I have a new open access article in Geoforum, looking at how abrasive online “finfluencers” promise riches through buying cheap properties to rent to Housing Choice Voucher (“Section 8”) holders, using outdated spatial arbitrage strategies and AI automation: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

we need to talk about that Ring Super Bowl ad

🧵 Trump administration AI policy is widely described as deregulatory. This description is misleading. What's happening is not the absence of governance but its rearrangement--intensive state intervention operating through mechanisms we don't typically call regulation. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Abolishing ICE is the moderate position.

“I’m a developer for a major food delivery app. The 'Priority Fee' and 'Driver Benefit Fee' go 100% to the company. The driver sees $0 of it.” www.reddit.com/r/confession...

Housing First is a housing-focused intervention, and it works. Critics cherry-pick evidence to highlight where programs fall short in health outcomes. That’s important — and access to/funding for services should be increased — but the fact remains that housing outcomes improve, and that’s a start.

New article with @lfalvarezleon.bsky.social on the different geographies created by digital capitalism, urbanization, and global production networks

I'll say again: we are oddly selective about the government services about which we will say, they operate at a loss. We say Amtrak and the post office "lose money" but we never say highways, the court system, the Pentagon, etc lose money

You may have heard that Trump’s extortion of University of California was defeated in court. But do you know who won this historic case? Spoiler: not a single UC administrator participated. It was all faculty members of the UC Faculty Associations and @aaup.org! Cc: @veenadubal.bsky.social

WE WON. I am *begging* you to take note of who did this. *Not* UCLA admin—they’re still scuttling around behind closed doors, attempting to appease—but FACULTY AND STAFF, led by AAUP.

This really struck me. If Uber were legally acknowledged as an employer, then it would be the biggest employer in the world, with over 9,000,000 employees globally. Think about how many taxes, wages, and protections are being lost b/c of their intransigence.

One analytical model shows that, as of November 5th, the dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has already caused the deaths of 600,000 people, two-thirds of them children. https://newyorkermag.visitlink.me/jUzNSc

Everyone deserves joy. And it's pretty ironic for the capitalist class to complain that Gen-Z is finding what joy they can afford--given how little they're paid and how much debt they've been forced to carry--in a store-bought pastry or coffee cup.

BREAKING: A historic coalition of national & California labor unions led by the AAUP filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration challenging the illegal & coercive use of civil rights laws to attack the University of California system & the rights of their members.

Academics are under unrelenting pressure to accept the narrative of the inevitability of #generativeAI & to embrace it in teaching & learning. We resist - because it is ecologically destructive, ethically corrupt, & because it undermines the thinking abilities that make us both human & intelligent.

have been also learning lately that data centers primarily draw water from public drinking water systems with huge implications for access, infrastructure quality, cost of buildout, and water rates for residential customers who already usually subsidize industrial use, in addition to capex

BREAKING: California lawmakers have reached an agreement with Uber and Lyft that will open the door for app drivers to form unions and organize for increased pay and better benefits. www.politico.com/news/2025/08...

LAPD choppers are a malignant nuisance. They're harbingers of surveillance, operated *continuously*—yet the city's own data show they raise stress, impair cognition and burn 100,000s of gallons of gas. The best part? there's no evidence they deter or reduce crime at all. It's time to ground them.

As you’re developing syllabi and thinking about AI statements and talking to students, consider using or adapting this resource on social and environmental harms, from our work in the climate justice and media committees. rutgersaaup.org/ai-syllabus-...

Today, the AAUP released a new report, "Artificial Intelligence & Academic Professions." The report calls for policies that prioritize economic security, faculty working & student learning conditions as AI tech accelerates. www.aaup.org/news/new-rep... 🧵1/9

One of the more notable things about our present political moment is that former Republicans like Joe Walsh or the folks at the Bulwark have a more clear eyed understanding of political strategy than a significant number of long-time, moderate Democrats.

Elon Musk casually, and illegally, dismantled USAID. According to a new study in the Lancet, that action will lead to *14 million* premature deaths between 2025 and 2030. Again: Elon Musk is directly responsible for 14 million coming deaths. 4.5 million will be children.

We are dismantling American higher education & scientific research & health care & all the other things to fund concentration camps

Elon Musk regrets tweets about Donald Trump. He does not regret cutting off food and medicine for millions of the poorest people around the world, killing untold numbers of them.

