Event next Wednesday (8 Oct) on food systems in rural Scotland, you can join online or in person in Parliament. Includes #Knoydart farms speaker on their food growing projects 👍🏼

Interesting event— although from speakers it looks like Who Owns England would be more accurate?

I’m in Knoydart this week doing fieldwork. A gentleman dropped off his personal buyout archive for us to have a look at— an ideal evening of drinking tea and reading land reform archives 👌 😂

New title, new slides… enjoyed sharing my research on Community Right to Buy at the #UKIPRC2025. Good feedback, I think this paper’s almost ready to go out into the world

Meanwhile, in Scotland... #AyeWelcomeRefugees bsky.app/profile/laur...

Scottish Land Fund closed to applications yesterday, no new money for new purchases until after the election in May— probably a year atleast 😬

🤔 slippery slope in undermining the Land Reform Act www.thenational.scot/news/2540116...

Excited for this! @hannawheatley.bsky.social @cdoyle34.bsky.social @academyofurbanism.bsky.social @drcarolinebrown.bsky.social @clesthinkdo.bsky.social @neilmcinroy.bsky.social @planningaidscot.bsky.social

Interested in rural community development? There are many opportunities to get involved in the Scottish Rural Communities Policy Review! bit.ly/4lzZaqL The Youth Survey is now live, please complete and share: bit.ly/46Gldbr

In the 1930s, J.A. Dempster and Hugh Smith designed over 50 pithead baths for Scotland and northern England for the Miners' Welfare Fund. Influenced by German pithead baths, they were strikingly modern in appearance. All were demolished between the 1960s and 1980s. #LostHeritage

7 years ago today I officially got my PhD— with 2 PhD babies (who are now big!) #QueensUniversityBelfast

Finishing up an excellent conference on Scottish Law: Land, Environment, power. Some great presentations— very helpful to dig into history and legal philosophy, and lots of planning chat as well. Also a first airing of my CRtB paper!

New blog post! 🏙️ Explore the results of this Seminar Series on urban vacancy, occupation, & commoning by Dr. Suraya Scheba, Dr. Cian O’Callaghan, & Dr. Andreas Scheba – a project supported by a #USFSeminarSeriesAward. 🔗 www.urbanstudiesfoundation.org/2025/06/17/u... #Vacancy #Commoning #Occupation

We have just published a new episode! urbanpolitical.online/92-radically... Joanna Kusiak recently published ‘Radically Legal: Berlin Constitutes the Future’ and offers a brilliant insight perspective on the beginning and movement of Deutsche Wohnen & Co. Enteignen. Enjoy!

The algorithmic societies team map the emerging political logics of generative AI across: generativity, latency, broken sequences, & zero shot www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

£150k grant to private developer as sweetener for development of Compulsory Purchase Order property … www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/2525603...

Same for Scottish local authorities negotiating with wind farm developers…

Just published in Earth Stewardship: U.S. Parks and Protected Area Power Structures: From Historic Policies to Indigenous Futurities doi.org/10.1002/eas2... @ashrececo.bsky.social @scholarmelinda.bsky.social @tasmitchell.bsky.social @ndn2s.bsky.social @kalanicarlson.bsky.social

An inspiring few days at @communityland conference. There are live streamed sessions, including the one I facilitated on community landownership and town planning. www.youtube.com/live/TESeWWW...

WE WON! The Supreme Court has upheld the right to wild camp on Dartmoor. This is a huge win for access to nature. But we're just getting started. It was never just about Dartmoor. We’re fighting to extend the right to roam, swim, and sleep under the stars - across all of England.

Change of scenery this week! Not quite the N Highlands.

Looking forward to this event on British Land Commons tomorrow, great line up of speakers @tomchance.bsky.social Still time to join if you’re in London www.kairos.london/event/revivi...

