www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Clearly, time to post this link again ... we argue electricity should be a basic human right and should be considered part of a social minimum. (free access) www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Very good paper on the links between the rise of the right, austerity and running down public services (free to access) Public services are "important anchors of people's electoral choices" Study is on Italy but I think we see this in the UK as well onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/CUDU5R...

We need to rejoin the EU to stop the risk of these kinds of threats transpiring. Medium countries like the UK have no bargaining power in global trade on their own. We need to raise tax on US big tech + then replace it with open source + public option tech. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Excellent paper by @palmapolyak.bsky.social showing distinct models of "clean tech" with very different outcomes for place. Shows some of the complicated relationships between decarbonisation efforts, industrial policy, & geopolitics.

Over 56,000 people demand water is put into public ownership, want a referendum if government won’t budge, and have signed this petition in under 2 weeks. If it gets to 100,000 it has to be debated in Parliament. 82% of people want publicly owned water. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/76...

Anyone working in history of comedy/satire, television, modern British politics - there's a fully funded PhD to research the Spitting Image archive @theul.bsky.social, with supervision at Exeter Uni. All disciplines considered, pls do share widely. www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...

The distribution of unearned income (capital investment) - even more concentrated than earned income (wages)

For too long, economic policy has rested on assumptions treated as facts: that markets self-correct, that governments should stand back, that growth will trickle down. Today in Barcelona w/ Dep PM Carlos Cuerpo and the Gov of Spain we are launching the Global Council for a Common Good Economy.

My review of David Harvey’s ‘Story of Capital’ ..for the LSE Review of Books... blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofb...

📢How do we eradicate poverty without relying on economic growth? Join us online on 22 April for the launch of the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights ‘Roadmap for Eradicating Poverty Beyond Growth’: www.neep-poverty.org/ #BeyondGrowthRoadmap / @deschuttero.bsky.social

📢 2026 USF International Fellowships - CALL FOR APPLICATIONS This fully-funded program offers 3-9 month sabbatical research visits for urban scholars from the Global South. Deadline: 6 July 2026 Read more & apply : https://ow.ly/ezMb50YILbw

Listening to Jonathan Gray set the scene with a pretty clear argument:

"Decisions that look neutral rarely are. The framing matters. The data that gets centred matters. Who gets consulted, and how, matters. Human geography provides a way of understanding those dynamics" www.vaeresocial.au/blog/why-hum...

🚨We are delighted to announce our 5th CEE conference is taking place 🌍 Poznan University of Economics And Business, Poland 🗓️ 14-16 September 2026 🚨 ➡️ Resilience, Realignment, and Renaissance: Regional Transformations in Central and Eastern Europe For detailed information: 🔗 bit.ly/4c3RyuY 😁 🔁

Ministers are exploring triggering the break clause in Palantir's NHS contract. I've signed the open letter to Wes Streeting calling on him to get Palantir out of the NHS. www.foxglove.org.uk/campaigns/we...

Hot off the press - Viral Debt: The Production and Reproduction of Economic Vulnerability This book shows how debt – like a contagion – works systematically across economic and social structures and geographies This is a free, Open Access, book: www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edi...

BBC News - Conservatives vow to outlaw councils working four-day week - BBC News www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... I think its particularly telling that the Tories are so vexed by the (very successful) public sector experiment with the 4 day work week 1/2

May I interest you in £10k for humanities or social science research? Our small grants scheme is open. Apply by 3rd June. We allocate through partial randomisation - awarding randomly between all applications that meet our quality threshold www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/funding/sche...

Excellent piece on the spread of the private equity model into public services by @hettieobrien.bluesky Where private extravagance is the flipside of public austerity. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Increased immigration enforcement harms everyone in the labour market -- EPI's dive into US unemployment data. www.epi.org/blog/unemplo...

Come and shape the future of the Nuffield Foundation. A new & key leadership role at the UK’s leading independent funder of social & economic research. We fund evidence, back innovation & support pioneering practice. Join a great team at an exciting moment. roles.saxbam.com/advert-detai...

During the pandemic, eviction moratoria helped avert at least 2.9 million eviction cases nationwide. But rent obligations didn’t disappear. New research shows what happened to those arrears.

Hot off the press - Viral Debt: The Production and Reproduction of Economic Vulnerability This book shows how debt – like a contagion – works systematically across economic and social structures and geographies This is a free, Open Access, book: www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-edi...

Good to see this -- clear and jargon-free.

University Challenge! Wishing the best of luck to Darwin Team @darwincollegecam.bsky.social in the final quarter-final this Monday at 8.30pm on BBC2! Shout-out to Geography PhD student Jon White, supervised by @mia-gray.bsky.social. The team takes on Merton College, Oxford for a spot in the semis.

Fantastic to see the end of the two child limit. This really is an important step in efforts to drive down poverty rates in the UK. See press release below: www.gov.uk/government/n...