I said it before and I’ll say it again. We are in a fight for the integrity of our constitution and protection of our democracy. theguardian.com/us-n...

For some perspective, the federal government funds *over half* of all scientific research and development conducted by the @uofcalifornia.bsky.social -- and UC is collectively responsible, in turn, for over 8% of all academic research conducted in the United States.

Musk should be asked about this in every interview he does now and forever. To ignore it is a dereliction of duty. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/o...

Using #Google as a case study, this new special issue paper by Burcu Baykurt calls for a broader theorisation of tech power in cities buff.ly/Pmn3iH2 #SmartCities #PlatformUrbanism

We stand with Mayor Baraka, a leader willing to put himself on the line for our communities.

Always inspired by the organizing at Rutgers and, in particular, my brilliant and scrappy colleagues. Thanks for your leadership—for showing us another way forward 💫

Senator Anna Haley pointing to historic moment and focus on resolution as defense of academic freedom, the world is waiting for Rutgers, disappointed with Holloway’s response and failure to have a vision, further vision of the original resolution Thanks BoG Chair Towers for being here.

The resolution is on the desk of Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway as we speak. If you think he should move forward with it, drop him a note at president at rutgers dot edu to say so. Anyone with an interest should write! And that goes double for Rutgers alums + affiliates!!

This exciting resolution from Rutgers University Senate is exactly the kind of model I think higher ed needs: a mutual defense pact of, in this case, Big 10 schools. They call for member institutions to create a joint defense fund and make resources available to any member institution under attack.

Sims examines Mountain View city in #SiliconValley to help make sense of how #DigitalGrowth machines and the restructuring schemes that they pursue arise from and vary in accordance with local contexts, and introduces the notion of growth genres buff.ly/HEIQI37

Tenure didn’t protect anyone at Columbia. Let this be a lesson in the need for labor solidarity across all ranks in higher ed.

Very excited to finally share my article on reparative-advocacy planning in Philadelphia public schools! This article would not have been possible without all the support of organizers, parents, teachers, and staff in Philadelphia including OCOS, WPCNS, and @parentsunitedphl.bsky.social

Some good news! Friday the US District Court of Maryland granted a nationwide injunction on parts of a pair of EOs issued by Trump related to DEI & accessibility mandates, policies, programs & activities among federal government grantee including colleges & universities. www.aaup.org/news/win-aau...

The thing I keep thinking is that I can’t buy my own cancer research or air traffic control but that’s what Elon is cutting

Members at today's day of action on Busch & Newark Campuses and in Philly! Cancer research? Frozen. Alzheimer’s studies? Halted. Medical breakthroughs? Canceled. This isn’t about budgets—it’s about putting corporate profits over public health. #SaveScience #LaborForHigherEd #nationaldayofaction

Sean Angst, @jovannarosen.bsky.social‬ et al find that #tenants in rent-stabilised buildings and gentrifying census tracts were more likely than peers to experience #harassment. #RentControl tenants experienced higher rates of illegal eviction practices. https://buff.ly/4b7mqZy

How can we respond to the onslaught of attacks on higher ed? Feb 13 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT: workers & allies from around the US will come together in a national strategy call. Register: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi... @uaw.org @aftunion.bsky.social @cwaunion.bsky.social @aaup.bsky.social

New door-to-door survey in #LosAngeles finds more than 1 in 5 renters experienced #LandlordHarassment in the past 2 years. Harassment or neglect? How market dynamics and #RentControl shape #landlord behaviour in Los Angeles by Sean Angst, @jovannarosen.bsky.social‬ et al https://buff.ly/4hk7vgL

New paper in Urban Studies on landlord harm in Los Angeles. We find that tenants in rent-controlled buildings and gentrifying census tracts were 14.8 and 9.4 percentage points more likely to experience harassment, respectively. journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

The biggest h/t to @bcmerchant.bsky.social. Planners, put Blood in the Machine on your syllabi!

When a single billionaire can accumulate more money in 10 seconds than their employees make in one year, while workers struggle to meet the basic cost of rent and medicine, then yes, every billionaire really is a policy failure. Read our op-ed here ⤵️

I am co-organizing some sessions for the Global Conference on Economic Geography (June 2025, Worcester, MA). Please share widely! The first session is: "Technoeconomic Geographies: Imaginaries, Technologies, Epistemologies". docs.google.com/document/d/1...