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Matt Thompson

@mattthompson.bsky.social
1.8K followers 1.8K following 109 posts

• full-time urban geographer (UCL Bartlett) • spare-time cyclejographer (London mostly) • first-time author (*Reconstructing Public Housing: Liverpool’s hidden history of collective alternatives* www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv153k6cx

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Reposted by Matt Thompson
Jordan T. Camp @jordantcamp.bsky.social · 14h
I am pleased to share the cover for my new book, *The Southern Question: Anti-Fascism and the Global Conjuncture.* It will be published on the American Crossroads series at @ucpress.bsky.social this Spring and is available for pre-order in the U.S. and U.K. Link in comments.
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Marianne Dhenin @mariannedhe.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I edit over at the Urban History Association's blog, The Metropole, and we're looking for book reviewers! Here are some titles we're interested in. If you'd like to review one (and get the book free), lmk! 🧵 CC @urbanhistorya.bsky.social
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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is so very funny youtu.be/SHUvSffmLIQ?...
youtu.be
Most TV is Just This Now
YouTube video by Michael Spicer
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Beth Stratford @bethstratford.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
And here's five more reports by think tanks backing rent controls: IPPR: www.ippr.org/articles/hou... JRF: www.jrf.org.uk/housing/how-... NEF: neweconomics.org/2026/05/a-mo... Positive Money: positivemoney.org/uk/publicati... Autonomy: autonomy.work/portfolio/re...
common-wealth.org
Take Back Rent Controls
Why rent controls are the policy Starmer needs.
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Beth Stratford @bethstratford.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
The excerpts in this thread are from my recent report, co-authored with Joe Beswick, published by @iipp-ucl.bsky.social & @neweconomics.bsky.social, drawing on great work by @ippr.org, @generationrent.bsky.social, @jrf-uk.bsky.social & others! You can find it here: www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/pub...
ucl.ac.uk
Taking back control of rents
Authored by Beth Stratford and Joe Beswick
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Beth Stratford @bethstratford.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Well, I for one am an economist who supports rent controls! Here’s why 🧵: Markets only work well if: -buyers & sellers have roughly equal power -producers respond to price signals & expand supply in response to scarcity -buyers can walk away if prices get too high
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Chris Hesketh @chrishesketh.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
A short introduction to our new article ‘Totality must be defended’ written with @morton.bsky.social www.ppesydney.net/from-localit... Engaging with recent work by @mattthompson.bsky.social and @davidharvey.org among others
ppesydney.net
From Locality to Totality - Progress in Political Economy (PPE)
On the tension between locality and totality that we see configuring the contours of significant debate today across economic geography in postcolonial, poststructural, decolonial, and constructivist ...
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Daniel C. Blight @danielcblight.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
***URGENT PLEASE SHARE*** University of Brighton management have announced today that they ‘give notice of termination of all collective agreements’. This is a fundamental erasure of workers' rights. Management have announced the termination of all contractual documents, which includes:
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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 11/09/2026
omg. (it wasn't me) www.famouscampaigns.com/2026/09/meta...
famouscampaigns.com
Meta smart glasses mocked by fake notices on London Underground
London’s backlash against camera-equipped smart glasses has reached the Tube, with spoof stickers styled as official TfL safety notices appearing inside Underground carriages and warning wearers that ...
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Johan Pries @johanpries.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Just read Felicity James' "Wild Essay" intervention, and I'm adding this to the assigned materials for all my classes. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
The Wild Essay, Or, the Essayist responds to the University Policy on Generative Artificial Intelligence in Learning, Teaching and Assessment
This is a guide to the essay in the age of AI, when we need it more than ever. How should we encourage our students to read when co-pilot is on hand to read for them? Beset on all sides by summary ...
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Chris Hesketh @chrishesketh.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
My new article ‘Totality must be defended’ , co-written with @morton.bsky.social is now out in Progress in Human Geography journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
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Paul Dobraszczyk @pauldobraszczyk.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Manchester's fascinating and often bizarre architectural juxtapositions, a leitmotif of my wanderings in the city over the past decade
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Lee Hurley @hleehurley.com · 05/09/2026
As gangs of masked men block Dover port, I will just leave this here www.theguardian.com/environment/...
theguardian.com
