Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 08/10/2026My main thought on the Green motion is that while it's up to Palestinians to decide how they describe Zionism, it is OK to pass the reasonable comment that in terms of British public perception "Zionism is Racism" is a hat-on-a-hat of poorly- grasped concepts. 010
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Just seems like having a market in housing is the nemesis of any improvement in the quality, accessibility, and availability of housing! 000
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Lets accept the JB-M numbers this time, all the more reason to support decommodified and social housing as alternatives 110
Reposted by Alex BakerThe Whale Pod @thewhale1851.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Schedules permitted, this week's episode is going to be one for the ages as we indulge in Marxist analysis of a single sentence in Moby-Dick. 272
Reposted by Alex Bakermickbyrne.bsky.social @mickbyrne.bsky.social · 05/10/2026The politics of housing in Spain has taken centre stage, and reflects what I call the 'post-neoliberalisation' of housing politics. Bonus post out this morning @tonygroves.bsky.social @javigil.bsky.social @valescal.bsky.social theweekinhousing.substack.com/p/eviction-s...theweekinhousing.substack.comEviction sparks Spanish housing revolutionBonus post 05/10/26 065
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 04/10/2026An Alan Plater gem here - a Welsh peasant and a London Railway bureaucrat debate capitalism, time, and new technologies on a hot afternoon in a field. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...bbc.co.ukOnly A Matter Of Time by Alan Plater - BBC SoundsWhen time-telling was standardised in the 19th century, some had their doubts... 000
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 03/10/2026The Spanish housing movement should be a clear reminder that forces other than AI and 'the digital' are shaping our world. 030
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 02/10/2026whether racial prejudice precedes or emerges from this kind of relation is a bit of a moot point IMO, it's more important to think about how it operates across historical processes than whether it's 'first' or 'second' in some sort of stagist thinking. 000
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 02/10/2026This produces a kind of emerging capitalist subject who has two antagonists in the figure of the 'Native' (occupant of land being speculated on) and 'Jew' (creditor of speculation) who present an obstacle to successful expansion on either side of e.g. the atlantic. 100
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 02/10/2026In a vulgar (probs too Brennerish) form the equation is something like - pressure producing a growing conflict between peasants and landowners can be resolved or allieviated through the release of lines of credit and the opening up of new land. 100
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Imo it's better to think in terms of a long imperialism where the collapse of medieval landlord-tenant relations, the expansion of credit through division of Christian and Jew, and the expansion of empires in the Americas and Indies have a complex entanglement that can't be simply unpicked. 110
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 30/09/2026I keep thinking about how, in my imagination, since 2023, Gaza has gone from being a city with people in it into a sort of oubliette where the mental images are horror or [scene missing] 001
Reposted by Alex BakerLouise Amoore @amoorelouise.bsky.social · 27/09/2026It is the responsibility of every securely employed/tenured professor to do everything they can to challenge this academic environment. That means speaking up institutionally & taking decisions with less secure colleagues at the forefront of our minds. 1339
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 25/09/2026I think the point here is that the unfortunate soul confused whimsy and autism for years 000
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 23/09/2026'A big mortgage is manageable when interest rates are low – but 🇬🇧’s homeowners, already squeezed by rising costs, are now coming off cheap fixed-rate deals just as borrowing costs hit generational high. Have no doubt, families will soon be facing repossession' www.independent.co.uk/voices/mortg...independent.co.ukI fear bailiffs will soon be back on Britain’s doorstepsA big mortgage is manageable when interest rates are low – but Britain’s homeowners, already squeezed by rising costs, are now coming off cheap fixed-rate deals just as borrowing costs hit a generatio... 000
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 23/09/2026the same in the UK and then on everything else...crickets. 010
Reposted by Alex BakerRob Kitchin @robkitchin.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Symposium: Reflecting on the evidence base for housing and planning. Oct 15th, iD8, Dublin. Includes speakers from academia, DHLGH, Housing Agency, LDA, OPR, CSO, IPI, Jacobs. Come and participate in the discussion. Details & sign-up at: www.eventbrite.ie/e/symposium-...eventbrite.ieSYMPOSIUM: REFLECTING ON THE EVIDENCE BASE FOR HOUSING AND PLANNINGExperts discuss how housing and planning evidence is produced, shared & used, & the limits to our knowledge & its implications. 032
Reposted by Alex Bakeronlycans @onlycans.bsky.social · 22/09/2026while i'm going on about ron, he was the one who told me about britain keeping spanish anti fascists in a chorley, lancashire based prisoner of war camp between 1944-46. just in case you needed reminding of how much this country loves camps. files.libcom.org/files/Spanis... 33011
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 21/09/2026when I started my PhD, a PhD and some publications got you a lecturing position at a mid-level uni. Then it was PhD and an RA job, then a PhD and a UK Postdoc Fellowship, now its PhD+ UK Postdoc Fellowship + ERC/MCSA/FLF award, and now THOSE staff are facing job cuts. 010
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 21/09/2026build more links with EU and Canadian institutions, shape a different kind of career structure for academics so you don't have to be on the accelerator all the time. 110
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 21/09/2026There are simple steps Universities and the UK government could take which affect no core operations that would stabilize EU-wide research culture and make it better: e.g. replace the REF, re-introduce student caps for RGs, lift restrictions on overseas students' families and stays. 100
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 21/09/2026These fellowships and ERCs are now one of the ONLY routes to any kind of career longevity in the UK and wider European academia - the effects of layoffs and hiring freezes in one area are cascading through and destroying other parts of the research system. 210
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 12/09/2026That's right - not only are they ALL in heaven there's TWO Che Guevaras now, god thought he was nice so he made him twice! Gotta hand it, clearly the international forces of Islamobolshevism played a blinder on the metaphysical front! 020
