iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

The grant system isn’t broken. It is academia in general not hiring, and therefore postdocs are turning to grants like this as a last resort. The failure starts with government financing of universities, austerity, etc.

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Indeed, they didn’t quote my updated calculations that the local government expenditure in the TAR, which is mostly subsidised, was still over 100% of the TAR GDP in 2024. It’s been about 15 years at these levels. This overwhelms everything else.

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Turquoise Roof @turquoiseroof.org · 19/08/2026

Tibet's 'new economy', as shown to a state-organised press tour: a vineyard, a beekeeper, a weaving co-op. Meanwhile central government transfers ran to ¥69,000/resident in '24. One expert in the piece @andrewmfischer.bsky.social: niche, uncompetitive, subsidised. www.thinkchina.sg/economy/big-...

thinkchina.sg

[Big read] Can Tibet build an economy beyond state support?

High-altitude wine, beekeeping and conservation drones — these are just some of the businesses in Tibet generating employment and income. Lianhe Zaobao correspondent Liu Liu finds out more about the p...

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Trevon Logan @trevondlogan.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

This #juneteenth we should reflect on how recent enslavement was in American history. My great grandfather was born enslaved in Mississippi. Slavery and Emancipation are not ancient history at all. #Juneteenth #AmericanHistory

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Well, at least Wiley is making $100 million out of it so far by licencing our research to train it. bsky.app/profile/andr...

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

"3. High Barriers to Entry: If Company A owns 50 years of specialized academic research, Company B cannot simply build a competing AI overnight because they don't have access to those underlying training materials." Thank you AI for explaining how $ is being made from our free labour to train you!

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

"2. Copyright Protection: AI developers are facing lawsuits for scraping public websites. Buying or licensing "proprietary content" gives AI developers legal safety because they are paying the rightful copyright owner."

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

"1. AI Models Need Clean Fuel: Public internet data (like Reddit or Wikipedia) is mostly fully harvested. AI companies are hungry for deep, accurate, industry-specific text (like med journals, legal briefs, & scientific research) to make their AI tools smarter."

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Ask AI (Google)! "A company owns a unique, exclusive library of high-quality data or intellectual property that cannot be legally or easily copied by competitors, making it incredibly valuable for training AI models and running advanced data analysis. Why This Is Highly Valuable Right Now?"

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

From the horse's mouth: the acquisition “deepens Wiley’s proprietary content position for use in AI & data analytics, at a moment when demand for trusted peer-reviewed research content is accelerating rapidly as corps build out AI models and applications.” What does this mean?

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

News came out yesterday that Wiley acquired Emerald Publishing. Why? One big reason: Wiley is scaling AI revenue potential. It has already signed AI licensing agreements worth more than $100 million. In other words, it's selling (leasing) our research for training AI. A 🧵

publishersweekly.com

Wiley Buys Emerald Publishing for $452 Million

The company said it sees the acquisition of the U.K.-based academic journal as not only deepening its presence in the journal market, but also increasing the amount of content it can license to AI com...

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Given the like from @erc.europa.eu, note the research contributing to this article was funded by their ERC Starting Grant, for the AIDSOCPRO research project (Aiding Social Protection: The Political Economy of Externally Financing Social Policy in Developing Countries, 2015–2021; grant #638647).

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

For anyone who has been following my work, this article also evolves out of my earlier article in 2009, “Putting Aid in its Place: insights from early structuralists on aid and balance of payments and lessons for contemporary aid debates.” onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1... /end

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Putting aid in its place: Insights from early structuralists on aid and balance of payments and lessons for contemporary aid debates

Recent debates on aid and development are waged on narrow terms in comparison to earlier debates in the 1950s and 1960s. The principal concern of the ‘structuralist’ pioneers of development economics...

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

3) there is a huge gulf of understanding between govs & donors regarding the fundamental role of aid in such contexts. Donors really believe they are funding social protection. It also highlights the importance of disaggregating gov fiscal accounts by domestic & foreign currency revenues & exp.

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

1) most social protection aid relies on budget support conditionalities rather than direct funding (esp WB, which dominates). 2) this has associated the social protection agenda with broader World Bank & IMF policy mandates, esp IMF focus on fiscal consolidation, austerity & macro reforms.

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

It clarifies how external funding directed towards domestic exp tends to exacerbate the balancing act recipient countries must perform between addressing foreign currency needs vs complying with donors. I discuss three tensions, drawing from the fieldwork of my ERC grant:

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

In other words, such expenditures do not face an external constraint, unlike many other aspects of gov spending in developing countries that do. This is from my latest article: “Mirages of External Finance in Social Protection: the Politics of Aid Viewed Through the Monetary Transfer Dilemma.”

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

Instead, the foreign currency that aid provides is necessarily spent on expenditures that require foreign currency. As a corollary, expenditures in domestic currency, epitomised by CTs, does not actually need aid given it can be financed through domestic fiscal & monetary operations.

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

A counterintuitive, for some controversial, argument: Aid that is considered to be funding #socialprotection is mostly not spent on social protection given that these expenditures, esp #cashtransfers (CTs), are almost entirely in domestic currency. A thread on my latest article. See:

cogitatiopress.com

Mirages of External Finance in Social Protection: the Politics of Aid Viewed Through the Monetary Transfer Dilemma | Article | Politics and Governance

Andrew M. Fischer

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Didn’t Braudel spend a lot of time discussing bread?

