I would expect a Bolsonaro government to strike deals for rare earth minerals with the US, deforest the Amazon, explore offshore oil and gas AND continue developing Chinese FDI in green tech.

Last year, @sfjournal.bsky.social published this article that I co-authored with @tomasgold.bsky.social on the rise of Bolsonarismo in Brazil. Now, his son is poised to regain the presidency for the family and its followers. doi.org/10.1093/sf/s...

A processual framework for understanding the rise of the populist right: the case of Brazil (2013–2018)

Abstract. How and in what sequence do social structures, contingent events, and agents’ decisions combine over time to bring about a new populist right? To

doi.org

Many have noted the progress of the Brazilian economy under the latest Lula administration. Inflation and a world high interest rate ate into those gains for almost all voters. The politics of a high inflation world still remain to be appreciated by analysts on both the left and right.

Got a big paper from my current work on transitions to green tech manufacturing in the Global South conditionally accepted at one of sociology’s top generalist journals. Could not be more thrilled! More soon…

Latest news: 2 of my sociology colleagues, John Levi Martin & Geoff Wodtke & I each wrote separate reviews of the Vanderbilt-Wash U Report on Sociology by A. Rubin. For my brief opinion and links to all 3 reviews, see this blogpost: scatter.wordpress.com/2026/09/19/g...

guest post: scholarly malpractice and the vanderbilt-washington university report on sociology

The following is a guest post by Julian Go. By now readers of scatterplot will be aware of the Sociology portion of the Vanderbilt-Washington University Report (VWUR) by Ashley Rubin. Part of the “…

scatter.wordpress.com

Such important work by colleagues at the NZIPL! And it raises a critical question: why are some Global South countries more capable of attracting and using this investment for building up green industry than others?

Albert Pinto@70sbachchan.bsky.social · 3w ago

NEW: The big story is not Chinese EVs everywhere —but Chinese EV factories everywhere. And its not just Chinese firms going out. Our CM-FDI database tracks every foreign Solar, Wind, EV and battery manufacturing plant built in 21st century. cmfdi.netzeropolicylab.com

New Paper out in Socio-Economic Review! Part of a coming special issue on the socio-economics of loss and decline. About the 4D chess of using blended finance for the coal exit in the Global South. Read it here: doi.org/10.1093/ser/... (or ask me for a copy if you don't have access)!)

CALL FOR PAPERS Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University of the Witwatersrand and @princeton.edu Joint Symposium THE CLIMATE FACTORY IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH 1-2 April 2027 Johannesburg, South Africa www.wits.ac.za/media/wits-u...

Welcome (back) to the Institute for Advanced Study @benbraun.eurosky.social. There couldn't be a more timely topic than "Emerging Forces in Global Political Economy" and we are fortunate to have you leading the School of Social Science community in this crucial discussion.

Benjamin Braun@benbraun.social · last mo.

Me arriving at work in muggy Princeton weather (76°F at 9am). Today's my first day as visiting professor at the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study. I'll be leading the annual theme, 'Emerging Forces in Global Political Economy', working with a fantastic group of scholars.

This is an impressive line up.

Basak Kus@basakkus.bsky.social · last mo.

This November, I’ll have the honor of hosting the 2026 Shasha Seminar on The New Global Economic Order At Wesleyan. I can’t quite believe we’ve managed to bring all these brilliant minds together. I’ll share the website and registration details soon. For now, a little teaser!

Occupying my office at the Institute for Advanced Study today. This is where book #2 is going to be written, by hook or by crook!

Who gets to decide what science gets done and for whom? In @bostonreview.bsky.social's “How to Save Science” forum, @scijust.bsky.social and I argue that issues of public accountability are key to any democratic future of the federal research enterprise.

Boston Review@bostonreview.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Our forum “How to Save Science” is now online. Led by Zeynep Pamuk, with responses from @alondra.bsky.social @sbagen.bsky.social @jeremymberg.bsky.social @madeleineebaker.bsky.social @jamesowenweatherall.com @cbo.bsky.social @nataliebaviles.bsky.social @heatherdouglas.bsky.social + more

"American science needs an executive branch constrained by checks and balances" now out in Nature Physics with Andrea Liu, Sidney Nagel and Thierry Emonet. Gift-link: rdcu.be/fCDGE Original: doi.org/10.1038/s415... @natphys.nature.com #physics

Eyes emoji. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

One more great thing about Dolly. She was a paid-up union member — American Federation of Musicians, Local 257, Nashville. And she had been for 58 years. www.afm.org/2026/08/afm-...

AFL-CIO@aflcio.org · 2mo ago

Dolly Parton knew what it was like to struggle as she fought for working families her whole career. From providing free books to kids to giving working women our "9 to 5" anthem, she was an icon and an inspiration. Rest in power to our union sister. We will always love you.

