Yes they're now also built on financial ineptitude, managerial cruelty, and ideological cowardice.

The Sociology Team at QMU are at risk of redundancy (alongside other colleagues) as a result of significant organisational changes. Please sign this petition to protect jobs and courses: speakout.web.ucu.org.uk/protect-jobs... @ucuqmu.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk @ucuscotland.bsky.social

Protect jobs and courses at Queen Margaret University speakout.web.ucu.org.uk/protect-jobs...

Impeccably timed, as ever

Our thoughts are with every member of staff being notified they are at risk of redundancy today, the first round of compulsory redundancies this time round

“The coming redundancies will officially be called ‘voluntary’ but this is the equivalent of giving a condemned man a pistol in his cell prior to being led to the gallows and classifying him shooting himself as suicide.” Grim and stark. The human faces of the UK university omni-crisis. 1/3

This is the untold story of higher education. Everything only works because staff do more work than they can really be expected to do.

Anthropologist Declan Murray @manchester.ac.uk draws on fieldwork in Dar es Salaam to explore how market waste is used to fill erosion gullies to protect homes—and the health risks faced by residents living alongside open waste sites. theconversation.com/waste-being-... @appliedanthro.bsky.social

Ballot papers have started to arrive through the post. Vote YES to supporting strike action and action short of a strike - this gives us strength in negotiations and telling management we won't accept worse working conditions or compulsory redundancies

NEW ANALYSIS: My new article in @natenergy.nature.com argues Europe keeps responding to energy crises by changing supplier. 95% of EU oil and 88% of gas was imported in 2024. The structural fix: reduce fossil fuel demand through electrification and efficiency. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Too often, “transition” is reduced to new technologies or new markets. But the real question is deeper: what kind of future are we building, and who is it for? A just transition must be measured by its ability to sustain life. 🧵👇

Environmental campaigners said that choosing to approve Rosebank would be “morally reprehensible” because it could “bolster" its activities in the West Bank

Somewhat of a shock to say the least. www.ucu.org.uk/article/1447...

The artificial intelligence industry’s data center boom is the latest chapter in a long history of environmental racism and resource exploitation in vulnerable Native communities, says Oglala Lakota and Northern Cheyenne activist Krystal Two Bulls, the executive director of Honor the Earth.

We've emailed members - members meeting Tues 28th 10-12 in the Halle Lecture Theatre. We're here to support you, hear your views and concerns. In JNCC tomorrow we'll be letting management know this isn't the solution to their financial issues

Colleagues at QMU have just received notification that management are seeking to make up to 20 members of staff redundant in a first phase of organisational change. Sending strength to all colleagues during this challenging time - we will fight against compulsory redundancies 💪🏻

No money for jobs. Plenty of money for spying. Many of the 12 universities who paid private intelligence to spy on pro-Palestine activists are forcing through major job cuts. @drjogrady.bsky.social it's "shameful", universities have "wasted hundreds of thousands spying on their own students"

Children’s voices matter 📣 Find out what children across Scotland have to say about #Transport and #ActiveTravel. Read our first ever Children’s Walking and Cycling Index, published today. 👀 sustrans.org.uk/childrens-index/scotland #WalkingCyclingIndex

As a union branch, we are committed to defending the rights & dignity of all our members. Our submission to the EHRC consultation affirms our stance: trans rights are workers’ rights, and we will continue to organise against discrimination in all its forms. Read the submission here:

@heritage.bsky.social Just read your review of the Gaza documentary. One of those "well done on a great review I wish you never had to write" situations. Thanks for giving the context too. Gonna watch this weekend. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

This cause is close to my heart - please sign: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/yv...

On BBC News this morning ”Sir Keir Starmer has said he "understands what anchors" US President Donald Trump, having built a relationship on shared family values.” Now I’m worried

Let’s stop paying the TV licence!

Impartiality, my left foot. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Today is #showyourstripes day 🌍 Check out the warming stripes for your own region at showyourstripes.info

Absolute banger OCI report out today - rich countries like Norway and Australia could comfortably phase out oil and gas - cutting both enabled overseas emissions and domestic emissions massively - without skipping a beat.

HELP!, LOOKING FOR PARTICIPANTS-WOMEN WHO WORK WITHIN THE SCOTTISH COMMUNITY WASTE SECTOR. To take part in 1-2-1 interviews, video and photography activitiesYou need to be working within waste projects based within community/not for profit/NGO.Please fill in this form. forms.office.com/e/Sc51eJeVXn

Here's a first look at sea surface temperature data from the new NOAA ERSSTv6 dataset... this animation shows the yearly anomalies over the last 100 years. Data available at www.ncei.noaa.gov/pub/data/cmb...

Solidarity with our colleagues at Robert Gordon as they prepare for their strike action ✊ www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Literally, cannot wait for this.

More crackdown on Greenpeace protest in the US. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

I will always stand with Greeenpeace! Nothing short of an act of silencing people and peaceful protest

Disgusting display of US middle/old age white male bullies, only makes us stand stronger with support for Ukraine.

Eek! just had my first paper accepted at a conference this summer.😱

Rest in Power Prof Burawoy 💔✊

Pretty much everything I teach in Public Sociology involves works of Burawoy. Really shocked to hear his passing and a massive loss to Sociology as a whole, really sad.

#EmbarrassmentInChief 🤮

Everyone needs to know that these fires were made possible by global heating, which is caused by the fossil fuel industry, which has lied and blocked action for half a century. And that this will all get much, much, much worse until we end the fossil fuel industry

Cannot stop thinking about how Octavia Butler wrote a book in 1993 about climate change. It opens with deadly fires in LA in 2025. In the story, a fascist President has just won office with the campaign slogan "Make America Great Again." She was a modern day Nostradamus. If only we'd listened.

Spot on as always @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social and a hard read when announced that 2024 was the notes and above the 1.5 threshold…it’s not getting better.

All surface temperature products for 2024 are now live. All show 2024 is the warmest year (very clearly). The estimates of the change since the pre-industrial (1850-1900) are more uncertain but range from 1.46 to 1.62ºC. It is therefore *likely* this was the first year that exceeded 1.5ºC.

Disposable issues: The Sociological Review magazine’s #TSRWaste issue looks at wasted resources, wasted opportunities and wasted lives. Contributions from Miriam Emefa Dzah, @jedalegado.bsky.social, Aline Stehrenberger, Amit Balmiki, Mark Parsons, Alexandrina Vanke and many more. buff.ly/3Zuum1p

14/17. Decolonising #ClimateColoniality and Re-Centering Marginalised Voices and Knowledges 🗣️Speakers: @farhanasultana.com, Gabriela de Matos and Amali Tower 🗓️January 29th 2025 ⏰13:00-14:00 GMT ✏️Sign up here: zoom.us/webinar/regi...

It’s difficult to UNSEE this shocking image 😢 Greenpeace captured this image during a five-week investigation near the Emperor Seamounts. Longliners use billions of hooks🪝to catch fish, and sharks. Watch Episode 1 of the brand new Netflix documentary series, Our Oceans 👀