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Tom Barnes

@drtombarnes.bsky.social
820 followers 907 following 22 posts

Sociologist of work & economy, Australian Catholic University, researching warehouse logistics, auto manufacturing, precarity, labour regimes, India, Australia

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Reposted by Tom Barnes
RC44 Research Committee for Labour Movements (ISA) @labourrc44.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
🚨The latest issue of RC44's newsletter (July 2025) is out now, including announcements about the recent 5th ISA Forum of #Sociology in Rabat, Morocco, great new publications, and a major new job opportunity for #labour researchers in Hong Kong - check it out!!👀✊
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Tom Barnes @drtombarnes.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Very happy to see this out & about in the real world - thanks to @laurenkatekelly.bsky.social & Chris O'Neill for co-editing... checkout all the articles from our special issue here: www.scienceopen.com/journal-issu...
scienceopen.com
Journal Issue Page – ScienceOpen
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Lauren Kate Kelly @laurenkatekelly.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
Very happy to see this one published with dream team collaborators @blueskychris.bsky.social @thaophan.bsky.social @jakegoldenfein.bsky.social and @jathansadowski.com
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Lauren Kate Kelly @laurenkatekelly.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
A big shout out to @drtombarnes.bsky.social for leading this work and taking up the lion's share of labour required of a Special Issue. Thanks comrade.
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Lauren Kate Kelly @laurenkatekelly.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
Our Special Issue of WOLG has been published--New Worlds of Logistical Labour: Space, places, technologies, workers A big thank you to our incredible contributors and co-editors @drtombarnes.bsky.social and @blueskychris.bsky.social for making this happen 🎉 www.scienceopen.com/hosted-docum...
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RC44 Research Committee for Labour Movements (ISA) @labourrc44.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
The June newsletter of RC44 is out now, including important news about the 5th ISA Forum of #Sociology which starts on Sunday in Rabat, Morocco, incl. one from Global Sociologists for Palestine (GS4P) regarding solidarity at the Forum with the Palestinian people #freePalestine
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RC44 Research Committee for Labour Movements (ISA) @labourrc44.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
The May 2025 issue of RC44’s Monthly Newsletter is out now, including important calls about the forthcoming 5th ISA Forum of #Sociology in Morocco, as well as calls to support our flagship publication, Global #Labour Journal (including a call for junior editors to join the editorial board)🙂✊
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Alexander Gallas @alexandergallas.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
The Global Labour Journal, the official journal of @labourrc44.bsky.social and @glu-network.bsky.social, has launched a petition demaning its inclusion in the World of Science main catalogue. Please spread the word and sign! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com
Support the ranking of the Global Labour Journal!
Dear RC 44 and GLU members, we are asking for your support to advocate for the inclusion of the Global Labour Journal in the Web of Science (WOS Clarivate) main catalogue. GLJ is currently included in...
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Our ANU @ouranu.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
Open letter: The ANU executive is planning a new round of unnecessary and damaging cuts and forced redundancies. We are asking staff to sign this open letter calling on the executive to cancel planned CMPs and to be transparent about ANU’s finances. ANU colleagues please sign and share widely.
forms.gle
Open letter: Staff call on the ANU executive to stop these unnecessary cuts
Fact sheet on 'Renew ANU so far': https://shorturl.at/iYVjc Open Letter PDF for print with QR codes to sign: https://shorturl.at/5KYs3 __________________________________________________ Letter to AN...
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Tom Barnes @drtombarnes.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
Useful by @1RossGittins on #productivity and real #wages… & of course the problem is that the latter has completely collapsed over the past 3 years #Economics www.smh.com.au/business/the...
smh.com.au
Want greater productivity? Set wages to rise by 3.5 per cent a year
Rather than telling workers real wages can’t rise until we get more productivity, we should try reversing the process and make the cost of labour grow.
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Tom Barnes @drtombarnes.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
Following the Aus election, all this talk about civility is such bollocks; severely underplays how much of Labor’s win was luck. Living standards having sunk, voters are scared that Trump will wreck world economy & make things worse again. That fear’s what smashed Dutton not Labor being ‘kind’ FFS🤦‍♂️
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RC44 Research Committee for Labour Movements (ISA) @labourrc44.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
🚨 🚨 Check out and share the new RC44 newsletter (March 2025 issue)!!✊😀 #labor #ISAforum25
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Tom Barnes @drtombarnes.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Remember reading Ian Lowe’s Living in the Hothouse almost 20 years ago; among key predictions was that #globalwarming would shift the tropical cycle zone south to northern NSW within a few decades. Hope folks up there & in Qld will be okay🙏 #CycloneAlfred #ClimateCrisis
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RC44 Research Committee for Labour Movements (ISA) @labourrc44.bsky.social · 02/03/2025
Please read & share the February 2025 issue of RC44's February newsletter, including our call for action regarding the exclusion of RC44’s flagship publication, Global Labour Journal, from journal rankings by the multinational corporation, Clarivate #labour #workers
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Tom Barnes @drtombarnes.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Australia’s #RBA living in an alternative universe… which means more, completely unnecessary pain & uncertainty for workers & households www.smh.com.au/business/the... #reservebank #interestrates #auspol
smh.com.au
RBA is lost in the frightening territory of full employment
The central bank’s bizarre behaviour last week is a sign that it has lost its bearings and isn’t sure what’s happening in the economy or where it’s headed.
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Tom Barnes @drtombarnes.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
😔😢
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Esme Terry @esmeterry.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
📣 Call for papers! ✨DISRUPTING TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE 📅 Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th June, 2025 📍 University of Leeds, UK ‼️ Abstract submission deadline: 7th March 2025 📧 Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be submitted via email to: ceric@leeds.ac.uk www.linkedin.com/posts/esme-t...
linkedin.com
Esme Terry on LinkedIn: CfP: Disrupting Technology Conference 2025, Leeds
📣🌟 Call for Papers! Disrupting Technology Conference 2025 🌟 📣 📅 When? Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th June, 2025 📍 Where? University of Leeds, UK ‼️…
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RC44 Research Committee for Labour Movements (ISA) @labourrc44.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
Are you going to the 5th ISA Forum of Sociology in Rabat, Morocco (6-11 July)? Did you know you can apply for a grant towards registration costs? If you're a labour researcher, you need to apply with RC44 before 31 January!! For more info, contact tom.barnes@acu.edu.au #labour #unions #ISAForum25
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Jathan Sadowski @jathansadowski.com · 05/01/2025
Thrilled to announce the official publication of my new book — The Mechanic and the Luddite: A Ruthless Criticism of Technology and Capitalism Grab my book to go beyond the vaporous hype and get the real material analysis of technological capitalism that we all need! www.ucpress.edu/books/the-me...
Photo of a white man's hand holding a book titled THE MECHANIC AND THE LUDDITE. subtitled A RUTHLESS CRITICISM of TECHNOLOGY and CAPITALISM. author JATHAN SADOWSKI. The cover is a mottled red and orange with an image of a circular toothed gear with a crossed wrench and hammer inside. The title is rockered over the top of the gear and the subtitle is rockered below the gear.
Back cover of THE MECHANIC AND THE LUDDITE book.

