Silvia Federici cited at Roadburn metal festival 😎

“If Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 were at their heart grandiose sportswashing exercises, elegant acts of persuasion, then America 2026 is the World Cup that actively hates you, that brandishes the darkness of its late-capitalist heart as a proud badge of honour.” www.theguardian.com/football/202...

After 4 hours of teaching, I am treating myself to some reading for a book chapter on environmental politics and apocalyptic imaginaries.

“This advert is misogyny with a marketing budget, a textbook case of sexist labour stereotypes dressed up as ‘innovation’.”

We currently live in a world where that could end either in a good laugh and some funny memes or an international diplomatic crisis starting World War III. I don’t like to live in that kind of world.

🚩🚩🚩 The call for papers for Marxism NL's 1st Conference is now live! CFP deadline 29.05.26 Conference 08-09.10.26 conference.marxism-nl.org/mxnl26/cfp

Finally a good response to the whole analytic/continental philosophy debate by @lastpositivist.bsky.social. Anyone trying to “win the game” by showing which is best has actually already lost access to valuable thoughts from the other side. sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2026/04/ther...

Making a slide to explain that “informal work” is not one but many things since it covers all work that isn’t formal employment. My main question, though: Can this slide pass as charmingly ugly or is it just plain ugly?

Preparing my talk for next week’s International Labour Process conference in Leeds on how to frame “informal work” in the Global South without reducing them to deviations from the Global North’s formal employment standard.

Another (small) publication alert! I've written a literature review on several (very good) books about informal transport labour in Africa, reflecting a little bit on what "informality" means in the informal economy, especially regarding labour.

Starting the Tilburg Day of Philosophy.

I honestly don't understand academic researchers sometimes. Isn't reading about your topic the fun part of your job? Why would you want to outsource that to a machine?

The exhausting 'racial burden' for victims of everyday racism

A good lesson for us is that a major point of anti-"Big Tech" resistance is not only workers in fear of displacement or consumers suffering from enshittification, but also local communities undergoing the adverse environmental side-effects of the tech infrastructure.

“Kerala shows that if people are protected from risk and uncertainty by a government that provides access to food, housing, a decent education, and basic healthcare, they will be motivated to take care of many other problems.” dissentmagazine.org/article/the-...

Public philosopher, trans activist, YouTuber, actress, and cool person Abigail Thorn is nominated for an Amnesty UK People’s Human Rights prize 🥳

My new book Currency of Nihilism is officially out today! In it, I develop a history and theory of financial nihilism that speaks directly to the ongoing merger of digital technology with finance. Use the code SAMMAN20 for 20% off: www.sup.org/books/politi... mngbookshop.co.uk/978150364586...

My paper on platform worker subjectivity in Global Political Economy now has an official issue. I start from the paradox that platform workers are identified as micro-entrepreneurs yet constantly make choices that are against their own interests.1/3 bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journal...

Exactly what you don’t want with heavy defense spending is to create a military-industrial complex where arms manufacturers have an incentive to support warmongering States to sell more weapons. Ultimately the State funds its own disempowerment through military capture.

A good lesson for us is that a major point of anti-"Big Tech" resistance is not only workers in fear of displacement or consumers suffering from enshittification, but also local communities undergoing the adverse environmental side-effects of the tech infrastructure.

🐰 Happy Easter to everyone celebrating! This little rabbit netsuke is only 2.5 centimetres high. A netsuke is an ornamental toggle or counterweight used to attach small containers to the sash worn with the traditional Japanese kimono.

Showing the power of public policy: one small subsidy for cycling to work can get more and more people out of their cars. Now the same for public transport!

People often divide high-brow “classics” from low-brow “genre fiction”. Others say that genre fiction can be high literature. And here I am with Leo Tolstoy’s Hadji Murad. An exciting adventure novel about a Chechen freedom fighter and his exploits. The classics are often excellent genre fiction.

