A podcast with me and John talking about AI and the politics of value in music👇👇

I'm so happy for all of us

Is there a term for this www.nytimes.com/2026/04/01/w...

Are you interested in pursuing a funded PhD at the ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work, at the University of Leeds, supervised by Mark Stuart & Charles Umney? You will contribute to a study titled, ‘Building employment inclusion within the West Yorkshire regional digital skills ecosystem.'

Probably not a by-election that needs over-analysing in the end. Since the 2024 GE, Labour has, in effect, been telling its core voters to vote for someone else. So they did.

hahhaaha

Disgraceful way to treat staff, please consider supporting Sheffield ucu

Labour councillor thinks that the murder of a woman - with plans that political parties in the UK are specifically looking to emulate - shouldn't be political. Labour have no intention in every challenging the far right - which is why they'll be next to follow unless we stand up to them.

I am horrified by the murder of a woman in Minneapolis by an ICE agent. This is what fascism looks like in real time, where a far-right government emboldens a violent death squad to terrorise communities with impunity.

Trump just said "all" of Venezuela's oil must be made accessible to US oil companies. Trump wants to emulate Putin's model: Authoritarian, expansionist rulers carving up their regions and distributing the spoils of conquest to friendly oligarchs. 1/ (new piece) newrepublic.com/article/2049...

Colombian President Petro commenting on the US; “A clan of pedophiles wants to destroy our democracy. To keep Epstein's list from coming out, they send warships to kill fishermen & threaten our neighbor with invasion for their oil."

In the past week, the Trump-Vance admin: –Bombed Nigeria –Bombed Venezuela, abducted its leader –Bombed more ships in the middle of the ocean –Threatened military action in Iran, Colombia, and Cuba –Accepted the “Israel Prize” & hosted Netanyahu in Mar-a-Lago (despite his soldiers killing Americans)

We are deeply concerned for the health of Qesser Zuhrah, who has been on hunger strike for 46 days. We join those calling on the government to act now, and address the serious concerns raised by lawyers acting for the prisoners.

Pros And Cons Of War With Venezuela https://theonion.com/pros-and-cons-of-war-with-venezuela/

When will this crisis get any attention whatsoever!? A THOUSAND ACADEMIC STAFF AT ONE INSTITUTION SERVED REDUNDANCY RISK NOTICES! And that's not counting what's surely being visited on professional services staff too. This is an economic catastrophe, to say nothing of the intellectual catastrophe!

Once again, we are way too relaxed about the fact that "shooting Irish people is good actually" is a mainstream political position on the neighbouring island.

The way all of these people convinced themselves that Mamdani is antisemitic is a subject far more worthy of media examination than any of the ‘groupthink on campuses!’ thinkpieces we’ve been subjected to

Doing some proofreading on our forthcoming paper: "What is human augmentation and why does it matter for the sociology of work? A conceptualization of worker-centred augmentation". Forthcoming in Work in the Global Economy. Email me if interested and wanting to discuss.

My first book, *Unpaid: the Past, Present and Future of Wage Theft*, will be published by @versobooks.bsky.social in May, 2026! This book is born from experience. It is written for anyone who is dissatisfied with the capitalist wage system. UK pre-order: www.waterstones.com/book/unpaid/...

"How does the local state mediate the relationship between technological change and work?": Forthcoming in Work & Occupations. Offers a typology for how devolved govt can intervene to shape technology's impact on local workers, esp in low wage jobs. @digitcentre.bsky.social @ceric-lubs.bsky.social

It would be good if the only political pushback against Nigel Farage's plans to mass deport hundreds of thousands of our neighbours, friends, family and colleagues didn't just come from a handful of backbench MPs and one regional mayor

It's been a long time coming, but I'm delighted to announce that my PhD paper "Sociotechnical Change in British Supermarkets: Examining the Role of Labour" has finally been published in New Technology, Work and Employment 🎉 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

"In contrast to futurist predictions of the proliferation of labour-replacing technologies, the analysis shows how food retailers continued to prioritise short-term solutions contingent on human labour rather than investments in longer-term automation programme."

Many congratulations to @abbiewinton.bsky.social for this outstanding new paper in @ntwejournal.bsky.social! Essential reading for understanding technological adoption in retail workplaces, with a lot of additional insight into the implications of covid 🚨🚨👇👇 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The destruction of the Gaza city mosque is a devastating loss to humanity as a whole. A part of our global medieval heritage destroyed in furtherance to a genocide. I despair.