DEMYSTIFIES HOW TWO SYSTEMS — TECHNOLOGY AND CAPITALISM — WORK TOGETHER AND EQUIPS US WITH TOOLS TO BUILD A BETTER WORLD Our society is constantly serving the needs of technology and capitalism. Neither system exists outside humans, but both are treated as above and beyond us. The Mechanic and the Luddite provides the critical tools we need to deconstruct these systems-how they work and what work they do in our lives. But It's not enough to know how the machinery of capitalism and technology operate; we also need to know whom the machines serve in order to decide whether they should be taken apart, rebuilt, or destroyed for good. With signature style, Jathan Sadowski gives readers a provocative and handy manual for understand- ing the power of technology and capitalism and, crucially, the power we must take back. 

"Jathan Sadowski is one of the most incisive and important thinkers on technology and capitalism today. This urgent book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the deeper political economy that shapes the digital domain and, by extension, every facet of modern life -ASTRA TAYLOR, author of The Age of Security: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart 

"Smart, urgent, and bluntly powerful, this book is required reading for anyone who seeks to understand how technology gets made — and whom it's made to serve. The time for a thunderous new Luddite politics is now and Sadowski's accessible manifesto delivers" -BRIAN MERCHANT, author of flood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech 

Sadowski's crisp and active prose generously illuminates technology's relationship to flows of money and power and the whims of those who wield them." MEREDITH WHITTAKER, Chief Advisor and Cofounder, Al Now Institute 