Five Just Stop Oil activists receive record sentences for planning to block M25
Campaigners receive longest ever sentences for non-violent protest after being convicted of conspiracy to cause public nuisance
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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
no hostile caricature of UK Reform is as telling as this photo
theguardian.com
Farage brushes aside Reform controversies in closing conference speech – UK politics as it happened
‘Sometimes we will get things wrong and get a bit of a kicking for it,’ party leader tells gathering in Birmingham
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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 03/09/2026
Cambridge university was ordered to pay £5,000 compensation to a former PhD student who was found to have been bullied by Professor James Orr, who is also Reform UK's head of policy as.ft.com/r/c0b319f3-2...
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Sam Byers @sambyers.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
“Autofiction writers … are memoirists who have had to become their own ghostwriters.” This, by Ryan Ruby, is easily the best thing I’ve yet read on Cusk, autofiction, and a very particular kind of contemporary subjectivity. newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
newleftreview.org
Ryan Ruby, Unhappy Consciousness — Sidecar
Rachel Cusk’s ‘Life of M’.
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Quinn Slobodian @quinnslobodian.com · 30/08/2026
Interesting, smallest of the five
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Gav Maclean @gavmaclean.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Sector bailout just dropped
theguardian.com
Exeter University approves deal with Saudi Arabia to train military officers and officials
In move that could generate millions, Exeter academics to deliver MA at National Defense University in Riyadh
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roterote @roterote.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
There are dozens of academics signing this open letter to defend the American Eugenicist Nathan Cofnas from the consequences of his own actions. They are calling him a “whistleblower”
johnarmstrongmaths.com
As academics, we are concerned that Ghent University's disciplinary proceedings against Dr Cofnas appear to constitute retaliation, at least in part, for publicizing academic misconduct that occurred in British universities.
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Plenty to reflect about re: the Arday affair, but I'm going to repeat this one thing. The playbook the right used here is effective even though it's not especially sophisticated, as it relies on the audience to do the dirty work. I've been calling it "Trojan horse propaganda", let's go with that. 1/
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flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
This is because the great lesson of the 2010s was: politicians can mostly ignore the collapsing public realm they vandalised and stay in their important jobs, so long as everyone is willing to join in with whatever ludicrously inflammatory horseshit they are shouting into microphones this week.
George Eaton •
@georgeeaton.bsky.s... • 3h
If only the quiet collapse of our universities got as much attention as Jason Arday has.
Here's @gsoh31.bsky.social's recent piece for Arguably on the "slow, grim dribbling away of one of Britain's great triumphs and economic advantages".
. www.arguably.uk/p/
the-quiet-...
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
cant believe nobody made a political compass out of this
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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
New: LinkedIn just introduced a "seems like AI slop" button. That's literally what the button says. The thought leaders are going to have a meltdown www.404media.co/linkedin-int...
404media.co
LinkedIn Introduces a 'Seems Like AI Slop' Button
Following 404 Media's reporting on how LinkedIn is full of AI slop, the platform is giving users a chance to report it when they see it.
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Dr. Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele @drdragases.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
No longer content with pillaging intellectual work and dismembering our environment (already critically weakened), AI companies are now hellbent on destroying books galore including rare editions. Shut down these nefarious enterprises already.
news.com.au
AI labs buy, scan, shred millions of rare books
If you have retreated to physical books because the internet is too full of AI slop, bad news — now they’re shredding the books to feed their AI slop machines.
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Caroline Ball @heroicendeavour.eurosky.social · 29/07/2026
This article estimated global APC spend in 2023 to be around $2.5 billion, which was THREE TIMES the amount just four years earlier in 2019, at around $910 million.
arxiv.org
Estimating global article processing charges paid to six publishers for open access between 2019 and 2023
This study presents estimates of the global expenditure on article processing charges (APCs) paid to six publishers for open access between 2019 and 2023. APCs are fees charged for publishing in some ...
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Helen Barrett @helenbarrett.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
What an extraordinary photograph (Maximilien Lamy/ AFP)
Beach scene, sunbathers watching wildfires in Moutchic, south-west Frannce
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Tim White @timwhite100.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
