We are closing @goldperc.bsky.social after 12 years. Here I reflect on the times and what we made of them www.goldperc.uk/project_post...

I'm looking for a part-time research assistant to support an externally funded, international project on the instrumentalization of anticolonial discourse in Asia and beyond. remote work OK but needs to be UK based. durham.taleo.net/careersectio...

The financial marketplace of ideas

All that supremacist stuff about autistics being inherently more honest than everyone else etc. was always going to end here.

Two observations: (1) A part of UK academics' generous salaries is redistributed from some of the world's poorest people, often via unsustainable debt. (2) This cannot continue. This industry will obviously not halt, but surely it will be more regulated. What then for UK HE and its finances?

There is finally some excellent reporting on the role of agents in recruiting overseas students to Higher Education. As anyone who works in HE will already know, it is a relentlessly grim situation, but the detail and stories is still shocking to read. www.theguardian.com/education/ng...

Have written about the politics of how we see the Grenfell Tower fire - including seeing the fire as a “tragedy” - and the flawed role the Inquiry played in producing an authoritative account. doi.org/10.1111/jols...

The original flat white drinking soy boy allegations?

Today's rabbit hole

Updated my plots for the evolution of the CO2-intensity of GDP for OECD plus other large economies and emitters. Since 1990, CO2-intensity has declined in most major economies (points below the 45° line). Exceptions here are Saudi & Indonesia. Scroll down for the big ones, India and China.

crazy to me that no one at youtube or google is ever even, like, asked about this stuff anymore, let alone pushed to take responsibility. regardless of whether a PRMC/moral majority-type campaign would be a good idea, is the respectable center really so anemic/captured that it won't even try?

Fun and Games - call for papers for a special issue of @newformations.bsky.social on games, gamification, game culture etc: jeremygilbertwriting.wordpress.com/2026/02/17/f...

This is a very illuminating essay on the intellectual genesis of Samuel Moyn's particular liberal anti-liberalism www.jhiblog.org/2026/02/16/t...

The wonderful @maltelaub.bsky.social and I are hosting a workshop on the theme of Austerity Militarism at EWIS 2026 in Izmir! If you are working on these themes then please consider submitting an abstract! We'd love to see you there. The link to submit is here: eisa-net.org/ewis-2026/ab...

“I graduated with £42,000 of debt and even though I’m paying it off, it’s now £72,000.” It's truly an abomination: On a normal job you keep paying forever. 40 years! “Why would I trust a government that mis-sold me a loan when I was a child?” is a very good question. www.ft.com/content/7bf5...

I've written an essay on the politics of neurodiversity, drawing on the vital books by @drrobertchapman.bsky.social and @dr-nicky.bsky.social. I hope it will serve as a primer for anyone new to the topic (and maybe prompt questions for those who know it well) journals.lwbooks.co.uk/newformation...

Super interesting reading, drawing on the work of @drrobertchapman.bsky.social and @dr-nicky.bsky.social Neurodiversity Politics By Liam Stanley liamstanley.blog/2026/02/04/n...

Good essay by @liamstanley.bsky.social, exploring the evolution & political aspects of #neurodiversity theory through an analysis of my work & the work of @drrobertchapman.bsky.social. Unpaywalled version available here: liamstanley.blog/2026/02/04/n... #neurodivergence #neuroqueer #consciousness

A wonderful review essay by @liamstanley.bsky.social that we recently published in @newformations.bsky.social

This is really good, I'm equally worried about the pushback and stigmatising of anti disability sentiments coming out daily in news. ⬇️

I've written an essay on the politics of neurodiversity, drawing on the vital books by @drrobertchapman.bsky.social and @dr-nicky.bsky.social. I hope it will serve as a primer for anyone new to the topic (and maybe prompt questions for those who know it well) journals.lwbooks.co.uk/newformation...

A sad story that is unfortunately likely to recur, possibly many times, in the year ahead www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Tooze's latest Chartbook on Epstein, Summers, the crisis of liberalism is extraordinary. Don't miss it. adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-...

