Seven years in the making – @kurtiveson.bsky.social and I are thrilled to share that our book, People Power in Cities, is about to be released with Oxford University Press - out in print 3 June 2026. academic.oup.com/book/62529
Kurt Iveson
@kurtiveson.bsky.social
Sydney-based urban geographer + unionist
What's so amazing about Jim Henson as a puppeteer is that he could literally be explaining that Kermit is made out of felt and ping pong balls and yet Kermit still feels alive the whole time he's doing it
New CEFC report into data centres in Aus - shows that the worst-case scenario seem to be about 10x to 15x worse than the potential best-case scenario Also frames DCs as "critical infrastructure". Is AI (84% of new DC growth) as 'critical' as a hospital or transport? www.cefc.com.au/insights/mar...
Another egregious example of uni wage theft. As claimant says: "our university encourages students to pursue Master's programs in Psychology and Social Work, and then undervalues those same qualifications in their own staff." Go @nteuvictoria.bsky.social newshub.medianet.com.au/2025/11/unio...
Union takes RMIT to court over $1 million wage theft from counsellors - News Hub
The National Tertiary Education Union has launched Federal Court action against RMIT University over allegations it underpaid student counsellors for at least a decade, with affected staff potentially...
newshub.medianet.com.au
"clawing shared governance back can help ensure that universities aren’t converted into profit centers for private equity firms. It seems plausible, even likely, that faculty unions will have some success building power off of the growing resentment of ubiquitous AI and its slop products."
Wrote a thing on the hot summer of uni AI adoption for @defector.com A huge thanks to @nathankhensley.bsky.social and @anniemcc.bsky.social. @brandyjensen.bsky.social is a legend. And anything smart in hear is thanks to hours of discussion, texting, and draft reading by @smosment.bsky.social
Incredible personal reflections on organising from @alybatt.bsky.social Spadework www.nplusonemag.com/issue-34/pol...
Spadework | Alyssa Battistoni
Your job as an organizer was to find out what it was that people wanted to be different in their lives, and then to persuade people that it mattered whether they decided to do something about it. This...
nplusonemag.com
So much ill shit going on across the world ... but am also feeling devastated waking up to learn that D'Angelo has passed. Voodoo one of those records for me, if the not *the* record. RIP. youtu.be/_RLP0xAjdJU?...
D'Angelo - Africa (Demo)
YouTube video by Music For Listening
youtu.be
New article! Acts of energy citizenship in community solar gardens by Judita Hudson, @kurtiveson.bsky.social & Sophie Webber. doi.org/10.1080/0964...
AI is changing the way we work, and reshaping higher education. It must be introduced fairly, ethically & with real consultation so staff aren’t left behind. How is AI being used in your workplace? Share your story: nteu.info/aistory
Call for sessions for the RC21 conference in Vienna, 20-22 July, 2026. Deadline for submissions: 6th of October 2025. rc21-vienna2026.org/call-for-ses... #urban #sociology
50 Years of Political Economy. Some fantastic articles, but only one has brought me to tears. @kurtiveson.bsky.social's generous contribution takes time to dwell on the PhD theses of @natashaheenan.bsky.social, Anna Sturman, and myself. @ppesydney.bsky.social 1/ www.ppesydney.net/jape-issues/...
Issue 95 (Winter 2025) - 50 Years of Political Economy in Australia - Progress in Political Economy (PPE)
SPECIAL ISSUE – 50 YEARS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY IN AUSTRALIA Complete issue JAPE95 complete Contents The Editors: Editorial Voices of Former Students of Political Economy: Anthony Albanese; Thalia Antho...
ppesydney.net
It is massive. Thanks to Peter Deppeler on Twitter for the footage. #GazaGenocide #MarchForHumanity
Re-posting in the wake of this week's news that YIMBY Melbourne has secured a $760,000 grant from US-based Open Philanthropy to progress their housing agenda locally... arena.org.au/yimby-or-nim...
YIMBY or NIMBY? Both are worse… – Arena
Critical * Radical * Australia * Earth
arena.org.au
Job Alert! 3-year Post-Doc to work with me and Marilu Melo Zurita on our "Wiring Australian Cities" project. It's an ARC-funded infrastructure geographies project 'following the infrastructure' of urban telecommunications across time and space. Details👇 usyd.wd105.myworkdayjobs.com/USYD_EXTERNA...
