The Middle East - famously a geopolitics-free zone.

The "family voting" talking point is probably part of a more long term play from the Far Right to delegitimise immigrant and minority involvement in political life

I’m pleased to announce the article by Scott Lavery and myself: InvestEU: Neoliberal Lineages and Contradictions in the New EU Industrial Policy. You can read and download it for free here: 10.17645/pag.11257 #OpenAccess

It’s like not fixing a leaky roof. It’s bad from the start, but you kind of get away with it for a bit, then the damp starts, you get stains on the ceiling which then starts caving in, and then you realise your rafters are disintegrating. You then replace the roof but the damp’s now in the walls.

The next conference of the DVPW Section Political Economy takes place 24–25 Sept 2026 at Freie Universität Berlin. Contributions in English and German are welcome. Please send us your paper or panel proposal by next Friday, 27 Feb 2026. All info in our Call for Papers: www.dvpw.de/fileadmin/us...

Article sound on the quote being wrong, but loses points for not saying the original translation was infinitely better

PwC somehow more lucid on AI and education than most university leaders these days

it really can't be said enough that this is a person who has dined with the president of the united states

Nothing to see here other than a university telling its research community that AI can appropriately be used to "generate first drafts." unbcloud.sharepoint.com/sites/AI-at-...

Saw this on LinkedIn. Our immigration system is morally bankrupt and economically ridiculous. Shameful.

Alaaf uss London bei England noh Kölle!

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...

🚨 The political economy of finance summer school is back, 3rd year running! Better still: We're bringing it to London via @lse-ei.bsky.social. 𝐓𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐜: Finance & democracy 𝙳̲̲𝚊̲̲𝚝̲̲𝚎̲: 4-5 June 2026 𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦: March 1. Link below. We've got brilliant instructors as usual. Please spread the word!

CfP for #EWIS2026 is open until 11 February and @jward232.bsky.social and I are looking forward to submissions from across politics, political economy, sociology, and beyond. We are especially interested in papers from ECRs. Get in touch if you have any questions!

I hate to tap the sign but again: this is all made to make in-person education and access to knowledge transfer a preserve of the elite. Human education for the few, bots for the many.

Remember to submit your abstracts for our track (RN06) at the European Sociological Conference! ⬇️⬇️⬇️ Deadline this Friday!

Financial war in response to trade war and territorial threats? More and more people appear to be calling for it. So I updated my post on U.S. Treasuries holdings—now with the latest data. benjaminbraun.org/posts/treasu...

Join @jward232.bsky.social and me in Izmir at #EWIS2026 to discuss the causes and effects of we have tentatively called 'austerity militarism' - the end of austerity for (European) militaries, but continued restraint and new cuts for welfare/social care. CfP here eisa-net.org/wp-content/u...

Let me introduce the concept of weaponising firesales

Massive crowds on the street in Copenhagen in solidarity with Greenland and against US aggression. Thousands of Greenlandic flags 🇬🇱💪

If you read one thing today, it should be this Iran report says 16,500 dead in ‘genocide under digital darkness’ www.thetimes.com/article/01ba...

It is simply a lie to claim that the Conservative government (or any other UK government in recent history) oversaw 'an open borders experiment". No excuse for the PM or Reed repeating this lie or for media not describing it as such.

This is crucial to understanding what ICE is. It is increasingly a force of the regime (i.e. more centralised and directly connected to Trump & Co. than other forces), but it is reliant upon the vast American police apparatus, including for recruitment and 'training'.

Even more broadly, large organisations need to think very carefully whether they should be encouraging employees and customers to engage with them in any way on a platform where there is industrial scale production and distribution of CSAM and where the owner has shown no interest in tackling it.

Every single university in the country should be deleting or locking its accounts now. It’s negligence to be posting photos of students, faculty, or staff on the site.

Unbelievably bleak to see journalists quoting an LLM bot's output as if it's an agent capable of making statements that mean something.

