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Joe Blakey

@joeblakey.bsky.social
382 followers 450 following 25 posts

Lecturer, Geography UoM. Political Geographer interested in environmental knowledge politics, post-foundational political theories and aesthetics. Runner. Website: joeblakey.com Research: research.manchester.ac.uk/en/person…

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Joe Blakey @joeblakey.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
🎙️I recently spoke with Sam Morgan about ‘A Caution on Climate Hope’ (paper by @marchudson.bsky.social and I). We dig into the assumed link between hope and climate progress, the problems with optimism and false hope, and whether hopelessness has its virtues. foresightmedia.com/story/s8Myti...
foresightmedia.com
Hope springs eternal for the climate?
On today’s episode of The Jolt: climate action and decarbonisation success is often intertwined with the need to stay hopeful. Is having hope all it’s cracked up to be though? Or could it be doing mor...
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John Fellowes @jrf66.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
"Abandoning the assumption that hope is a strategic necessity enables a climate scholarship and politics that is ...receptive to the full range of emotions and affects that can shape action." www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
A caution on climate hope
In this paper, we caution against the tendency in climate discourse to equate hope with progress. While hope is often framed as essential for motivating change, its uncritical celebration can under...
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Prof. Eliot Jacobson @climatecasino.net · 25/08/2026
Your 'moment of doom' for Aug. 25, 2026 ~ Hopeless "Calls for hopefulness often come from sources warranting scepticism, including greenwashed or techno-solutionist corporate messaging and policymakers repeating well-worn promises of ecological modernisation, green-growth and decoupling."
tandfonline.com
A caution on climate hope
In this paper, we caution against the tendency in climate discourse to equate hope with progress. While hope is often framed as essential for motivating change, its uncritical celebration can under...
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Joe Blakey @joeblakey.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
📄 ✨ New paper with @marchudson.bsky.social in @environmentalpol.bsky.social. In 'a caution on climate hope' we challenge the assumption that #hope is always necessary or helpful for progressive climate action. In other words, the idea that if hope is lost, the future is too. doi.org/10.1080/0964...
doi.org
A caution on climate hope
In this paper, we caution against the tendency in climate discourse to equate hope with progress. While hope is often framed as essential for motivating change, its uncritical celebration can under...
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Ben Bowsher @benbowsher.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
As the crowdfunder for the first radical bookshop icon Newcastle for 40 years gets closer to the end I’m making the bold move of calling on all the academics I sort of vaguely know and also those I don’t to share the link for our crowdfunder: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/booksfromb...
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James McConnachie @jamesmcconnachie.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Absolute shocker of a rights grab - academics may want to push back hard
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Niamh Nelson-Owens @niamhnelson-owens.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
📢 CfP RGS-IBG 2026: Post-Foundational Geography in a Turbulent and Polarised World Please see the below for an exciting session with @joeblakey.bsky.social and @matinakapsali.bsky.social We look forward to receiving your submissions! Please do get in touch if you have any questions.
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Juan Meneses @dissentum.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Publication day! Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination, shepherded by the inimitable @lpennywark.bsky.social, is officially out in the world with @uminnpress.bsky.social! Also, the press has a $10 deal on paperbacks using CODE MN93820 you don't want to miss! www.upress.umn.edu/978151791918...
A human hand holding a copy of the book Postpolitics and the Aesthetic Imagination, edited by Juan Meneses, against a backdrop of blue and purple hydrangeas
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ana valdivia @anavaldi.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
After submitting a FOIA request UKRI, I obtained success rates by three grant call scheme and I can only say that I am disheartened by the results: - AHRC Responsive Mode 2025: 2% - ESRC New Investigator Grant 2025: 1% - ESRC Research Grant Round 2025: 1%
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School of Environment, Education, and Development @uomseed.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
🌱 Work with nature in Greater Manchester? This Saturday, join @joeblakey.bsky.social & Mark Usher for a workshop exploring how nature is valued. 🗓️ 25 Oct 10am-12pm 📍 University Place, Oxford Rd, Mcr 🎟️ Free www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-do-you... @ukri.org #ESRCFestival #ValuingNature #NaturalCapital
Image of a bridge over the Bridgewater Canal with text that reads: 'How do you value nature? Thinking with a beyond natural capital'
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Dr Anna Lawrence @annamlawrence.bsky.social · 29/09/2025
Pleased to share the first two RGS-IBG Book Series titles to be published fully open access with @lsepress.bsky.social, available early 2026... @laurieparsons.bsky.social @jbrigstocke.bsky.social press.lse.ac.uk/books/coming...
