing ‘ordinariness’ and ‘deviance’ in the Mass Observation Archive: an individual longitudinal case-study, 1990–2009

The Mass Observation Archive (MOA) has long collected writing from UK residents about their everyday experiences, placing the ‘ordinary’ at its centre. This article examines what the concept of ‘de...

tandfonline.com

I support Wikipedia, where information is still human-created, fact-checked, and 100% free. Join me! donate.wikimedia.org

Update: The academic flight from Twitter is now complete and appears permanent. April 2023, after the pandemic research surge, we recorded 2,234,307 posts sharing research on Twitter. As of April this year, "X" had 896,741 posts about research. That's a 60% drop in traffic.

Congratulations to @thomas-dekeyser.bsky.social, who has received an @erc.europa.eu ERC Starting Grant to support his research studying the close connections between AI and authoritarian politics. Find out more: www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2026/09...

Rather excited about this 💫 From January onwards, I will start a five year research project investigating how AI is altering the nature and features of authoritarianism. The project will trace AI tech across four countries & domains. More info about the project, and team hiring plans, coming soon.

School of Geography and Environmental Science@sotongeogenviron.bsky.social · last mo.

Congratulations to @thomas-dekeyser.bsky.social, who has received an @erc.europa.eu ERC Starting Grant to support his research studying the close connections between AI and authoritarian politics. Find out more: www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2026/09...

Statement from the British Polling Council www.britishpollingcouncil.org/channel-4-ne...

Undercover footage verified by Channel 4 News reveals a secret plot by senior Reform UK figures to break the law on party donations. A leading legal expert is now calling for a criminal investigation. 🔗 Read the exclusive story on Substack:

Exclusive: Nigel Farage filmed undercover celebrating secret new foreign donations

Undercover footage verified by Channel 4 News reveals a secret plot by senior Reform UK figures to break the law on party donations. A leading legal expert is now calling for a criminal investigation.

channel4news.substack.com

I am still overwhelmed and processing being awarded this grant. It funds a 5-year project from Jan 2027 on how trust can bolster support for major policy action on climate, redistribution, and crime prevention. You can read more here: danjdevine.github.io/contrust/ bsky.app/profile/erc....

European Research Council (ERC)@erc.europa.eu · 2mo ago

📣 Good news! 📣 Results of the ERC 2026 Starting Grant call are out! Funding worth a total of €705 million will go to 421 early-career researchers across Europe. Discover who, what and where 👉 link.europa.eu/9M3MmN 🧪 #ERCStG #FrontierResearch #HorizonEurope 🇪🇺 @scienceinnovation.ec.europa.eu

Very surprised and delighted that my lead-authored article with @robfordmancs.bsky.social & @martamiori.bsky.social has won the BJPIR John Peterson Best Article Prize for 2025! If only I could find a uni to employ me I would keep trying to produce research at this level 🤣

BJPIR@bjpir.bsky.social · 2mo ago

We are delighted to announce that the winner of the #BJPIR John Peterson Best Article Prize for 2025 is ‘Inside the ‘secret garden’: Candidate selection at the 2019 UK general election’ by Chris Butler, Marta Miori, and Rob Ford. 🎉 Congratulations to our winners and runners up! 🔗 buff.ly/EwyGhl1

‘The simple fact is that politics is an increasingly dangerous profession. The great risk is that these perils will further reduce the already diminished pool of people who think that “getting into politics” is a sensible pursuit.’ theconversation.com/how-politica...

How political life in Britain became so dangerous

The security of politicians has increasingly been in the spotlight.

theconversation.com

The journal Urban Geography is recruiting a Frontline Editor (Jan 2027 for 3 years). Applications due by Sept 18 👇 www.urbangeographyjournal.org/news

How Place-Based Policy Could Counter Populist Discontent New article in @politicalquarterly.bsky.social with Gerry Stoker, @daisyblackburn.bsky.social and @drjennings.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

How Place‐Based Policy Could Counter Populist Discontent

Resentment felt by people in areas that have suffered from social and economic decline is a significant driver of populist backlash—‘the revenge of the places that don't matter’. An effective place-b...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com