JATHAN SADOWSKI is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University. He is author of Too Smart and host of the podcast This Machine Kills
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Kean Birch @keanbirch.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
We're recruiting Postdoctoral Visitor in AI & Governance, York University, Canada. Deadline 20 Dec 2024. More about role contained in the job ad: www.yorku.ca/research/wp-... Working with myself, @tdagne.bsky.social & Rob Gehl #AIethics #AIgovernance #STS #techlaw www.yorku.ca/research/wp-...
yorku.ca
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David Peetz @davidpeetz.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
Good work by @drtombarnes.bsky.social explaining what's behind the huge Woolies dispute. Includes AI's role & how a large warehouse was closed and replaced by one with fewer staff, lower (!) wages, greater work intensity and larger capacity. theconversation.com/the-dispute-...
theconversation.com
The dispute causing empty shelves at Woolies is a test case for companies using AI and automation on workers
The use of AI and wearable technologies to speed up work and monitor employees is becoming more widespread in businesses around the world.
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Greg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
The latest Labour Account figures show almost all of the increase in hours worked in the past year came from health, social assistance, education and public admin
Chart showing annual growth of hours worked by non-market and market sectors. 97% comes from the non-market sector
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Read the book Read Raising Expectations (and Raising Hell) @jphillll.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions has announced that it will begin an indefinite general strike tomorrow, demanding the immediate resignation of President Yoon Suk-yeol.
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Tom Barnes @drtombarnes.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Behind the empty shelves at #Woolworths is a conflict with implications for the #futureofwork, #technology & workers’ rights - my latest for The Conversation on the ongoing #strikes around Australia - theconversation.com/the-dispute-...
theconversation.com
The dispute causing empty shelves at Woolies is a test case for companies using AI and automation on workers
The use of AI and wearable technologies to speed up work and monitor employees is becoming more widespread in businesses around the world.
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Tom Barnes @drtombarnes.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Stopping a return to #autocracy in #SouthKorea is important to all who support #democracy, but esp. to #labour activists… #Unions were indispensable in smashing autocracy in the 1980s (reshaping global unionism in the process)… & they are front & centre again in fighting its unwelcome return
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Valentina Ausserladscheider @vapunkt.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
‼️Our department is looking for a 4-year postdoc: ideally someone interested in economic sociology experienced with quantitive methods. We offer: manageable teaching load, great time to develop research & a wonderful city. Please consider applying & share widely! ‼️ jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Universi...
jobs.univie.ac.at
Universitätsassistent*in Postdoc
Universitätsassistent*in Postdoc
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Asher Wolf @asherwolf.bsky.social · 01/12/2024
Woolworths workers picket distribution centre in Melbourne as industrial dispute continues www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12...
abc.net.au
Union pickets Woolworths distribution centre amid dispute causing supermarket supply shortages
Around 200 Woolworths workers are picketing a distribution centre in Melbourne's south-east which the supermarket giant is trying to reopen to ease a shortage of some items at its stores.
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Virginia Doellgast @vdoellgast.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
New @etui.bsky.social book, 'Experimenting for union renewal: challenges, illustrations and lessons' - Mélanie Laroche & Gregor Murray, eds. @kurtvandaele.bsky.social www.etui.org/publications...
etui.org
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Abbie Winton @abbiewinton.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
🌟 Save the Date! 🌟 Our next HuLog Circle talk is on 18/12, 3PM-4.30PM (GMT) online. Martin Krzywdzinski will share insights from his recent publication, ‘Control and Flexibility: The Use of Wearable Devices in Capital- and Labor-Intensive Work Processes’ 🔗 Reserve your spot now: shorturl.at/pmsuE
shorturl.at
Registration for HuLog Circle by Professor Dr. Martin Krzywdzinski (online) - December 18
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Tim Lyons @picketer.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Yep! Checked in my local Woolies today and lots of this. Solidarity to my fellow @unitedworkers.org.au members on strike
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Alabama's 42 @cbs42.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Amazons workers across 20 countries, including the United States, are striking against what the organizing labor union calls anti-worker and anti-democratic practices.
cbs42.com
Amazon workers on strike from Black Friday to Cyber Monday
(WFXR) – Amazons workers across 20 countries, including the United States, are striking against what the organizing labor union calls anti-worker and anti-democratic practices.
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Ewan Gibbs @ewangibbs.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
It’s clear today that lots of people need reminding that historically rent controls marked the beginning of a series of revolutionary changes which massively improved housing for most people in Scotland through state ownership and shrinking private renting into a small marginal sector.
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Weizenbaum-Institut @weizenbauminstitut.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
How are companies using algorithm-based management and performance tracking, and how do couriers perceive them? What are the challenges for works councils and trade unions? Paper via Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society #wjds by P Wotschack, L Hellbach, F Butollo ➡️ doi.org/10.34669/wi....
Wotschack, P., Hellbach, L., & Butollo, F. (2024), Algorithmic Management in the Food Delivery Sector – a Contested Terrain? Weizenbaum Journal of the Digital Society, 4(3).