A book cover for Julian Brigstocke's forthcoming book 'Non-Authoritarian Authority: Cities, Materially and the Aesthetics of Power' published by LSE Press and the RGS-IBG, with a black and white aerial photograph of a large crowd in the background.A book cover for Laurie Parson's forthcoming book 'Climate Hegemony: Confronting the Politics of Environmental Impasse' published by LSE Press and the RGS-IBG, with a black and white photograph of three people riding on a scooter above a body of water filled with litter.
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Joe Blakey @joeblakey.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
🎉 Congrats to @niamhnelson-owens.bsky.social on the publication of 'Towards an affective post-foundational political geography', which brings together literature on affect and post-foundational geography. A fantastic achievement for paper no.1 and a wonderful contribution. doi.org/10.1177/0309...
doi.org
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
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Joe Blakey @joeblakey.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
We're hosting a launch event for our edited book Aesthetics and the City on Wednesday 8th October 2025 at 3pm UK time. We would like to invite you to join us. The event is in-person (message for details) at UoM and online (sign up here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/aesthetics... ). Hope to see you there!
Poster for the edited book aesthetics and the city. It contains two QR codes to the registration link present in the post (https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/aesthetics-and-the-city-book-launch-tickets-1665058728479) and to the book (https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003335993), an image of the book, and a brief abstract for the event. There is a kaleidoscope image of a city in the background. These details can all be found in typed form here: http://joeblakey.com/aesthetics
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Kevin Anderson @kevinclimate.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Another section from my #CriticalDecade presentation (see attached). Full transcript at climateuncensored.com/talk-at-the-...
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Amy Barron @amycbarron.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
I have a new paper out in Social & Cultural Geography titled: Making sense of ‘middle-age’: thinking from and through the middle. It presents a research agenda on the geographies of middle-age, and the value of thinking around the middle more generally. 🔗https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2025.2537686
ABSTRACT of paper
This paper presents a research agenda on the geographies of middle-age, drawing on life-history interviews with self-identified middle-aged participants from Greater Manchester, UK. The place of middle-age in debates about age within and beyond human geography is explored, including the extension of the category of youth and the deferral of older age. While lived experiences of middle-age are changing and significant, they are frequently overlooked in research. This paper argues that middle-age must be theorized through approaches and concepts of and around the middle. It draws upon more-than-representational theories as one such approach to thinking from and through the middle, emphasizing in-between affective states and forms of change, whilst highlighting a range of concepts and practices of the middle such as impasse, liminality and waiting. Thinking from and through the middle advances relational approaches to age by shifting attention away from the nodes at either end of a relation, towards the middle itself as being invariably in-relation. Geographers interested in ageing are urged to focus on the middle, be these moments of betweenness earlier or later in life, or midlife and middle-age itself. Future research must keep differences in experience at the fore and maintain a distinctly relational vantage point.
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Joe Blakey @joeblakey.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Today marks the launch of our edited volume Aesthetics and the City. @amycbarron.bsky.social and I are thrilled to see this in print. We hope it’s of interest! Do let us know what you think. We are hosting a hybrid launch event in early October. 🔗More details: www.routledge.com/Aesthetics-a...
A copy of the aesthetics and the city book against a stone wall with ivy on the left
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Julian Brigstocke @jbrigstocke.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
I have a chapter in the book on Cities and the Sixth Sense: The Aesthetics of Experimental Urbanism. The chapter looks at experimental architecture/urbanism projects on the US/Mexico border through the lens of Hannah Arendt’s politics of aesthetics. www.routledge.com/Aesthetics-a... #geosky
routledge.com
Aesthetics and the City
Aesthetics and the City engages aesthetics to explore the role of the city in urban experience. Drawing on diverse theories and global case studies, this edited collection examines how aesthetics rela...