We now know a bit about what happens when the likes of private equity firms and REITs enter housing markets. But what about venture capitalists?  My recent paper ‘Hyperscaling housing’ has been published in the latest volume of IJURR (spoiler: it's not pretty):
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
HYPERSCALING HOUSING: Venture Capital, Real Estate Start‐Ups and the Race to Build a Global Residential Brand
What happens when venture capitalists try to reinvent housing in their own image? Synonymous with the rise of Big Tech, venture capitalists (VCs) are asset managers that invest in early-stage compani...
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Gavin Jackson @gavinjackson.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
They don't like Burnham in the Thames Estuary www.economist.com/britain/2026...
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Urban Affairs Review @urbanaffairsreview.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
We are thrilled to announce the publication of "Politics is Urban: Reflections on Warren Magnusson's Life and Ideas" edited by @bigcitypolitics.bsky.social and @rkeil.bsky.social. You can download the free ebook or purchase a paperback copy online! Details below 👇
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Ed Jennings @edjennings.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Breaking: Kent and Medway will be carved up into four unitary authorities, including a wild MidKent Council that spans from Sheppey to Romney Marsh.
Kent map showing the four new unitary authorities.
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Matt Thompson @mattthompson.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
How can Community Wealth Building and the Foundational Economy be combined in experimental ways to tackle problems of uneven development in peripheralised places? My chapter on alternative economic models in new book on the Evolution of UK Regional Policy: www.researchgate.net/publication/...
researchgate.net
(PDF) Alternative Policy Models for Local Economic Regeneration: Combining Community Wealth Building with the Foundational Economy
PDF | In the absence of redistributive regional policy, yet with deepening uneven development, peripheralised places across the UK are left with little... | Find, read and cite all the research you ne...
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
This piece on the "load-bearing internet people" and how AI-code writing is overwhelming the web's unheralded maintainers by @samlearner.bsky.social is absolutely terrific: brilliantly accessible without being patronising:
ft.com
Who cleans up after the vibe-coding party?
Our obsession with AI code-writing tools is overwhelming the web’s unsung human caretakers
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Matt Thompson @mattthompson.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
How can Community Wealth Building and the Foundational Economy be combined in experimental ways to tackle problems of uneven development in peripheralised places? My chapter on alternative economic models in new book on the Evolution of UK Regional Policy: www.researchgate.net/publication/...
researchgate.net
(PDF) Alternative Policy Models for Local Economic Regeneration: Combining Community Wealth Building with the Foundational Economy
PDF | In the absence of redistributive regional policy, yet with deepening uneven development, peripheralised places across the UK are left with little... | Find, read and cite all the research you ne...
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Count Binface @countbinface.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Game on, Nige.
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Lauri Donahue @lauridonahue.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
futurism.com/future-socie... lol
As one New York financier told Financial Times journalist Gillian Tett, new hires who were seen as “AI natives” are turning out to have alarmingly shallow ideas. So much so, the anonymous finance worker admitted, that his firm now actively avoids seeking out AI-literate STEM graduates, and opts to comb through humanities students instead.
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Henry Rothwell @henryrothwell.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
'Storm in the Mountains', Albert Bierstadt, oil on canvas, 1870.
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David Mabb @davidmabb.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
This years poster for the Historical Materialism Conference London www.historicalmaterialism.org/.../twenty-t... The image is a development of ‘Rhythm 69, painting 65, paint and wallpaper on canvas 2007.
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alex williams @atwilliams.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Burnham ally to unveil ambitious plan to reverse decades of privatisation
Exclusive: Productive State policy paper envisages state regaining control of basics to make life affordable, in fleshing out of Manchesterism
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Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
so a friend on a mailing list I've been on forever said he couldn't understand why so many people had wanted Starmer to stand down when he was obviously so much better than those who came before. I did my best to explain
Starmer is not only incapable of making difficult decisions, he seems not to understand it's his job. I've had it from multiple sources that he gets angry when officials decline to say which course of action is better, even though sometimes it's not clear which is better, it's a trade off, or all options have risks. This is why there is no coherence to our immigration or tax policies.