How did Sociology become the hate piñata of Concerned Pundits on the education beat? The past month saw calls in the press for the discipline to be "liquidated" bc it's a "scam." My theory: it's bc we expose the harms of inequality. Me in today's @economist.com:🎁 www.economist.com/by-invitatio...

Why is sociology the hate-piñata of the social sciences?

Accusations that it is thinly disguised socialism are wide of the mark, writes Brooke Harrington

economist.com

Carney: “Canada fuels American growth, supplying 99% of their natural gas imports, 85% of their electricity imports, and 60% of their crude oil imports. “I don’t think they want us to stop sending any of that energy.”

Penguin has a page up for my new book, coming Feb 2027, HOUSE SOCIETY The epigraph is from Kenneth T. Jackson's famous "Crabgrass Frontier": "... no society can be fully understood apart from the residences of its members" The book is an exploration and affirmation of that thesis!

House Society

The world is in the midst of a deep and worsening housing crisis. It has caused rents to soar in Britain, millions to protest in Spain, and a government to collapse in Sweden. Under a global ideology ...

penguin.co.uk

This stops in 2022. I imagine that we'll see a pretty much vertical line for the years 2022-2026, once these are included in the database.

📖 New book review in Social Forces "Urban Power: Democracy and Inequality in São Paulo and Johannesburg" by Benjamin H. Bradlow Reviewed by @schechtlm.bsky.social ➡️ doi.org/10.1093/sf/soaf114

Appreciate @drodrik.bsky.social's discussion of an article I co-wrote with @akentikelenis.bsky.social in his chapter on "Making the Green Transition Happen" in Shared Prosperity in a Fractured World (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s418...

My book AGAINST TECH OLIGARCHY, out Sept 15, is available for pre-order at againsttecholigarchy.com. It chronicles the rise of tech workers' activism, how they courageously came together to challenge the industry's most powerful bosses, and how their movement changed Silicon Valley forever. 1/

This is an institutional crisis, but it is also an epistemological crisis — especially for the social sciences, which have treated the US as a theoretically important case. With its increasing epistemological marginality, a rational response would be a more global and transnational social science.

Nils Gilman@nilsgilman.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Entirely obvious: “Chinese institutions have increased their production of graduates with doctoral degrees much faster than American ones… U.S. doctoral programs are now admitting fewer candidates or have stopped accepting new applicants altogether.” washingtonmonthly.com/2026/08/17/u...

11/ Europe and China have traditionally been larger export markets for Africa, but have hardly proved themselves reliable friends, either. For its part, Europe is set to impose a carbon border tax, which will be particularly painful for a handful of African countries. www.ntu.edu.sg/cas/news-eve...

Adam Tooze's book Carbon is finally going to be out in February 2027. Pre-order here! Climate Crisis and the Eclipse of the West

Looking forward to learning from / with this crew over the next academic year. www.ias.edu/sss/social-s...

SOCIAL SCIENCE SEMINAR

Except where noted in bold in the list below, the Social Science Seminar is held on Mondays from 10:30am-12:00pm in Room 5 of Rubenstein Commons. Attendees include Faculty, Members, and Visitors in th...

ias.edu

I have a forthcoming chapter on the South Africa / Morocco comparison in a volume edited by @mkblyth.bsky.social @danieldrisc.com and Lucio Baccaro on "greening growth models." These notable gains are happening at the same time as many risk everything to leave. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Why Morocco’s ‘forgotten’ young are fleeing to Europe

Failure to translate growth into better living standards has driven migration attempts into Spain’s Ceuta enclave

giftarticle.ft.com

JW Mason@jwmason.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I had not realized how far Morocco has come as a late industrialization success story. phenomenalworld.org/analysis/afr...

My book URBAN POWER is selling for just $12 on Amazon right now. www.amazon.com/Urban-Power-...

Urban Power: Democracy and Inequality in São Paulo and Johannesburg (Princeton Studies in Global and Comparative Sociology)

Urban Power: Democracy and Inequality in São Paulo and Johannesburg (Princeton Studies in Global and Comparative Sociology) [Bradlow, Benjamin H.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Urban Power: Democracy and Inequality in São Paulo and Johannesburg (Princeton Studies in Global and Comparative Sociology)

amazon.com

The answer I propose involves thinking about climate change as an issue of state-building in a transnational space. The analytical focus is on the interactions between the national environmental bureaucracy, opposing elites, and their ties inside and outside the nation-state.

One of my dissertation papers is out this week, I answer one question: How do states build and lose decarbonization capacities? It's about the Brazilian Amazon since 1985, an increadible case of succesful, state-led decarbonization! www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1... 🧵🧵🧵

Reach and Retrenchment of the Environmental State: Global Climate Politics in the Amazon Rainforest1 | American Journal of Sociology: Vol 132, No 1

How do states build and lose the capacity to decarbonize? Based on a comparative-historical analysis of Brazil’s drastic reduction and later resurgence of CO2 emissions from 1985 to 2022, this article...

journals.uchicago.edu