Who leaked this Number 10 discussion to Jeffrey Epstein? And are there consequences for the leaker? It’s an internal discussion re. getting markets moving in the aftermath of the financial crisis. No doubt of great interest to Epstein and his financial market clients.

Now available for pre-order and we're open for book talks to students, workshops and conferences, organisations etc. press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

The dilemma a place like UCL faces is that it can open a new MA and the following year it will have 50 students, mostly paying ~£20k a year. There is no incentive not to do it, and the ‘student experience’ in many cases is appalling.

In discussions of "weaponised interdependence", higher education obviously isn't the biggest issue. Yet through a potential exit power, China basically has the capacity to cause a serious crisis (or worse) in UK HE.

Matt Goodwin? The columnist for the magazine available only in departure lounges for private jets?

This is a really useful article for anyone researching British capitalism, especially on the intellectual currents and political contexts of Starmer's political economy.

Reading quant social scientists on Claude Code is fascinating. It seems like a crisis is coming to that world, whether that's a crisis of overproduction (of potentially comic proportions) or a crisis of skills devaluation. Or both. tompepinsky.substack.com/p/agentic-ai...

how advanced is your nation's sinophobia? very? extremely? you are like baby, we are inventing sinophobia the likes of which cannot be dreamt of www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

Out now! I've edited a special issue of New Political Economy on 'Centring exploitation in global political economy'. Link to the intro: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... Other articles (all brilliant!) and a short summary 👇 1/

I'm a bit late to the game on this, but this is exacting overview of the problems with US-style political science is compelling and well-worth reading. But rather than a lack of interpretation, I'd say the major issue is a lack of history (or historicism). harpers.org/archive/2026...

I found this article very illuminating on the resource geopolitics underpinning the Venezuela crisis drilled.media/news/guyana-...

👏 2025 Outstanding Reviewer Prize Winners • Naomi Head: University of Glasgow (UK) • Niels Spierings: Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands) • Liam Stanley: University of Sheffield (UK) • Sabine Volk: University of Tübingen (Germany)

This is by some distance the best thing out there on this subject

This book is now out: www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?b.... A successor to the very much liked book of the same name edited by Andrew Leftwich. very pleased to be in the new one, edited by Colin Hay, with a chapter on 'politics as crisis management'.

It’s now clear that there is no going back to “normal” democracy in the US. Even a post-MAGA democratic restoration will likely need a protracted and toxic process analogous with post-WWII denazification on.ft.com/49pPufE

A thread of inspirational quotes from two of my idols: Kemi Badenoch and Ange Postecoglou (uh-oh, I may have gotten some mixed up... or have I??) 🧵

This is such a weird article that mixes up the kind of bombastic exaggeration that is a core part of Trump’s personality with genuinely unhinged examples of odd behaviour.

There's at least one consistent pattern with this government: announcing a big policy before they've worked out any details, or planned its implementation & sending people out to defend it who've got no arguments. E.g. 1) Welfare reform: no plans for actually getting people into work (1/x)

Anyone interested in the green transition ought to check out this brilliant new article by Chris Saltmarsh, published today in @ripejournal.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Quote of the day courtesy of Bismarck.

One of the strangest things about my time in HE is how REF has gone from universally loathed by academics to seemingly our best hope for justifying (and therefore maintaining) the research component of our jobs.

“Electric cars can be remotely controlled. Again, not a conspiracy theory. These cars can be shut down… There’s a reason why this neo-Marxist, communist, shambolic government wants us in electric cars. It’s so that we have no freedom whatsoever…" (sic) hopenothate.org.uk/2025/09/10/i...

A question about Mandelson: if Starmer sacks him, then does that risk pissing off Trump by implying that fraternising with Epstein represents a red line that should not be crossed?

the free press trying to make a scandal out of reading robert dahl is very funny (shoutout to dahl, one of the best to ever do it)

Updated theory of British political decision making

As a frequent reader of kids books, I wouldn’t have guessed frog as the most he/him gendered animal

It's happening! My book on financial nihilism is set to be published in March next year with Stanford UP. It has been many years in the making and I look forward to seeing it in print soon. www.sup.org/books/politi...