Starmer refuses to meet MPs unless it's absolutely unavoidable. He doesn't like ministers who promote their own ideas but doesn't seem to have any of his own. He has utterly failed to articulate how he wants to change the country or what he thinks his government is for. 

He has presided over policies that have taken rights from protestors, migrants, refugees and trans people. He has made speeches and pursued immigration reforms intended to impress the far right, who are never going to vote for him, while alienating his own voters.

He has seemed entirely disinterested in the fact the higher education system - which is a competitive advantage, a major export industry and a huge plank of regional economies, all at once - is collapsing. 
And on multiple occasions when coked up racist thugs have been committing acts of violence and mass civil disorder on our streets, he has been, at best, reluctant to get in front of a camera and say these people are racist thugs who will be punished by the full force of the law. Pensioners who support the Palestinians, by contrast, he is happy to throw away the key.

Oh, and there's the small matter of last month's election results which suggest that under his leadership Labour is genuinely on course for extinction as a party less than two years after winning a huge majority.

Obviously this government's politics is much closer to mine than any of the Tory administrations since 2010, but measured in terms of ability to actually do many of the jobs that being prime minister involves - making decisions, managing his MPs, articulating a vision and then moving Britain towards it, running the fucking government - I think it is entirely possible to argue that Starmer is worse than any of his immediate predecessors except Truss.   

Andy Burnham is, to put it mildly, a deeply flawed politician. It's possible this gets us nowhere. But I find it extremely hard to envision how rolling the dice could make things worse.
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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 21/06/2026
‘Andy Burnham has turned that anger and helplessness, so liable to become a poisonous and reactionary nostalgia, in another direction. His campaign has made unabashed use of the word “hope”.’ Tom Crewe on the rebirth of municipal England, from the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ju...
lrb.co.uk
Tom Crewe | The Strange Rebirth of Municipal England
It has been a very large part of the failure of the Labour Party since 2010 that it has been unable to link the grave...
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Jon Will Chambers @jonchambers.co.uk · 19/06/2026
Where’s Andy Burnham going?
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Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
We are closing @goldperc.bsky.social after 12 years. Here I reflect on the times and what we made of them www.goldperc.uk/project_post...
goldperc.uk
Looking back on PERC - Political Economy Research Centre
The Political Economy Research Centre is to close formally this summer. Here, founding Director, Will Davies, reflects on its twelve years of activity. It took two or three years before the causes, ef...
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Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
This is exactly it. The work is the point.
When I assign analysis, I am not trying to extract a polished product; I am trying to put the student’s mind through resistance in order to make it stronger. Offloading the struggle to a chatbot does not “free students up for higher-order work.” It deprives them of building the strength to do any substantial cognitive work at all.
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Tom Mills @tommills.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Capitalist Power in Post-War Croydon. New post in which I discuss the network of business people & local politicians behind Croydon's concrete building boom. tamills1981.github.io/society-from...
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Andrii Frolov @artandriifrolov.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
"Rainy Street" - my oil painting
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Matthew J Kuiper @matthewjkuiper.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
“Even more depressing is how well suited this cauterisation of the self is to the political moment, one of a glut of content and bad information…What is at stake isn’t just a few unfortunate errors here and there, but a commitment to strive [to maintain] the veracity of the world we all experience.”
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Tom Six @tomsix.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
The archive of SH teaching here is fantastic. Conjuncture = Hegelian dialectics is an odd contribution, but that aside this is really interesting and useful.
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Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
I really applaud both author & sources, & The Chronicle for running with this. As somebody who was a decade into recovery before I started grad school, I think there can be many reasons why addicts find their way into academe. But what resonates with me is this…
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DuckDuckGo @duckduckgo.com · 29/05/2026
Since Google revealed its plans for an AI search overhaul, visits to our "No AI" search page have tripled…and they’re still rising! Want to make it your default on Chrome or Firefox? Grab our No-AI extensions and banish AI-assisted answers, chat, and AI images. (1/3)
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