Postdoctoral Research Associate - Wiring Australian Cities
Full time, 3-year fixed term position, located on the Camperdown Campus at the School of Geosciences Opportunity to work with a team of ARC-funded researchers seeking to generate new knowledge about A...
usyd.wd105.myworkdayjobs.com
If you haven't already, please sign this petition in support of awesome sociologists at Macquarie Uni whose discipline is about to be decimated: www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/sa...
SAVE SOCIOLOGY AT MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY
We urge Macquarie University management to reverse this decision and preserve the vital disciplines of Sociology and Politics. Sociology has a key place in the social sciences as the broadest and mos...
megaphone.org.au
Job Alert! 3-year Post-Doc to work with me and Marilu Melo Zurita on our "Wiring Australian Cities" project. It's an ARC-funded infrastructure geographies project 'following the infrastructure' of urban telecommunications across time and space. Details👇 usyd.wd105.myworkdayjobs.com/USYD_EXTERNA...
Postdoctoral Research Associate - Wiring Australian Cities
Full time, 3-year fixed term position, located on the Camperdown Campus at the School of Geosciences Opportunity to work with a team of ARC-funded researchers seeking to generate new knowledge about A...
usyd.wd105.myworkdayjobs.com
Why are minerals so central to geopolitics? How green are electric cars? Why is anti-mining protest increasing? Can the inequalities of the global economy be transformed? I tackle these topics in my book EXTRACTION: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism 👀 September 2025 @wwnorton.bsky.social
Empty for over four years during a housing crisis ... nice job Sydney Uni. www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...
Why this grand building on Sydney’s busiest street is derelict
Sydney University’s International House could accommodate 200 students, but amid a rental affordability crisis, it sits abandoned.
smh.com.au
A timely reminder by @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social of the necessary ingredients to build the powerful and sustained movements we need today: the power to withhold and the power to promise.
Why Protests Should Be Promises
Modern movements that aim to advance racial equity should withhold and promise, rather than perform, writes Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò
time.com
Looking fwd to this podcast about the Green Bans. Something I learned reading @kurtiveson.bsky.social and Meredith Burgmann (who is on this podcast) and others was that it wasn’t all about stopping development, but often pausing it (thru strikes) to make time for the community to take part
Open letter signed by 60+ researchers on prioritising household clean energy over nuclear energy in current Australian election: www.ppesydney.net/open-letter-...
Open Letter: The Coalition’s Nuclear Plan Doesn’t Add Up—Spend the Money on Household Clean Energy Instead - Progress in Political Economy (PPE)
In the wake of the Government's announcement of its Cheaper Home Batteries Program, 60 Australian economists have signed a letter comparing the economic consequences of pursuing nuclear energy against...
ppesydney.net
New article! Prefiguring multispecies justice, by Anna Sturman, @danycelermajer.bsky.social, @freyagrace.bsky.social and @blancheverlie.bsky.social. This article considers the ways critical feminist thought and multispecies justice intersect. doi.org/10.1080/0964...
Perfect placement of 3 items on Sydney Uni's staff page today: one celebrating Mardi Gras (which started with a militant 1978 protest), one celebrating the Freedom Ride of 1965, one on new Campus Access Policy which curtails protest on campus. Protest is great as long as it's in the past, I guess?
We spoke to @australia.theguardian.com about the dangers of the new antisemitism definition and its chilling on academic speech about Palestine. By labelling Palestinian political expressions as antisemitic, it will institutionalise anti-Palestinian racism. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
Australian universities’ new antisemitism definition has some academics worried. Here’s why
Warnings decision could have ‘chilling’ effect and limit scope of education on Middle East
theguardian.com
New paper from me and Marilu Melo Zurita about the urban geopolitics of telecommunications infrastructure in Sydney. As @shannonmattern.bsky.social says, there's "multiple ways to wire the wired city": we tell the story of how this went down (literally!) in Sydney. doi.org/10.1080/0004...
The ups and downs of telecommunications infrastructure: the urban geopolitics of communications cabling in colonial Sydney
As telecommunications networks have facilitated the outward and upward expansion of cities, their development has also involved downward expansion into the urban underground. The making and remakin...
doi.org