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 11/09/2026I remain shocked at what's happening with Universities in this country, aside from anything else the largest employers in countless northern towns and cities completely tanked in favour of the grand london-suck of regional desolation seems an incredibly poor move for The Labour Party to make. 000
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 11/09/2026got to that bit recently and thought, huh, they're not spending a lot of time on this fairly major characters death, sensed something was up and looked it up to a complete lack of surprise. 050
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 07/09/2026I think Vaccine conspiracy has to be linked to individualism and in the US anti-communism. A vaccine is a reminder and visible mark that you share a biological community and a commonality with your fellow human beings, that you are, ultimately, the same as them 030
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 27/08/2026I've been apply - and struggling - to find academic jobs over the last 3 months and I'm considering my options outside, at least for a while. If you know me please do continue to approach me about academic work and funding possibilities, if you know of opportunities outside, I am also ears. 010
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 26/08/2026People are supposed to store this food where in their rented single bedroom in London? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...theguardian.comUK to warn citizens to stock up on food amid threat from climate crisis and hostile statesGovernment resilience campaign aims to ensure people can cope in a national disaster, in order to free resources for most vulnerable 000
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 24/08/2026Not really a role predisposed to lofty thoughts about the definition of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 020
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 24/08/2026the thing for me is that a Lanyard isn't synonymous with 'elite' but with bureaucratic managerial roles in institutions who increasingly substitute for a given solution to a problem and manage a population seeking said solution to that problem. 140
Reposted by Alex BakerTim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 23/08/2026Really cool new commentary about the “scam” under digital capitalism @ctwittekind.bsky.social @desireefields.bsky.social @jmigozzi.bsky.social @jovannarosen.bsky.social @lfalvarezleon.bsky.social doi.org/10.1177/2053... 0137
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 24/08/2026Post and replies good on demonstrating how certain disciplines - Philosophers, Theologians, and now Engineers (I would throw in economists as well) - have the 'Queen of the Sciences' Brainworm that makes some of them prone to outrageous displays of arrogance. 030
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 23/08/2026HE job adverts: "Remember to make sure you have addressed all the essential criteria, a 30 point list of subtly differently worded versions of the same five questions, divided according to vibes, in your cover letter. Cover letters that do not do this will not be progressed. You have 2 sides." 041
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 23/08/2026I think you could make the argument that had he stayed at Cambridge and either been disciplined, or been fired by the 'normal' route, then he might not have gone on to do what he did. But does that really fit with the characteristics of what we've seen? 000
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 23/08/2026The problem is Cofnas *was* defended from the left, on the broad principle of defending scholarship from external pressure, the first time round. I think that mode of de-contextualised ethical thinking has now been tested in practice. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...lrb.co.ukAmia Srinivasan · If We Say Yes: Campus SpeechAn open letter is an unloved thing. Written by committee and in haste, it is a monument to compromise. In the last... 100
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 22/08/2026"Bluesky users celebrate Canadian Culture" OK THEN, that Trouble at the Henhouse, Fully Completely, Phantom Power, Day for Night run. You gotta pick one. Go on. Do it. 000
Reposted by Alex BakerRobert Heinze @rheinze.myatproto.social · 22/08/2026Alan Sokal is on this one, in case anyone still wants to bring up the Sokal affair as a legitimate objection to social science 310734
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 22/08/2026www.youtube.com/watch?v=B96q...youtube.comAlex Glasgow - As Soon As This Pub ClosesYouTube video by Sasha Clarkson 031
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Optimist: The cup is half full Pessimist: The cup is half empty Trotskyist: Care to buy a paper about the Socialist view on the cup? 040
Reposted by Alex BakerIsaac Samuel @rhaplord.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Parchment with a homily by John Chrysostom, archbishop of Constantinople, 398- 407 AD found at the Church of Sur, Medieval Nubia, 4th Cataract region, Sudan. #randomxt 1319
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 21/08/2026of course if we started giving credits on that basis then the greatest scholars of our generation are AV repair workers and cleaners and student counsellors, etc 010
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 21/08/2026Ofc a different kind of academic fraud with writing is the 'Thanks for Typing/Cooking Dinner' one where you get someone else to do your other labour while you write. Which you can just like, do however much you like, but fuels massive inequalities across the entire institution. 110
Reposted by Alex BakerAlex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 27/07/2026Been about a year since this paper on Eviction Enforcement in South Africa came out and have some new followers since then. Possibly the bit of writing I'm proudest of so far. Free to read! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...onlinelibrary.wiley.comFor a Critical Logistics of Eviction: Producing Property Through Mobility in Cape TownUnderstanding eviction as a positioning of bodies and loss in a property relation, I argue a critical logistical reading may offer a means of describing the capacity to evict within the economic, rac.... 022
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Look, I've not watched it, but from everything I can see that channel 4 documentary is already giving me the jitters off the use of 'social construct' alone. All illnesses are socially constructed! It doesn't mean they aren't real! Gaaah! 020
Reposted by Alex BakerNate O @nateo.bsky.social · 16/08/2026Missed Stock saying autism, ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia are ‘intellectual disabilities’ (???) making people ‘unsuited’ for academia. Okay, what. But did she ever talk to any of her colleagues, or did she sprint to her car after her lectures on how we know what a text means by asking the author? 3946696
Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 16/08/2026As a friend just pointed out, a 30% figure, plucked from nowhere, might lead one to the conclusion that black professors at Cambridge are in Eco's words "at the same time too strong and too weak." 020