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Julian Brigstocke @jbrigstocke.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
So excited to see Aesthetics and the City in print. Congratulations to editors @joeblakey.bsky.social and @amycbarron.bsky.social. #geosky
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Joe Blakey @joeblakey.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
🌍 Mark Usher and I are collaborating to bring professionals working on natural capital in Greater Manchester together for a workshop on Tues 22nd July (bringing together Mark's work on natural capital and my own on environmental accounting). Details below and register here: bit.ly/gmnaturalcap...
An invitation to a Greater Manchester Natural Captital Workshop. Water and aquatic plants are in the background. It details that the event seeks to bring divergent and common perspectives on natural capital accounting frameworks to the fore. It is on Tuesday 22nd June 2025 at the University of Manchester at 10am to 3:30pm. Participants must be a professional in the sector. The registration link is bit.ly/gmnaturalcapital
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Amy Barron @amycbarron.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
@joeblakey.bsky.social and I have an upcoming edited book... Aesthetics and the City explores how aesthetics relates to how cities and urban spaces are perceived, organised, and transformed. There's now a web page which lists the many fascinating contributions… 🔗 bit.ly/aestheticsandthecitybook
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Joe Blakey @joeblakey.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
📚 @amycbarron.bsky.social and I have an upcoming edited book... Aesthetics and the City explores how aesthetics relates to how cities and urban spaces are perceived, organised, and transformed. There's now a web page which lists the many fascinating contributions… 🔗 bit.ly/aestheticsandthecitybook
An image of the book cover on a city scape viewed through a kaleidoscope. The title of the book Aesthetics and the City is shown along with the editors names (Joe Blakey and Amy Barron). Contributors to the book are listed… Amy Barron, Amr Ibrahim, Beatriz Guijarro Turégano,  Friederike Landau-Donnelly,  Günter Gassner, Joe Blakey, Josh Widera, Julian Brigstocke, Mónica Degen, Salila Vanka, Sanna Lehtinen, Stefanie Fridrik,  Taher Abdel-Ghani & Yara Mohamed
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Joe Blakey @joeblakey.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
A conversation between Andrea Borsari, Arshia Eghbali and I has been published in The Historical City book. Titled ‘The City Between Geography and Aesthetics’ it discusses the edited book @amycbarron.bsky.social and I have submitted on ‘Aesthetics and the City’. link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...
link.springer.com
The City Between Geography and Aesthetics: A Conversation with Joe Blakey
Joe Blakey is an environmental and political geographer, and Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Manchester. His work focuses on post-foundational political theories within Human Geograph...
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Iwan Rhys Morus @irmorus.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
And to nobody's surprise, even the BBC's answer to this question is a big, unequivocal NO!
bbc.co.uk
Electric planes, new fuel: Can Heathrow's third runway be green?
BBC Verify assesses whether Chancellor Rachel Reeves' three key climate claims about the runway add up.
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Oli Mould @olimould.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
The first domino in what will surely be a cascade. The uni sector needs some radical new political impetus, and quickly www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Cardiff: University confirms plans to cut 400 jobs
Vice-chancellor Wendy Larner says
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Kevin Anderson @kevinclimate.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Worth doing a bit of maths around the UK's 81% NDC announcement. It comes from the net-zero 2050 pathway, which assumes a typical UK citizen receives 3x more emission space than an 'equal per capita' share of the remaining 50% ≤ 1.5°C carbon budget. Colonialism continues unchecked & even celebrated.
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Cities Politics Economies Research Group, UoM @cperguom.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
Hi Everyone. This is the first post of the Cities Politics Economies Research Group from the Department of Geography, University of Manchester. www.seed.manchester.ac.uk/geography/re...
seed.manchester.ac.uk
Cities, Politics and Economies (CPEG) - School of Environment, Education and Development - The University of Manchester
The Cities, Politics, and Economies Group brings together scholars working at the interface of urban, political and economic geography.
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Ronald Hartz @ronaldhartz.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
'The pressure to produce and perform in the short term can come at the expense of scientific progress in the long term. A more critical stance towards metrics and rankings is essential if we want to enhance the quality and credibility of research.' www.socialsciencespace.com/2025/01/how-...
socialsciencespace.com
How Research Credibility Suffers in a Quantified Society - Social Science Space
To address research credibility issues, we must reform the role of metrics, rankings, and incentives in universities.