What do you think @jeinsle.bsky.social can I fit in some more travel? 😜

Writing morning! time for the proven combination of caffeine and Beyoncé’s Lemonade album

Anyone want to play guess that peak? I am enjoying another few days fieldwork— thought provoking, enjoyable and exhausting in equal measures

🧵 Our democracy is in poor health. Trust in political parties and government has hit a new low. But we think there's a different way forward 👇

I am going into spring with medical treatment largely behind me 🤞 - and with a growing mohawk. I'm looking forward to some exciting work projects, and I'll share more on that soon. B4 that, I'm doing 10K on 18 May to fundraise for Cancer Research. Please contribute! lnkd.in/dsMyK2WN

A momentous day for land reform in Scotland! The first compulsory purchase of land using Right to Buy legislation . This follows a failed appeal against the Scottish Government decision by the landowner. Well done Poet's Neuk! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Great early career opportunity in social research. ⬇️. Happy to answer questions if you’re considering applying.

'A Cottage Home for Every Family': rural council housing built in the later 1920s by Lexden and Winstree Rural District Council in Essex celebrated in the magazine of the National Union of Agricultural Workers.

Locals in the south of Skye have criticised the lack of community involvement in the sudden decision to sell a huge clan estate and historic castle. It comes as MSPs will be debating the Land Reform Bill today. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Wyndford blocks coming down today. In 2021 there was an emerging plan for a community buyout of derelict land here; momentum on this disappeared after plans for demolition announced.

Anyone else remember when the CWB Bill was going to contain proposals for urban land reform? 🙋‍♀️

Committee Stage 1 Report on the Land Reform Bill published Lots to comment on here, but I’m struck by the complete lack of urban considerations, when these were actually included in the 2022 consultation. digitalpublications.parliament.scot/Committees/R...

Two things occur to me as US universities just fold up like a deckchair. One general, one specific. (1) Generally, most ppl in the West believe their freedoms are pretty solid. They're not, they're historically unusual, paper thin and very vulnerable. (1/2) www.insidehighered.com/news/diversi...

Govt's Plan for Neighbourhoods is a £1.5 billion, decade-long neighbourhood regeneration programme for 75 communities. @jesscraig.bsky.social explores for The MJ what the legacy of New Labour's New Deal for Communities can teach us about longevity in regeneration. Read for free: bit.ly/4kMO7ei

“Positions on both sides appear to be quite entrenched and [Glasgow City Council] does not seem to see itself, as others might, as a suitable vehicle for the reconciliation of the different interests for the benefit of the community as a whole.” - Lord Sandison That's quite a scold!

In which planning law (GDPO!) comes up against the 2003 Land Reform Act, and Glasgow City Council gets scolded 🍿👀 Interesting judgement on erecting fences and access rights…

This could be a game changer. Many wind farms will be coming up for renegotiation of their land leases. Especially where land is publicly owned, this should become the default position. www.thenational.scot/news/2499344...

Anyone for a wager on who completes the land register first, England + Wales or Scotland?

The proposals in @matthewpennycookmp.bsky.social's letter to the Land Registry will be very much welcomed by Community Land Trusts, making it easier to establish who owns land and hopefully who has options or other contractual arrangements.

NEW: Google's "experimental" AI service has been caught out for telling web users that the traditional Scottish dish of haggis is in fact an animal

Nice to see some land reform in England ;-)

Get in good trouble, necessary trouble.

Total legislative limits proposed for institutional investors in Georgia, where in one district an investor owns 99% of single family homes 👀

Brilliant couple of days starting off fieldwork in Lewis 👌. There’s nothing getting to know a place and the people..

'This is a coup.' In calm, measured words the FT's Martin Wolf spells out what's happening in the US and why a well-functioning state is necessary for a well-functioning country. Quite extraordinary:

This is weird, they've left the woman out of the picture again?

Can I just say- this is the first test of the CRtB Part 5 Right to Further Sustainable Development, not the Part 3a Abandoned, Neglected and Detrimental Land as this reporting indicates.

Personal update- I'm finishing treatment for cancer. The NHS has been amazing and I'm feeling pretty good. Cancer takes many things. I've had to back out of some great career opps. I love my work; this is so frustrating. I will be back to full speed soon! Photo of me getting my last chemo 💪.