New report + tool, making the case for municipal and community-led development

The Centre for Local Economies (CLES)@clesthinkdo.bsky.social · 15h ago

Ever wondered what municipal or community-led development could look like in your area? 🏗️ Today we launch a free, practical tool to help councils & communities explore the possibilities and keep more value in the places we call home. 🧰 🔗 www.cles.org.uk/rethinking-property-led-regeneration

Fascinating article on the political economy of outer space, situating the dominance of SpaceX today within a long history of deregulating and commercialising the skies:

Fulya Apaydin@fulyaapaydin.bsky.social · 2w ago

Here is my latest on how one particular company ended up dominating our skies: phenomenalworld.org/analysis/orb...

journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....

Who said it couldn't get any worse: 12% of London properties originally intended for private sale sold in bulk deals this past year. Housing as an asset class, it's coming home.

Investors snap up bundles of UK properties as housebuilders offer discounts

Bulk buyers win double-digit reductions while cautious consumers stay on sidelines

ft.com

Been about a year since this paper on Eviction Enforcement in South Africa came out and have some new followers since then. Possibly the bit of writing I'm proudest of so far. Free to read! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

For a Critical Logistics of Eviction: Producing Property Through Mobility in Cape Town

Understanding eviction as a positioning of bodies and loss in a property relation, I argue a critical logistical reading may offer a means of describing the capacity to evict within the economic, rac....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

We now know a bit about what happens when the likes of private equity firms and REITs enter housing markets. But what about venture capitalists?  My recent paper ‘Hyperscaling housing’ has been published in the latest volume of IJURR (spoiler: it's not pretty):

HYPERSCALING HOUSING: Venture Capital, Real Estate Start‐Ups and the Race to Build a Global Residential Brand

What happens when venture capitalists try to reinvent housing in their own image? Synonymous with the rise of Big Tech, venture capitalists (VCs) are asset managers that invest in early-stage compani...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

We now know a bit about what happens when the likes of private equity firms and REITs enter housing markets. But what about venture capitalists?  My recent paper ‘Hyperscaling housing’ has been published in the latest volume of IJURR (spoiler: it's not pretty):

HYPERSCALING HOUSING: Venture Capital, Real Estate Start‐Ups and the Race to Build a Global Residential Brand

What happens when venture capitalists try to reinvent housing in their own image? Synonymous with the rise of Big Tech, venture capitalists (VCs) are asset managers that invest in early-stage compani...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Essential reading from @davvkamp.bsky.social on how founder control explains the concentration of power in the hands of tech billionaires and exposes the myth of shareholder democracy tribunemag.co.uk/2026/07/the-...

The Age of Founder Control

Tech billionaires increasingly control our digital spaces, infrastructure, and society. How can we fight surveillance capitalism?

tribunemag.co.uk

Just out! My introduction to a new special issue in @sciasculture.bsky.social on "Tech Oligarchy" - go check it out and the papers in the special issue (under "Latest" articles) #techoligarchy #assetization #techbro #bigtech www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Tech oligarchy

Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)

tandfonline.com

My new article with @mihjournal.bsky.social is at long last in orbit. It explores how the neoliberal fantasy machine has used space colonisation to wish away the problem of environmental limits and revive the legitimation of private property.

Tech billionaires didn’t misread science fiction. They performed an edit: keeping the frontier, the visionary, the chrome; cutting the public institution, the collective, and the warning. Every. Single. Time. My new piece is now up in Aeon.

Aeon Magazine@aeon.co · 3w ago

Tech billionaires like to claim their work is inspired by science fiction, but in truth, they are using its ‘chrome-plated aesthetic’ as a fig leaf to further what the social theorist Ali Rıza Taşkale labels ‘reactionary futurism’

Stating the obvious (about the taxation of #housing assets), Australian style: pearlsandirritations.com/post/2026/07...

New supply won't fix housing while investors keep winning

To fix the housing crisis, further reform is needed that shifts taxation away from earnings onto passive assets.

pearlsandirritations.com

For everyone fascinated by the couple who ate pack lunches for a decade, check out @ntaylor.bsky.social and my (OA) piece about this weird and wonderful world! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The financialization of anti-capitalism? The case of the ‘Financial Independence Retire Early’ community

The Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) community consists of individuals each personally dedicated to reducing consumption, so as to build up financial surpluses that are eventually adequat...

tandfonline.com

Just saw that the first piece from our special issue is already out: Factions of asset-based capitalism: a historical typology, by @melindacooper.bsky.social See here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... Will write a thread on the SI and each of the papers once they're all out!

Philipp Golka@pgolka.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Incredibly happy and relieved that our special issue Asset Struggles co-edited with @theobourgeron.bsky.social is now accepted for publication at NPE! More on the issue soon. For now: a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has been involved in this over the past few years – you are the best!