The piece I wrote on foreign investment screening mechanisms now has a journal issue "Foreign investment screening mechanisms and emergent geographies of (post)globalization" journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

🌟 Early Bird rate ends soon for #RSA26 🌟 Join the RSA community in Gothenburg in June. 🔶 Regions as Arenas in a Changing World 📆 15-18 June 2026 Normal fees apply from 1st April. For more info & to register: 🔗 bit.ly/4atPUlH 😊 🔁

Great to be co-hosting this 👇

Some good news here -- on the reduction of pollution (both PM2.5 and NO2) in major cities from 2010 to 2024. The analysis found interventions such as cycle lanes, uptake of electric cars and restrictions on polluting vehicles had helped to drive the improvements. Great to see.

📢 Call for Papers: PKES–IIPPE PhD Student Conference 2026 🗓 3 June 2026 📍 University of Hertfordshire (UK) ⏰ Deadline: 27 March 2026 🔗 Application form: shorturl.at/oI6az 📄Full details: shorturl.at/tmXfs PhD students working in Post-Keynesian, Marxist, and pluralist economics invited to apply. 🧵

Me too. Liverpool's wonderful library

Powerful piece from @AdityaChakrabortty on falling life expectancies in the UK. An important reminder that the legacy of austerity and inequality will be with us for a long time. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

🌟 Registration is now open for #RSA26 🌟 Join the RSA community in Gothenburg in June. 🔶 Regions as Arenas in a Changing World: Rethinking Spatial Theories 📆 15-18 June 2026 To benefit from the early bird rate, register by 31st March 🔗 bit.ly/4atPUlH 😊 🔁

⏰ FINAL REMINDER: Urban Urgencies Call There is still time to apply for our new grant supporting rapid-response, collaborative research on the most pressing urban challenges—from the climate crisis to AI and housing. 🗓️ Deadline: 23 March 2026 (23:59 UTC) Don't miss out! 🔗 ow.ly/FUIn50XGtgz

I absolutely agree. Also see the upcoming special issue on remunicipalisation (taking public services back into public control at the municipal scale) in the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society. Already a number of advanced articles out: academic.oup.com/cjres/advanc...

Wonderful to see our PhD student, Chloe King, win this early career researcher prize for research impact and Engagement As a discipline, geography's research is often engaged and full of impact

Year 12s at UK state schools: Apply for the FREE @suttontrust.bsky.social UK Summer School at Cambridge! Experience life at Cambridge & dive into Geography—all for free. Deadline: 12 Feb (Midday) Apply: summerschools.suttontrust.com/course/university-of-cambridge/geography-4/

Is the UK’s industrial strategy really place based? New @rsablog.bsky.social blog on our recent @regionalstudies.bsky.social paper. Blog here: regions.regionalstudies.org/ezine/articl... paper here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... @regstud.bsky.social @rsaibis.bsky.social

Check out our advance access content for our new issue on How Places are Contesting the Privatisation of Local Public Services Edited by @judithclifton.bsky.social @mia-gray.bsky.social, David MacDonald and Ron Martin academic.oup.com/cjres/advanc...

This looks interesting -- exploring regional cultures amps-research.com/livable-citi... Examining societies and cultures from varied regional perspectives. Regional Cultures Strand: Livable Cities 2026. University of Salford, MANCHESTER Dates: 17-19 June, 2026 Abstracts: 01 April, 2026

A timely call for papers for CJRES special issue on Revisiting the Economic Geographies of the Defence Industry Abstracts by 1st September 2026 academic.oup.com/cjres/pages/...

New Role, come work for us at End Austerity! endausterity.org/new-role-end...

The 2025 Budget changed student loan terms affecting those who started courses between 2012 and 2022. A repayment threshold freeze will see many repaying more each month. Over their lifetimes, those who started in 2022 can expect to pay £3,200 (6%) more on average.

Oh, come on ... Being computer illiterate is not an acceptable excuse for filling in your Universal Credit incorrectly or missing your council tax payment. The consequences are severe. Only the wealthly allowed to be a "computer illiterate oddball"? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Announcing the Urban Multiplicities Seminar Series, featuring six brilliant speakers @rikjaz.bsky.social @ayonadatta.bsky.social Charlotte Lemanski @princeguma.bsky.social @maanbarua.bsky.social @profgillian.bsky.social Location: Small Lecture Theatre @camunigeography.bsky.social

One in five UK adults borrowed to cover Christmas holiday spending in 2025 yougov.com/en-gb/articl... With cost of living remaining a key concern for many households, a new survey conducted using YouGov Surveys: Serviced explores how many UK adults turned to borrowing to make ends meet.

"With record numbers of higher ed jobs under threat, it’s staggering university bosses continue to think their wage hikes should be way above the paltry 1.4 % rise they offered the people who keep their institutions running" @unison.org.uk @ucu.org.uk www.timeshighereducation.com/news/russell...

📣 Studying tephra in archaeology? Then submit an abstract to our #tephratastic session at the European Association for Archaeologists #EAAs in Athens this summer. 🌋🏛️ Session #203 “Advances in Tephrochronology for Archaeological Research”. 👉5th Feb deadline👈 More info: bit.ly/3LCcuyy