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Julia M. Rohrer @dingdingpeng.the100.ci · 10/03/2026

A pattern that surprised me when I first heard about it (from @ruben.the100.ci): in high fertility contexts, a large share of kids is born to older mothers -- it takes time to have lots of kids! Not sure how I feel about "very late fertility (ages 35+)" 😭 www.niussp.org/fertility-an...

niussp.org

Fertility postponement is not a universal correlate of fertility decline - N-IUSSP

Worldwide, the path leading to delayed fertility is more complex than it may appear at first sight. Thomas Spoorenberg and Vegard Skirbekk offer a few keys to better interpret current ... Read more

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Epic article on Palestine by @rafeefz.bsky.social just published by @devandchg.bsky.social based on her keynote at the recent AHE conference. "Development as Erasure: Palestine, Genocide and ‘Reconstruction’" A must read! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

Well, he is admitting that the 2024 election was rigged…

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

I think they are using the term with the connotation of financial deepening. Probably lost in LLM translation.

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Also see our reflection, legacy & assessment articles by @amirleb.bsky.social, Hazel Gray, Prabhat Patnaik, Pritish Behuria, @andypsumner.bsky.social, Baptiste Albertone, & Tin Hinane El Kadi. In sum, a must read for knowing where the exciting debates of critical development studies are heading...

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

And ending with a big bang, Adam Hanieh on greening the Gulf states & the east-east axis of world energy onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... and @matthuber.bsky.social on the Demise of Electricity as a ‘Public Utility’ in the United States onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Greening the Gulf? Renewables, Fossil Capitalism and the ‘East–East’ Axis of World Energy

This article examines the place of the Gulf Cooperation Council states in the global energy transition, with a focus on the recent and rapid expansion of renewable energy in the region. It argues tha...

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Ying Chen on China & contradictions of green industrialisation Ewa Karwowski on financialization in & by the UN GFC onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Rohit Azad & Shouvik Chakraborty on socially necessary green development in India onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Renewables Capitalism and the Contradictions of Green Industrialization: The Case of China

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Neil Brenner & @swarnabh.bsky.social on Capitalist Urbanization as Geometabolic Escalation Bengi Akbulut on feminist degrowth onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Anirban Dasgupta & Arindam Banerjee on the challenges of decarbonising agriculture onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

The Monster ‘Within’: Capitalist Urbanization as Geometabolic Escalation

This article challenges prevailing approaches to urban sustainability by reconceptualizing capitalist urbanization as a planetary process of geometabolic escalation. Hegemonic visions of sustainable ....

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

The debate section features an impressive list of illustrious thinkers weighing in on this issue, starting with the indomitable @jayatighosh.bsky.social arguing that "green transition" is not possible within a capitalist market-oriented framework: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Is Renewable Energy Enough to Save the Planet, or Humanity?

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Stellar line up in our latest forum issue of @devandchg.bsky.social just released (although some articles were already on early view). onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14677660... 1st, lead focus article by @rafeefz.bsky.social on development as erasure in #Palestine & #genocide in #Gaza

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

FORUM 2025: Development and Change: Vol 56, No 4-5

Click on the title to browse this issue

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rafeefz.bsky.social @rafeefz.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

Why is Palestine a defining fault line of 21st‑century politics? Resisting Erasure places Israeli settler‑colonialism within imperialism, race, and fossil capitalism—not just humanitarian / legal narratives. Officially out & available in paperback & ebook www.versobooks.com/en-gb/produc...

versobooks.com

Resisting Erasure

Why has Palestine become a defining fault line of contemporary politics?Challenging mainstream narratives that reduce Palestine to ancient hatreds, humanitarian tragedy, or legal abstractions, Resisti...

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rafeefz.bsky.social @rafeefz.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

For those asking what Palestine reveals about the world - and what it demands of us - this book is one small intervention in a much larger fight. We hope you’ll read it, share it, and organise with it. www.versobooks.com/en-gb/produc...

versobooks.com

Resisting Erasure

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Gabriel Zucman @gabrielzucman.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

It has become received wisdom in Brussels and Washington that there is a new “euro-sclerosis”: that the EU economy is lagging the US This view is wrong A little primer on the measurement of productivity – and why reports of the economic death of Europe are greatly exaggerated🧵

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

“It is better to be approximately right than exactly wrong.” Often attributed to Keynes but seems to have come from the 18th century scholar Carveth Read.

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

Rather, state started strong family planning in 1970. Population was responsive because of low death rates, but also the whole society was collectivised, so it was much easier for planning to be implemented swiftly and with effect. That’s why fertility fell to almost replacement before the OCP.

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

I don’t think you can make the argument about standard of living in the 1970s, except re improved health & education. There wasn’t much urbanisation in the 1970s (started in 1980s), incomes were still very low, etc. China is case that started pushing demographic theory away from sof explanations.

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

That’s also a problem in the recent wave of unequal exchange articles. I do not know how they get through peer review, except by being reviewed by people without technical expertise in the area.

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

Like, tucked deep into the article is a btw moment that was screaming for more attention: “A preliminary ruling at the High Court in London in December 2024 found that report had been ‘defamatory’.”

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

I think there is a lot of innuendo in this story that is not being said.

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

MDPI alone probably publishes a good share of these…

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

This trope has been the right wing go-to explanation for the unequal & dysfunctional US health care system for decades now. Fox was blowing this dog whistle during Obama’s attempts to reform, as far as I recall.

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

You are doing fantastic work on this Saloni. I really appreciate your correctives to the population collapse panic.

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Andrew Fischer @andrewmfischer.bsky.social · 17/09/2025

Given that the late Thandika Mkandawire was a massive inspiration for me, I am incredibly honoured to have been invited to give this memorial lecture and, now as the day approaches, also increasingly nervous about it. tinyurl.com/Thandika-2025

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