📢 New #ETUIPodcast episode 🎙️In the final instalment of the 'Counter-app' mini-series @benwray1989.bsky.social explores the EU's recent Platform Work Directive, which Member States must transpose into their national legal regimes by December 2026. 🎧️ Tune in and subscribe: etui.org/4wV

Received my review copy of Roberto Esposito’s new book on conflict, agonism, and Jacob fighting the angel.

If your solution to war, budget cuts, democratic decline, global warming, and institutional collapse is “you can also not watch the news”, then you are part of the problem.

Today is Trans Day of Visibility 🏳️‍⚧️ a nice day to announce that I have recently come out as genderfluid. That means new pronouns (they/them) and a new look. People who see me daily already know, but for the rest of you online, this will be new.

My paper on platform worker subjectivity in Global Political Economy now has an official issue. I start from the paradox that platform workers are identified as micro-entrepreneurs yet constantly make choices that are against their own interests.1/3 bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journal...

Today is Trans Day of Visibility 🏳️‍⚧️ a nice day to announce that I have recently come out as genderfluid. That means new pronouns (they/them) and a new look. People who see me daily already know, but for the rest of you online, this will be new.

Cool new book on the way. Just when I brought my copy of The Ends of the World by Danowski and Viveiros de Castro to the office.

Something I have been wondering about shifting between academic and activist circles: what can academics and “theory” actually contribute to activism? Where would our skills/knowledge be put to best use?

Wrote a personal eulogy for Jürgen Habermas, a philosopher with whom I have always had an ambiguous relationship. I admire his faith in reason, democracy and social cooperation. However, I've always been suspicious of how well-liked he is in the halls of power and how meek his actual politics. 1/2

Last Friday was all about Habermas, but today is a Federici day.

Genius 🔥 substack.com/@meaghanwils...

Habermas’ last contribution to the public sphere was a demand that israel must not be accused of genocide. But as Meaney writes in @newleftreview.bsky.social, ‘one would have to look far back for the original traces of Habermas’s locked-in Zionism.’ newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

Last Friday was all about Habermas, but today is a Federici day.

Nancy Fraser on the death of Habermas and German critical theory. “Habermas first lit my path as a critical theorist. I remain deeply grateful for that. But over the years the light he cast flickered and waned – until, with his stance on Gaza, it seemed to go out.” www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

Wrote a personal eulogy for Jürgen Habermas, a philosopher with whom I have always had an ambiguous relationship. I admire his faith in reason, democracy and social cooperation. However, I've always been suspicious of how well-liked he is in the halls of power and how meek his actual politics. 1/2

IN MEMORIAM Habermas is gestorven, de internationale vrede dood en begraven, en de mensenrechten voelen zich niet lekker. www.sampol.be/2026/03/mijn...

Georgy Layus recently reviewed An Introduction to Contemporary Italian Thought. Glad to see how the philosophies of Roberto Esposito, Silvia Federici, and Giorgio Agamben resonate with people today. marxandphilosophy.org.uk/reviews/2258...

Some E.E. Cummings for an early spring Sunday.

Weekend reading: a classic in Marxist feminism, Leopoldina Fortunati’s L’arcano della riproduzione. English translation from Verso coming soon, I have heard.

Having a Habermas day.

Big news. Harriet Taylor Mill officially credited as co-author of On Liberty! 👇

New review out of the book "An Introduction to Contemporary Italian Thought" by Tim Christiaens, Joost de Bloois, and Stijn De Cauwer. "The collage made by the authors reproduces the essential feature of Italian thought that they want to underline, namely its porosity and openness to the future."

Just when I am making slides on Rawls’ theory of justice, someone posts the picture that says it all!

New article out:

One more sign that we’re living in neofeudal times is that papal schisms and antipopes are back.

After encouraging prospective students to come study philosophy at @tilburgphilosophy.bsky.social, treating myself to a coffee and an Andrei Platonov novel.

Been thinking about this piece quite a bit. You want to make your teaching matter, but there’s so much bureaucracy and surveillance to go through and sometimes you just hit a wall of student-consumers who only want to pass an exam. criticallegalthinking.com/2026/03/11/t...