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Brett Christophers

@brettchristophers.bsky.social

3.6K followers 360 following 50 posts

Geographer

Brett Christophers is an economic geographer who is professor at the Institute for Housing and Urban Research at Uppsala University. He has written extensively on the history of the modern financial sector, the financial management of real economic assets, and the effect on the environment from financial management of land and natural resources. .. more

Economics 66%

Political science 16%

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Brett Christophers @brettchristophers.bsky.social · May 20

UK paperback of The Price is Wrong available from today, @versobooks.bsky.social

The Price is Wrong

RECENT TECHNICAL ADVANCES mean it is typically cheaper to produce electricity from renewable sources than from fossil fuels. Yet, around the world, the transition to green energy is happening too slow...

www.versobooks.com

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Housing, Theory and Society @housingtheory.bsky.social · 15h

🔔 Check out three of our most recent online first publications!

⭐ Dr Simon Hill writes about ethics of hospitality translating into housing stability, security and autonomy in "A Levinasian Right to Housing: What Emmanuel Levinas’s Phenomenology of House and Home Can Offer Housing Scholarship"

A Levinasian Right to Housing: What Emmanuel Levinas’s Phenomenology of House and Home Can Offer Housing Scholarship

This paper turns to Emmanuel Levinas’s phenomenology of house and home to propose a Levinasian right to housing. After sketching the phenomenal conditions that Levinas’s phenomenology is grounded i...

www.tandfonline.com

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 18h

Powerful editorial statement from the soon-to-be-launched @equatormag.bsky.social www.equator.org

A new world is emerging from the ruins of the liberal order. But the West’s prestigious publications are ill-equipped to comprehend its challenges – and its possibilities. Enter Equator, an internatio...

www.equator.org

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Kevin Anderson @kevinclimate.bsky.social · 19h

Attached is a suggestion I made several years ago. It would need to be part of a broader package, including eliminating first & business class, & ensuring even the first flight incurs the same tax & carbon costs as other fuels do. Aviation remains heavily dependent on its highly privileged status

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Josh Ryan-Collins @jryancollins.bsky.social · 1d

If you reduce taxation on property, the 'saving' will be capitalised in to house prices, enriching existing owners whilst not increasing homeownership. Property tax needs reform not lowering. Abolish stamp duty & replace with annual proportional property tax.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Tories will scrap stamp duty on primary residences, Kemi Badenoch tells conference

Leader announces tax cut plan for England and Northern Ireland in speech aimed at boosting fiscal credibility

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Jim Kane @kanejim.bsky.social · 2d

For Brookfield, "investing in energy transition assets" of course means buying existing assets.

Brookfield raises $20bn in second energy transition investment fund

Canadian parent company to contribute heavily alongside UAE and Norwegian wealth funds

Reposted by Stacy D. VanDeveer

Brett Christophers @brettchristophers.bsky.social · 3d

The iron law of climate politics: everyone is "in favour of climate action" [as long as it means zero change to existing lifestyles]

How politicians and passengers gave up on greener air travel

A renewed push for economic growth has added to technological challenges and problems with carbon offset schemes

Reposted by Jamie Peck, Brett Christophers

economyandspace.bsky.social @economyandspace.bsky.social · 3d

Economy and Space Vol. 57, No. 7 is now available online! It features articles on a number of topics, from municipal structural adjustment and post-entrepreneurial cities to heritage branding and the geography of financial exclusion.

Link and ToC below:

journals.sagepub.com/toc/epna/57/...

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Jim Kane @kanejim.bsky.social · 3d

If you're trying to make sense of BlackRock's recent buying spree, we have a deep dive into the firm's operations and where it's likely headed.

Reposted by Lyla Mehta, Brett Christophers, Prakash Kashwan

Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 4d

I have so much respect for Greta Thunberg because she easily could have coasted on speaking gigs and Davos appearances for the rest of her life

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Susan J. Smith @sjs1869.bsky.social · 5d

Exactly! Large corporates have their eyes on the huge value of ‘last time sales’ - part of a wider shift in the housing economy www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Economic thought @economicthought.bsky.social · 6d

Interview: The economic style of reasoning is not value-neutral! An interview with Elizabeth Popp Berman, by Ditte Andersen
doi.org/10.1177/0001...

Reposted by Diane Coyle, Brett Christophers

James Meek @jamesmeek.bsky.social · 8d

I wrote about Artificial Desire

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

James Meek · Computers that want things

For all the fluency and synthetic friendliness of public-facing AI chatbots like ChatGPT, it seems important to remember...

Brett Christophers @brettchristophers.bsky.social · 10d

Of course, but in this instance the good thing is _enabled by_ the bad thing, so the bad inhabits and irrevocably stains the good

Brett Christophers @brettchristophers.bsky.social · 10d

Please don't eulogise Norway. Its rapid EV take-up is in large part greenwashing, covering up (and SUBSIDIZED BY) massive ongoing oil and gas extraction -- with dozens of new exploration and production licences continuing to be issued.

Seth Klein @sethdklein.bsky.social · 11d

Norway puts our backtracking to shame:

Norway’s uptake of EVs is nearly 100%. August set a new record of 98.4% of all new sales (with plug-in hybrids a mere 1.5%). The government has a goal of ending the sale of fossil-fuelled cars by the end of this year.

cleantechnica.com/2025/09/09/e...

