Please see a new call for papers for a special issue on "Artificial Intelligence: Power, Place, and Uneven Development" in the journal CJRES academic.oup.com/cjres/pages/...

Artificial Intelligence: Power, Place, and Uneven Development

Editors: Judith Clifton, Mia Gray, Michael Kitson & Pete Tyler

academic.oup.com

What is a housing 'love letter' and how and why is it being used by prospective homebuyers? In this new paper with @lukegreen.bsky.social we argue that these personal letters are market devices through which buyers seek advantage in an increasingly unequal housing system doi.org/10.1016/j.ge...

New study finds the social cost of driving a car 1 km—including pollution, crashes, infrastructure, and noise—is more than *triple* the private cost paid by the car owner. doi.org/10.1016/j.tr...

Come and join us! Sept the 16th, 2026

Almost everything we know about basic income comes from studying individuals, not communities. This book tries to remedy this and puts regions in the centre of their analysis and looks at basic income as a regional policy. Free access rsa.tandfonline.com/toc/rpim20/7/2

@drbethkitson.bsky.social and I recently wrote a piece for @ippr.org talking about the importance of infrastructural citizenship. Data centres are a fascinating example. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

What Could ‘Manchesterism’ Mean?: Infrastructural Citizenship for Civic Renewal

Local infrastrucutre is a lens through which citizens materially experience the actions of the state. Drawing on the concept of 'infrastructural citizenship', this paper explores how shared spaces ca...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

The Guardian@theguardian.com · last mo.

‘Never seen this level of objection’: Scotland pushes back against datacentre boom

The latest issue of the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society is all about remunicipalisaiton -- in many different counties, including France, the UK, the US, Germany, Bolivia, Spain, etc.... See: academic.oup.com/cjres/issue

Issues | Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society | Oxford Academic

A journal of the Cambridge Political Economy Society. The journal publishes multi-disciplinary research on the spatial dimensions of contemporary socio-economic-political change, and examines the effe...

academic.oup.com

Now is the time to assess remunicipalisation (nationalisation at a local level) as local regions/cities take essential services back into public control. Article free to access. academic.oup.com/cjres/articl...

How places are contesting the privatisation of local public services

The provision of essential public services — water, energy, health, housing, education, transport, social care and infrastructure — is a crucial determinan

academic.oup.com

Hot off the press - Viral Debt: The Production and Reproduction of Economic Vulnerability This book shows how debt – like a contagion – works systematically across economic and social structures and geographies This is a free, Open Access, book: www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edi...

Viral Debt | The Production and Reproduction of Economic Vulnerability

Challenging how social scientists, policymakers, legal scholars, and the public examine household debts and wellbeing, Viral Debt traces how debt moves within

taylorfrancis.com

‘London was an obvious destination for a US tech company with designs on hefty public contracts. Palantir had some connections – it had provided software to GCHQ – and was soon spending heavily.’ Peter Geoghegan and Lucas Amin on Palantir’s NHS contract: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Peter Geoghegan and Lucas Amin · ‘This looks absolutely rubbish’: Palantir and the NHS

A decade ago Palantir was largely unknown in the UK. It now holds public contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds...

lrb.co.uk

"There's a recent study by the University of Colorado looking at global media coverage of the climate crisis. And they found that in the five years since 2021, it's dropped by over a third and actually closer to 40%." - @adriennebuller.bsky.social, editor of @the-breakdown.bsky.social

I'm writing a book with a chapter on single-family rentals, and every prediction the 2017 elite consensus made about institutional landlords can now be refuted, from the Urban Institute's "Why the single-family rental merger won't hurt homebuyers or renters."

Why the single-family rental merger won’t hurt homebuyers or renters

In a $4.3 billion deal announced last week, two of the country’s largest landlords of single-family rentals agreed to merge.

urban.org

85% of staff in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at risk of redundancy at Exeter, with over 500 at risk in total. Solidarity to all at risk -

Ben Phillips@benphillips1989.bsky.social · 3mo ago

A statement from Exeter UCU branch @ucu.org.uk - please share far and wide.

📄New paper alert! Latest research from @towardsfairwork.bsky.social @oii.ox.ac.uk shows digital care platforms use strategic ignorance to keep workers in the dark about pay, ratings, and accountability - reinforcing precarity across the sector. 1/3

Today I made it to Manchester and back to speak at #Housing2026 on a panel focused on dignity and temporary accommodation – or more accurately the stripping of dignity – not just from the conditions families face in much TA but how systems and people treat, judge and categorise them.

With the likely change in leadership to Andy Burnham and eyes on "Manchesterism" and the way municipal govt can contest privatisation, this is a good time to read our new paper on: How places are contesting the privatisation of local public services academic.oup.com/cjres/articl...