Radical right accommodation really does not work. New paper out with this exceptionally talented team @katharinalawall.bsky.social @robjohns75.bsky.social @drjennings.bsky.social @sarahobolt.bsky.social @zachdickson.bsky.social @danjdevine.bsky.social & @jack-bailey.co.uk doi.org/10.31235/osf...

The BBC is not going to allow us to not elect reform, they have decided.

'"You can’t have hobbyist research that’s unfunded going on in institutions. We can’t afford it.”' Such a badly formulated phrasing of the issues, so open to so many misinterpretations. If this is the level of thinking about research among sector leaders and policy-makers, be very afraid.

"Understanding international waves of platform labour unrest"- our new piece in @britsoci.bsky.social's Everyday Society. es.britsoc.co.uk/understandin... Discusses our recent @wesjnl.bsky.social paper "Platform labour unrest in a global perspective: How, where and why do platform workers protest?"

Don’t ignore that the bbc asked a racist question here

Recently accepted at @wesjnl.bsky.social: "What does it mean to be passionate about your job? Three meanings of 'collectively oriented passion' in UK pubs". Pre-print OA here: eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/22...

What's astonishing about this is that "violence against a military force currently shelling civilians at food distribution points in the occupied territory they have been starving out" becomes equivalent to "calling for a genocide". It's just an insane moral reversal of the actual situation.

We are witnessing the first livestreamed genocide in history. Those who facilitate these crimes against humanity should face accountability — not those who have the humanity to oppose them. End all arms sales to Israel, now.

Yes. I am right. I am seeing how Chat GPT is ruining students critical thinking and writing skills in real time. It is not the future. It is a tool designed to render the populace helpless, to make people doubt their innate intelligence, and to foster overreliance on technology.

www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/2516781... Up to 319 members of staff are at risk, but the university claims most of them are hourly paid so they don't count. We represent ALL members, whatever your contract type. Your job's precarity does NOT make you less valid in our eyes. We see you.

"Understanding international waves of platform labour unrest"- our new piece in @britsoci.bsky.social's Everyday Society. es.britsoc.co.uk/understandin... Discusses our recent @wesjnl.bsky.social paper "Platform labour unrest in a global perspective: How, where and why do platform workers protest?"

Israel’s finance minister touts genocide: "The approach is entirely different from anything in the past… now we conquer, cleanse, and stay… what remains of the Strip is also being wiped out…. The population will reach the south of the Strip – and from there move to third countries.”

Awful news-solidarity to friends at Greenwich and I hope its management sees sense.

University of Greenwich facing backlash over claims it is planning to cut more than 300 jobs, equivalent to a quarter of total workforce www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ucu-cal... via @julietterowsell.bsky.social

Here is the grad speech that NYU is now withholding the student's diploma for: "As I search my heart today in addressing you all…the only thing that is appropriate to say in this time and to a group this large is a recognition of the atrocities currently happening in Palestine."

“It is astonishing that a Labour government would abandon the labour force of an entire sector. My inbox is filled with individual artists & global companies who are bewildered that the government would allow theft at scale & cosy up to those who are thieving.” www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

A true scandal. One of the biggest free speech violations of our lifetimes and yet the people who screamed about free speech on campus for the past decade were either responsible for the violation (Trump, GOP) or ran cover for it and enabled it (Bari Weiss, Fox, etc).

Really happy we are joint winners of the Sage prize for papers in WES, congrats to Louise and her coauthors as well. Our paper identifies two distinct waves of global labour unrest by platform economy workers- you can read it free through the link below.

Amid all the other news, it's easy to become inured to the basic facts here. Öztürk: -Is not accused of committing any crime -Is nonviolent -Was in this country legally -Merely engaged in speech that the administration objects to -Has been locked up for six weeks

Now from Öztürk’s ACLU lawyer Esha Bhandari: “Rümeysa Öztürk’s case is unprecedented and shocking. She has been held behind bars for six weeks while her health deteriorates for writing an op-ed.”

A world historical crime, taking place in full view, with the perpetrators so convinced of their impunity that they can brag about genocidal intent, and it’s hard not to agree with their calculation that no one will stop them and no one will be held accountable

This is an official plan for ethnic cleansing. If you supported Israel for the past 18 months or so under the assumption that this was about the hostages you were taken for a ride. If you still support Israel's assault on Gaza, you support ethnic cleansing. It's that simple.