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Mike Beggs @mikejbeggs.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
The recommendations of the Hodgkinson report at the Uni of Sydney are full of draconian and silly stuff, but this one in particular is really going to stretch out lecture time
9. The University should amend its policies and procedures to make clear that each person utilising a word or phrase is responsible at the time the word or phrase is used to identify to the audience the context in which it is used. (New Civility Rule)
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Annie loves Mpls @anniekp.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Haymarket regularly makes their books available for free. They do good work. I am totally in for supporting this and just donated.
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Jayne Persian @drjpersian.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
why don't we just tie VC pay to staff morale?
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Karen Gregory @karengregory.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
"Many ex-industrial towns are now dominated by low-paid work, as behemoths like Amazon take advantage of financial incentives, patchy labour rights...economic structures of these areas are marked by cutting-edge innovations in exploitation and financialisation" www.common-wealth.org/publications...
common-wealth.org
A Tale of Two Towns: Economic Disadvantage and Political Disempowerment in Ex-Industrial England | Report | Common Wealth
What do the stories of Mansfield and Corby tell us about the state of contemporary Britain?
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Virginia Doellgast @vdoellgast.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Hi everyone - I set up a 'Part 2', building it out with those who wanted to be added. Please suggest more names or yourself: go.bsky.app/6t5fHp4
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Greg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
America gets a lot of its imported cars from Mexico and Canada
Charts showing 21.4% of imported cars to the US in 2022 came from Mexico and 17% came from Canada. 20.7% came from Japan and 14.1% from South Korea
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Jim Kane @kanejim.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
@nelsonlichtenstein.bsky.social on the outlook for the UAW's next chapter in organizing the South. (open access) journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Can the UAW Break the Non-Union Confederacy?
The United Auto Workers’ Southern Offensive
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Julien Migozzi @jmigozzi.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
A small starter pack for anyone interested in digital/platform capitalism, with a focus on social sciences (sociology geography, STS, econ etc.). Let me know if you want to be added!
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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
This month marks the final, definitive closure of the Garland Shirt Factory. If you're interested in American manufacturing, I want tell you its story. 🧵
The outside of the Garland Shirt Factory
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Virginia Doellgast @vdoellgast.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
I set up a ‘labor research and policy’ starter pack. It’s almost at the 150 person capacity… but let me know if I should add you to a ‘part 2’ list… go.bsky.app/55FK3m7
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Will Jones @willpjones.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
It’s a special feeling to see a book based on a dissertation I directed. It’s particularly relevant after this election. @lawcha.bsky.social @illinoispress.bsky.social
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Paul Krugman @pkrugman.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
The usual suspects are out there yelling "There are 23 million government workers! Fire most of them!" No awareness that most work for local governments, and most of *them* are schoolteachers. Federal employment hasn't grown since the 1950s
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Tom Barnes @drtombarnes.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Even one of Musk’s handpicked biographers wrote that #Tesla would never have survived without massive govt bailouts following the #GFC… hard to find a single capitalist who expresses a bigger contradiction between ‘free market’ rhetoric & an utterly state-dependent reality
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Center for Law and Social Policy @clasp.org · 20/11/2024
In the last decade, we've seen a monumental rise in app-based work, like Uber, DoorDash, Instacart etc. This type of work is otherwise known as "gig work" and it's time for policymakers to take a closer look at the implications of this type of work on workers' rights and overall equity.
Graphic that says: A Framework for the Gig Economy: Why We Must Protect Workers and Hold Corporations Accountable.
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Hannah Groch-Begley @grouchybagels.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Are you writing a book about political economy/progressive policies/other things @rooseveltinstitute.bsky.social might find interesting? Do you have a book contract w/ a publisher? DO YOU LIKE MONEY? If so consider applying to our (virtual) Author in Residency! (1/x) form.jotform.com/CampusNetwor...
Screenshot of the Roosevelt Author in Residence description from the application, which includes "a $7,500 monthly stipend for 12 consecutive months" for writers to deliver on the expectations outlined in their book contract.
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ABC News Bot (unofficial) @abcnewsbot.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Hundreds of Woolworths staff have walked off the job indefinitely at distribution centres in Victoria and New South Wales, demanding better pay and working conditions. 
abc.net.au
Hundreds of Woolworths warehouse staff prepared to strike until Christmas over pay and working conditions
Hundreds of Woolworths staff have walked off the job indefinitely at distribution centres in Victoria and New South Wales, demanding better pay and working conditions. 
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Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Hi Bluesky friends: I wanted to share that my book, THERE IS NO PLACE FOR US, is coming out in March. Based on a half-decade of reporting, it examines the rise of America's "working homeless," following five Atlanta families desperate to secure housing in a gentrifying, increasingly unequal city.
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