How does the ability to weather insecurity give some an upper hand? Drawing on interviews in co-living schemes, this paper explores how residential precarity is leveraged in pursuit of tumultuous careers in the knowledge economy. #EarlyView in #BJS ➡️ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Great paper! Worth a read

Tim White@timwhite100.bsky.social · 4mo ago

New paper in @bjsociology.bsky.social: ‘Privileged Precarity’. It explores how middle class young professionals leverage housing insecurity to synchronise their lives with the rhythms of precarious labour markets. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

New paper in @bjsociology.bsky.social: ‘Privileged Precarity’. It explores how middle class young professionals leverage housing insecurity to synchronise their lives with the rhythms of precarious labour markets. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Sombre news to start Wednesday with. Living in temporary accommodation has contributed to the deaths of 104 children in England in the past six years, 76 of whom were under the age of one. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Temporary accommodation linked to deaths of 104 children in England in six years

Calls for ‘urgent, sustained action’ over rising number of children who do not have permanent home

theguardian.com

Who should own the value of land? New report by Ed Shepherd and myself on the political economy of land value capture. A major research undertaking (incl 50 interviews) examining the power relations that structure how land values are (unjustly) distributed in England. @housingevidence.bsky.social

Who should own the value of land? Housing, power and the deep politics of land value capture - UK Collaborative Centre For Housing Evidence

housingevidence.ac.uk

"From what I understand about private equity is you invest upfront early, you make back your money, you sell & get out – that is the model as I've understood it ...That to me is completely incompatible with healthcare of any form, early years care & so on." Yep! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Private equity-owned Hackney nursery closes with 29 days notice

Family First said demand had

bbc.co.uk

"It takes a certain kind of mind to look into the world of colostomy bags, incontinence pads and emollient cream and see dollar signs" Brilliant, visceral piece on private equity + care homes from what is sure to be a banger of a book by @hettieobrien.bsky.social

Hettie O’Brien@hettieobrien.bsky.social · 4mo ago

I’m thrilled that the Guardian Saturday magazine has excerpted one of my favourite chapters from THE ASSET CLASS this weekend: www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

If this is a conjuncture marked by escalating crises, provoking growing interest in conjunctural thinking across the critical social sciences and humanities, now's the time to ask... What's the point of conjunctural analysis? New article out in Dialogues in Urban Research: doi.org/10.1177/2754...

"Never before has nothing been something worth taking more seriously." Receive 20% off my new book with the code SAMMAN20: www.sup.org/books/politi... mngbookshop.co.uk/978150364586...

Wrote about the Iran crisis, electricity costs, and why clean power is the right strategy - but not enough. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

What’s driving today’s authoritarian turn? How is the postwar order shifting? And where do liberalism and illiberalism collide? Professor Anthony Bogues spoke to @neilwarner.bsky.social and @willkend.bsky.social about his recent LSE lecture.

Illiberalism, war, violence and authoritarianism: the current conjuncture – an interview with Professor Anthony Bogues LSE Human Rights

Professor Anthony Bogues examines authoritarian resurgence, the unravelling of the postwar order, and the entanglements of liberalism and illiberalism.

buff.ly

1. La vivienda en alquiler se ha convertido en un gran negocio. Los rentistas controlan la economía y la política, pero destrozan la sociedad. Hay alternativas. La generación inquilina puede acabar con esta desigualdad y cambiar el modelo para siempre. A partir del 9 de marzo🙌🧵

🤩So happy to see the first output of the HypeRent research project out! In this OA paper, @douccap.bsky.social and I propose an analytical fmwk to make sense of the development and regulation of co-living and STRA, identified as hyper-commodified housing products. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Hyper-commodified housing products and the triple crisis: regulating the symptom or rethinking housing provision?

This paper argues that the regulation of co-living and short-term rental accommodation – identified as ‘hyper-commodified housing products’ (HCHPs) – faces an important hurdle. The hyper-commodific...

tandfonline.com

There are some characteristically fascinating points in this @melindacooper.bsky.social piece about the Epstein scandal, and what it reveals about the "master and servant" logic of the contemporary far right www.equator.org/articles/eps...

Epstein Family Values • EQUATOR

The billionaire patriarchs of the American far-right want to rule an economy of masters and servants

equator.org

Brilliant to see this out!

Tim White@timwhite100.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Out today @intellectbooks.bsky.social: 'Reconstructing the American Dream: Life Inside the Tiny House Nation' w/Ella Harris, Mel Nowicki & Cian Oba-Smith. Through photographic and ethnographic accounts of life in Texas tiny home communities, we examine the politics of 'going tiny' in the US today.