From the Archive: Nigel Dodd, 'The Social Life of Bitcoin' - challenges the notion that Bitcoin is ‘trust-free’ money by highlighting the social practices, organizational structures and utopian ambitions that sustain it. (2017) journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

journals.sagepub.com

The Fairness Foundation‬ @fairness.bsky.social‬ does really important work. It was a privilege to get to talk to them about asset manager power and rent extraction in housing and infrastructure www.faircomment.co.uk/p/a-brief-hi...

A brief history of rentierism

An interview with Brett Christophers, author of 'Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It?'

faircomment.co.uk

Are you a researcher looking for funding to cover expenses arising from a defined research project? Apply the British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants (supported by DSIT, @leverhulme.ac.uk and @wellcometrust.bsky.social). Learn more: https://bit.ly/4t0MDRl

'Universities across the UK have reported more than 1,000 job losses in the first four months of this year, with the actual number likely to be far higher as institutions continue to roll out cost-saving initiatives.' 1/4

Research Professional News@resprofnews.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Over 1,000 UK university job losses announced since January. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

My review of David Harvey’s ‘Story of Capital’ ..for the LSE Review of Books... blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofb...

❗JOB ALERT❗Assistant Prof. in Human Geography at Durham University. In health geographies broadly defined, with specific mention of political ecologies of health, health-environment intersections and other approaches relevant to political ecology and @pollenetwork.bsky.social Please share widely!

Assistant Professor in Human Geography

Click the link provided to see the complete job description.

durham.taleo.net

❗JOB ALERT❗Assistant Prof. in Human Geography at Durham University. Health geographies broadly defined. Relevant to @devgeogsrg.bsky.social @foodgeog.bsky.social @gfgrg.bsky.social @healthgeographyrgs.bsky.social @polgrg.bsky.social @lag-uk.bsky.social Share widely/contact to discuss informally!

Roll up, roll up! Spring is here and I am looking for reviews for @urbanhistory.bsky.social. Here are some titles we're interested in. If you want a copy of anything below (in return for a review) or want to pitch something to us, drop us a line! Beginning with the incomparable Timothy Mitchell...

Come and shape the future of the Nuffield Foundation. A new & key leadership role at the UK’s leading independent funder of social & economic research. We fund evidence, back innovation & support pioneering practice. Join a great team at an exciting moment. roles.saxbam.com/advert-detai...

This discussion was based on work with @jacktaggart.bsky.social and @iliasalami.bsky.social, including this article on "non-hegemony" in @phenomenalworld.bsky.social and further research to come www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/non...

Non-Hegemony | Phenomenal World

The neoliberal world order is collapsing. In its wake, powerful states have abandoned multilaterialism in pursuit of national aims.

phenomenalworld.org

It's me! In the papers! Read all about it! Never ceases to amaze me that people will carry my stuff. See what you think. 👇

Financial Times@financialtimes.com · 6mo ago

Management consultants are ruining UK universities ft.trib.al/0LelZP9 | opinion

Longer reflection on Westminster's semi-permanent play streets here. This is a remarkable and bold scheme – all credit to the team – and demonstrates an approach that other local authorities could consider, another tool in the campaign to restore children’s freedom to play on their doorsteps.

At our April Play Streets Forum (hosted with Lucy Colbeck), Maximilian Goodchild, Farran Leach and Carla Leowe from Westminster Council talked us through their Active Westminster semi-permanent Play… ...

At our April Play Streets Forum (hosted with Lucy Colbeck), Maximilian Goodchild, Farran Leach and Carla Leowe from Westminster Council talked us through their Active Westminster semi-permanent Play S...

linkedin.com

Alison Stenning@alisonstenning.bsky.social · 6mo ago

As ever, a fascinating and inspiring Play Streets Forum this morning, with Max Goodchild & Farran Leach from Active Westminster talking about their *permanent* play street designations (reviving the Street Playgrounds Act), giving play priority on 4 (soon 5) streets. Check out the road markings!

University Challenge! Wishing the best of luck to Darwin Team @darwincollegecam.bsky.social in the final quarter-final this Monday at 8.30pm on BBC2! Shout-out to Geography PhD student Jon White, supervised by @mia-gray.bsky.social. The team takes on Merton College, Oxford for a spot in the semis.

VICTORY! Government to open up the Land Registry - bringing to an end a thousand years of secrecy shrouding who owns England. I’ve been campaigning for this for ten years: the new Land Use Framework, published later today, makes it government policy. 1/ www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Government to lift paywall from large parts of the Land Registry

Exclusive: finding out who owns land will become simpler under plans to make the best use of green spaces and hit net zero targets

theguardian.com