Some auto sector gossip:

Wages depressed, labour codes passed, removing many kinds of social protection previously available to the working masses

BREAKING: Union in Italy has announced a general strike on October 3, as per their promise if the Gaza flotilla was attacked, as it has been now.

The Global Sumud Flotilla is currently some 150 nautical miles from Gaza.

Interesting!

Was happy to go back to alma mater JNU, New Delhi as a discussant in student led symposium on a discussion on power and feminism. For a change, not just for the Tea shop!

The urban poor in Delhi city Forced to 'embed' in an entanglement of land, law and jurisdictions! 2014: the cm sanctions, says, live here! 2025: court says, you can't! Meanwhile, water and electricity came, then got taken back a month ago.

It's coming!

Our tree of life Members of SGU- domestic workers union in Delhi, against evictions- entangled in land legal quagmire combined with xenophobic attacks as 'illegal' migrants from Bangladesh! For housing rights Against sludge We push back, together under the shade of our tree Delhi, 17 July 2025

«Il n’y a pas de génocide à Gaza.» Raphaël Enthoven, 12 mai 2024.

:(

Revisiting cybersyn in times of techno- despotic regimes. Sigh.

Now announced... CfP: Twenty-Second Annual Historical Materialism London Conference, 'Resurgent Reaction: Marxist Strategies at the End of the Liberal Order'. This year taking place 6-9 November 2025 at SOAS University, London

Good morning, Did you know that the cloud has a greater carbon footprint than the airline industry? That a single data center can consume the equivalent electricity of 50,000 homes? thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-staggeri...

Pleased to announce that the International Labour Review / @ilr-rit.bsky.social, one of the world’s leading publications on world-of-work knowledge and research, transitions to #diamondOA with the Open Library of Humanities: www.openlibhums.org/news/797/

We don't talk about this enough but the history of #PaleoAnth has "colonial overtones" - to put it lightly! Chapeau to all efforts to decolonise #HumanEvolution 👏 🏺🧪 #science

Companion through bleak times. . Endings are evasive, and let's you stay with the 'incompleteness' of stories, lives and actions. Zahid Rafiq's the world with its mouth open

"Here surely lies sociology's distinctively public purpose: to represent humanity's interest in containing the unbridled tyranny of the market and state." May others go forward in memory of Michael Burawoy. www.asanet.org/michael-bura...

While I work on this year's valentine, here's last year's.

RIP Michael Burawoy

Adieu to the Chronicler of our times

In the time of twin transitions, a significant reminder to labour studies and labour anthropologist, "The trouble was I had my back to future – and this is the sixth ethnographic fallacy – studying the present as a point of arrival rather than a point of departure"

Exciting PostDoc opportunity in the second phase of our Kilimanjaro Social-Ecological System project! The 4-y position based at @ufz.de in Leipzig focuses on the environmental social science part of the synthesis subproject. Advert: recruitingapp-5128.de.umantis.com/Vacancies/31... Deadline: 16.2.

Tesla Gigafactory, Berlin (By the art activist collective Led By Donkeys)

As promised, a reading list about Xiaohongshu is available now with the help of many Chinese social media researchers: qianxeniahuang.super.site/resources/xi.... Special thanks to @carwynmorris.bsky.social for co-editing this. I am only hosting this on my personal website for logistic reasons.

Israeli forces have killed at least 82 people in Gaza, medical sources told Al Jazeera, including at least 30 people in Gaza City in the hours since Hamas and Israel announced they had reached a ceasefire agreement. 🔗: aje.io/gmd5u4

An in-depth reading of Marx’s Capital, focusing on the history and trajectory of capitalist development in India. Sign up@ t.ly/Z7_gQ For those in India👇

A significant struggle is on going in Maruti Gurgaon - where over 3000 terminated workers [during union formation] and current casual workers are coming onto the streets demanding permanent jobs and reinstatement into the plant

Just when I thought I had wrapped up two years of very intense fieldwork. . Here, scholars out there, throwing the dose of inspiration, awe, respect and meditation-level dedication and humility

The story of India's auto clusters- especially in its lower tiers. .Wage gaps and safety gaps prevail and exacerbate despite all the 'pinkwashing' and browny points for corporates.

"you'll be visited by three spirits" The three spirits

Working with collaborators in the Global South it upsets me how many pay expensive software license fees, or use insecure pirated versions, when free open-source alternatives are available. Below is a list of easy swaps. Please add to it and share! 👇

«Reddit is removing links to Luigi Mangione's manifesto » www.engadget.com/social-media... Tiens, #Reddit se lance possiblement dans une nouvelle tempête de caca. Ça sent fortement la modération avec comme intention de vendre les contenus des utilisateurs derrière.

Bloodbath likely to continue in Germany eh?

How will Trump navigate competition with China over semiconductors and the supply chains that produce them? Chris Miller, the author of “Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology,” joins FP Live tomorrow at 12:00pm ET to discuss. Register here:

Workers at nine Volkswagen car and component plants across Germany will strike for several hours, IG Metall union said, bringing assembly lines to a halt as labor and management clash over the future of the carmaker's German operations reut.rs/3ZeCp2f

Now how's that for a starter pack?! Berlin 2024

Yes this is a real place

Watching The Matrix in 2024 is a nice thing to do. "Knowing the path is not the same as walking the path"

What does one call a subjectivity of getting used to 'over-worked and under productive' mode ?

Revisiting seminal text on Degradation of Work with thoughts and notes from 21st century

In France, the left coalition comes in first, Macron second, the far-right third. The best way to defeat fascism is not centrism, it’s a strong left.

Always an 8th March favourite International Working Women's Day

Some old notes compiled into an article, thanks to the generous patience and assistance from editor n com. Nandini Dhar from Jindal Global Uni, NCR. Out finally!

Making sense of borders: stumbling onto the beautiful topogrophies of Nepal's northwestern border with India, at Bhimdutta-Banbassa, but as usual one encounters mobile kinships, goods, currency and migrant workers. On either side, people and local economies thrive on these #mobilities

Social reproduction in concept and method~~ It has helped me think through my recently concluded fieldwork in Bihar amongst labour migrants. #SocialReproductionTheory

For the love of this human and for the love of this book, here is my recommendation for #FictionForTheMonth #MonsoonInKerala #EnglishFiction

My super unhealthy body is back in court after 2 full years and it's super confused 🤞 #Kalaripayittu #MartialArts