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Alex Baker

@anomiegeog.bsky.social
324 followers 464 following 1.1K posts

Freelance Urban Researcher - Scholar of the Logistics of Eviction and Debt Enforcement: Cities, Paramilitaries, Heavies, Bailiffs, Urban Infrastructures, and Possessive Minds.

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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
My 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.
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Just seems like having a market in housing is the nemesis of any improvement in the quality, accessibility, and availability of housing!
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Lets accept the JB-M numbers this time, all the more reason to support decommodified and social housing as alternatives
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The Whale Pod @thewhale1851.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Schedules 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.
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I'm surprised but not upset
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mickbyrne.bsky.social @mickbyrne.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The 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.com
Eviction sparks Spanish housing revolution
Bonus post 05/10/26
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
An 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.uk
Only A Matter Of Time by Alan Plater - BBC Sounds
When time-telling was standardised in the 19th century, some had their doubts...
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The Spanish housing movement should be a clear reminder that forces other than AI and 'the digital' are shaping our world.
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
whether 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.
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This 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.
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
In 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.
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Imo 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.
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I 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]
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Louise Amoore @amoorelouise.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
It 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.
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I think the point here is that the unfortunate soul confused whimsy and autism for years
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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.uk
I fear bailiffs will soon be back on Britain’s doorsteps
A 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...
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
the same in the UK and then on everything else...crickets.
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Rob Kitchin @robkitchin.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Symposium: 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.ie
SYMPOSIUM: REFLECTING ON THE EVIDENCE BASE FOR HOUSING AND PLANNING
Experts discuss how housing and planning evidence is produced, shared & used, & the limits to our knowledge & its implications.
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onlycans @onlycans.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
while 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...
five proud spanish lxds standing in front of the sign they made so people wouldn't think they were fash prisoners.
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
when 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.
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
build 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.
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
There 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.
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
These 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.
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
That'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!
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I 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.
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
got 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.
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
I 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
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I'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.
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
People are supposed to store this food where in their rented single bedroom in London? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
UK to warn citizens to stock up on food amid threat from climate crisis and hostile states
Government resilience campaign aims to ensure people can cope in a national disaster, in order to free resources for most vulnerable
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
yeah but if ANY pope is gonna do it
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Not really a role predisposed to lofty thoughts about the definition of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
the 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.
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Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Really 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...
Scams all the way up: The scam as vernacular analytic of digital capitalism 

By Courtney T. Wittekind, Elizabeth Resor, Jovanna Rosen, Hilary Faxon, Kendra Kintzi, Julien Migozzi, Luis F. Alvarez León, and Desiree Fields
 
Abstract 
Scams have proliferated under digital capitalism; so too have stories of scams and allegations of scamming. In this commentary, we focus on the latter to situate the scam as a “vernacular analytic:” an everyday mode of critique invoked to question the normative systems and institutions that rule our lives, but are experienced as exploitative or rigged. While this vernacular analytic is a powerful and pervasive means to highlight inequality, we argue that it obscures what is unique about scams amid capitalism's digitalization. In response, we develop a systematic approach to study this vernacular analytic as it circulates under digital capitalism. We propose three features of the scam as a vernacular analytic: critique at scale, the fallout of digital mimicry, and the exploitation of affect. This threefold framework provides a common foundation for empowering us to counter inequitable and exploitative systems by reimagining and rebuilding institutions and our trust in them. We argue that recognizing the power and pervasiveness of the scam as a vernacular analytic, and interrogating how scams operate under digital capitalism, are essential steps toward a future less vulnerable to digitally mediated exploitation.
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Post 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.
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
HE 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."
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
I 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?
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
The 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.uk
Amia Srinivasan · If We Say Yes: Campus Speech
An open letter ​is an unloved thing. Written by committee and in haste, it is a monument to compromise. In the last...
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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.
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Robert Heinze @rheinze.myatproto.social · 22/08/2026
Alan Sokal is on this one, in case anyone still wants to bring up the Sokal affair as a legitimate objection to social science
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
www.youtube.com/watch?v=B96q...
youtube.com
Alex Glasgow - As Soon As This Pub Closes
YouTube video by Sasha Clarkson
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Optimist: The cup is half full Pessimist: The cup is half empty Trotskyist: Care to buy a paper about the Socialist view on the cup?
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Isaac Samuel @rhaplord.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Parchment 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
A corpus of medieval manuscripts from the Humboldt University (H.U.N.E.) concession in the Fourth Nile Cataract. by Claudia Näser; Alexandros Tsakos
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
of 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
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Ofc 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.
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Pete @eyebrowsofpower.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Nanopticon
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Been 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.com
For a Critical Logistics of Eviction: Producing Property Through Mobility in Cape Town
Understanding 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....
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Look, 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!
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Nate O @nateo.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Missed 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?
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Alex Baker @anomiegeog.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
As 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."
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