New in @bjpols.bsky.social! Dave Hope, @lhaffert.bsky.social and I show that low taxes on the rich have a hidden cost: They undermine public support for broad-based taxation. 🖋️ cup.org/45lgPwN

2025 in review: hegemonic suicide, medieval peasant brain, and other highlights from a very long year hegemon.substack.com/p/2025-hegem...

Ich sitze im Zug und lese die Verkrempelung der Welt von @yoran.com und der Typ neben mir entwirft an seinem Laptop eine Roll-Hundeleine mit eingebautem Touchscreen und Schrittzähler im Plastikgehäuse.

Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252: Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email. Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

Merz sagt, man habe die Anzahl der Asylbewerber in Deutschland „in etwa halbiert“, und er erwarte, dass Trump diese „Kurskorrektur“ anerkennen und begrüßen werde. Dann wiederholt er seine Bitte an Trump, doch Deutschland als Partner zu sehen, wenn dieser die EU nicht möge.

Tahsim Durgun. Das Video braucht keinen Kommentar. Was für ein Glück, die Stimme dieses Mannes im öffentlichen Diskurs zu haben.

Wes Streeting accuses welfare state disabilty benefits of 'trapping people, not just in poverty, but out of work.' But where is the recognition that disability benefits are often what makes it possible for people with higher living and transport costs to work? www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Katherina Reiche und Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg: Bundeswirtschaftsministerium fördert Firma mit Guttenberg-Beteiligung: Das Bundeswirtschaftsministerium hat ein Unternehmen mit einer sechsstelligen Summe gefördert. Unter den Gesellschaftern: Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Lebensgefährte von Ministerin…

📕 I had the pleasure to be invited to review Quinn Slobodian’s new book Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right for the Czech Journal of International Relations.

Zipcar is shutting down its UK operations, basically the only car club that worked in London. Massive kick to anyone who tries to live in capital without owning a car. Having been a customer for 17 years and used Zipvans to move house repeatedly, this is.... very bad! (Zipcar is owned by Avis)

Bad news for German public broadcaster ARD and a bit bittersweet for me on some bizarre personal level. London bureau chief Annette Dittert @annettedittert.bsky.social leaves the ARD at the end of the year to focus on other projects after almost two decades in her role. bsky.app/profile/anne...

Rightly lots of debates about growth this weekend - rightly because it was low productivity growth that saw wages entirely flatline during the 2010s.

I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture. They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1

If as Home Secretary you are looking at the significant reduction in people choosing to live and work in the UK and deciding it's a good idea to "go further" you've conclusively shown you aren't basing your policies on anything resembling reality. The repercussions would be devastating for everyone.

Today's migration stats illustrate the migration doom loop in action... (from my presentation at the IMF last week)

this is one of the reasons not to do policy by poll or focus group

This is excellent news! Congratulations, Alex (and NYC)!

"A 10:1 pay ratio between the highest and lowest-paid staff is the bare minimum that we need. It would ensure that bosses can only raise their own salaries by also improving the salaries of their lowest paid staff too" greens.scot/news/greens-...

It's focus-group disease reinforcing UK state managers' belief that the only legitimate expression of state capacity is through punitiveness. This has a long history, but post-financial crisis austerity has cemented it. Ironically, such displays of strength are destablilising both govt and society.

It's focus-group disease reinforcing UK state managers' belief that the only legitimate expression of state capacity is through punitiveness. This has a long history, but post-financial crisis austerity has cemented it. Ironically, such displays of strength are destablilising both govt and society.

Coming soon in RIPE Series in Global Political Economy - War Economy: Gendered Circuits of Violence and Capital, co-edited with Jacqui True. More at: www.routledge.com/War-Economy-...

Two and a half thoughts on Hegseth and his war on beardos as expressed here: bsky.app/profile/atru...

no question that hegseth hates guys with beards because they make him feel insecure

This is great fun. (Nigel Biggar does not come out of it especially well.)