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Hayato Koga @hayatokoga.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
Thrilled to see our new paper published in Progress in Environmental Geography! With @saskapetrova.bsky.social and @stefanb23.bsky.social, this paper examined the concept of community within the contexts of community-based energy governance. Open access at journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
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Joe Blakey @joeblakey.bsky.social · 26/12/2024
From Standedge this evening, looking towards Manchester…
People stood in front of a cloud inversion. Water in the foreground. Sunset in the distance.People stood in front of a cloud inversion. Water in the foreground. Sunset in the distance.A cloud inversion. Sunset in the distance.People stood in front of a cloud inversion. Sunset in the distance.
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Jamie Doucette @jamiedoucette.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Okay. It's out. Written with my colleague Jinsoo Lee not on Bluesky (yet) jacobin.com/2024/12/yoon...
jacobin.com
South Korea’s Three-Hour Coup
Earlier today, South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law. The short-lived coup was an act of desperation by a deeply unpopular right-wing leader and has only strengthened opposition to...
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Jamie Doucette @jamiedoucette.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Short article for a magazine up soon. But I'll just put it here that I've long followed the twist and turns of conservative politics in South Korea. You can find our attempt to chronicle Park's rollback of democracy (in retrospect not as audacious as Yoon, the very person who prosecuted her!)
tandfonline.com
Pursuing Post-democratisation: The Resilience of Politics by Public Security in Contemporary South Korea
This article analyses the disputed election of President Park Geun-hye and her administration’s confrontation of left-nationalist politicians and other social movements during her first year in off...
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Peter Cox @coxypm.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
New article by @jamesgyke.bsky.social, Jamie Shutler, and me @gsiexeter.bsky.social, explaining why carbon offsetting should be removed from Net Zero plans. theconversation.com/we-have-offi...
theconversation.com
We have officially advised our university to ditch carbon offsets – and focus on cutting emissions
Your organisation should probably ditch offsets too.
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Cristina Temenos @ctemenos.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
Solidarity with colleagues at the University of Wollongong in geography, history, language, maths, environmental science, physics and public health. Entire units being cut, short sighted and devastating. Petition here: betteruniversities.work/uow-petition...
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Raktim Ray (PhD) @raktimplan.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Hi folks, as part of the Political Geography Research group of RGS IBG, we are organising a mentorship session for ECRs on 4th December. Please register and join us if you are interested www.rgs.org/events/upcom... @ingridagnete.bsky.social @oliviamason.bsky.social
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Shocking news. 36% of UK children are living in poverty according to the latest Social Metrics Commission research (I am one of the Commissioners) www.theguardian.com/society/2024...
Graph showing poverty levels including child poverty reaching 36%
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Kevin Anderson @kevinclimate.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
Using latest carbon budgets from Lamboll www.nature.com/articles/s41... & Forster essd.copernicus.org/articles/16/... for a 50% chance of not exceeding 1.5°C, then a straight-line cut in global emissions from Jan 2025 needs to hit zero CO2 by 2032/33 (the outcome 30yrs of delusion/lies/inaction).
nature.com
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Pierre Friedlingstein @pfriedling.bsky.social · 13/11/2024
The 2024 Global Carbon Budget projects fossil carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of 37.4 billion tonnes, up 0.8% from 2023. Despite the urgent need to cut emissions to slow climate change, there is still “no sign” that the world has reached a peak in fossil CO2 emissions.
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Dave Haslam @davehaslam.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Copies of this poster appearing in Manchester this weekend. Worth a read. Applicable also to other British cities I am sure. Too many vested interests have talked up the emerging urban model.
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Lucas Pohl @lucaspohl.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
"Apocalyptic nothingness" has recently been published in Social & Cultural Geography (open access). In it, I investigate two shades of nothingness as they appear in both fictional and non-fictional apocalyptic imaginaries. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Apocalyptic nothingness: lacks, holes, and the limits of the geographical imagination
This paper addresses the relationship between space, negativity, and apocalypses. Following Jacques Lacan, I introduce the distinction between ‘lack’ and ‘hole’, whereby the lack is considered in s...
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Joe Blakey @joeblakey.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
New paper in Political Geography, ‘What Repoliticisation Means and Requires: Creating the Climate for Disagreement’. t.co/hsCpZ8J0s5
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