EVs At A Record 98.4% Share In Norway — KGM Musso Arrives - CleanTechnica

August saw plugin EVs at a record 98.4% share in Norway, up from 95.7% year on year. BEVs alone took 96.9% share.

cleantechnica.com

Reposted by Richard S.J. Tol, Peter Thorne, Mark Lubell , and 10 more Richard S.J. Tol, Peter Thorne, Mark Lubell, Jesse H. Kroll, Rosie A. Fisher, Richard Waite, Joseph Schafer, Brett Christophers, Tuomas Mattila, Andréas Nilsson, Cassandra L. Thiel, Patrick Meier, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

Kate Marvel @drkatemarvel.bsky.social · 11d

my takeaway from climate week nyc is that "climate storytelling" is a little too much "we must reimagine our deepest souls in relationship to mother nature and the moral abyss of the polycrisis into which we must now stare" and not enough "ok but get a heat pump"

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Seth Klein @sethdklein.bsky.social · 11d

Norway puts our backtracking to shame:

Norway’s uptake of EVs is nearly 100%. August set a new record of 98.4% of all new sales (with plug-in hybrids a mere 1.5%). The government has a goal of ending the sale of fossil-fuelled cars by the end of this year.

cleantechnica.com/2025/09/09/e...

EVs At A Record 98.4% Share In Norway — KGM Musso Arrives - CleanTechnica

August saw plugin EVs at a record 98.4% share in Norway, up from 95.7% year on year. BEVs alone took 96.9% share.

cleantechnica.com

Reposted by Fabián Muniesa, Brett Christophers

Politics Theory Other @poltheoryother.bsky.social · 12d

"While Trump’s first term looked like an aberration, a morbid symptom of a dying world, his second looks more like an attempt to enforce a new paradigm." - @will-davies.bsky.social

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

William Davies · Repeal the 20th Century: Pre-MAGA

To understand the intellectual coordinates of Trumpism requires us to look in less conventional places and to pay more...

Reposted by Nandita Sharma, Brett Christophers

Boston Review @bostonreview.bsky.social · 14d

From runaway slave lists to Canary Mission, the state has long deputized citizens to enforce its will.

New from Shiri Pasternak:

A Theory of the List - Boston Review

From runaway slave lists to Canary Mission, the state has long deputized citizens to enforce its will.

www.bostonreview.net

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Housing, Theory and Society @housingtheory.bsky.social · 14d

🔔 Two new highlights!

✏️ Understanding Housing Justice in Shared Housing by Zoë Goodall, Wendy Stone, Kay Cook and Deb Batterham investigating shared private rental housing through the lenses of relationality and housing justice.

➡️ www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Understanding Housing Justice in Shared Housing

This article conceptually explores housing justice through the worked example of shared housing in the private rental sector (PRS), where people live with non-family. Drawing on interviews with 25 ...

www.tandfonline.com

Brett Christophers @brettchristophers.bsky.social · 15d

A political choice subsidised by oil money, no less

JW Mason @jwmason.bsky.social · 15d

I feel like this is a very strong counter to a lot of arguments about fundamental economic or structural obstacles to decarbonization, or that it requires a comprehensive reorganization of our system of production. It's a political choice, that's all.

Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 17d

It's absolutely astonishing: In just about 13 years, Norway has skyrocketed from virtually no sales of zero-emission battery electric vehicles to nearly 100% of all new passenger car purchases.

Reposted by Brett Christophers

JW Mason @jwmason.bsky.social · 15d

I feel like this is a very strong counter to a lot of arguments about fundamental economic or structural obstacles to decarbonization, or that it requires a comprehensive reorganization of our system of production. It's a political choice, that's all.

Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 17d

It's absolutely astonishing: In just about 13 years, Norway has skyrocketed from virtually no sales of zero-emission battery electric vehicles to nearly 100% of all new passenger car purchases.

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Cominsitu @cominsitu.bsky.social · 15d

Program here

Reposted by Fabián Muniesa, Brett Christophers, Robin Celikates

Cominsitu @cominsitu.bsky.social · 15d

🚨 Conference Announcement 🚨

The Land Question
October 30-31, 2025
Grimm Zentrum, HU Berlin

Full Program + Abstracts now online. 2 days, 30 scholars, 8 panels. No registration required. Keynotes by Omar Dahbour and Isabel Feichtner. Come!

criticaltheoryinberlin.de/event/the-la...

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Jules Birch @julesbirch.bsky.social · 16d

Rent controls of a sort set to arrive in Scotland as Housing Bill reaches final stage
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Rent controls set to pass in new Scottish housing bill - but not for all

New legislation will see long-term rent controls and responsibilities for preventing homelessness.

Reposted by Dominik Wiedenhofer, Els Torreele

Brett Christophers @brettchristophers.bsky.social · 20d

"China is the only large country driving the energy transition at anything close to the necessary speed and scale."

It's also the only one whose energy transition is not hamstrung by reliance on the motive force of renewables profitability.

Coincidence?

I think not.

Chartbook 409 Beyond the "Marshall Plan": China's solar boom as world-changing industrial policy.

In the first six months of 2025 China installed more than 250GW of solar power capacity.

adamtooze.substack.com

Reposted by Brett Christophers

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 20d

‘Over the weeks, I didn’t once get a sense that anyone present had fully thought through that Martha had been deprived of, say, seventy years of life.’

@paullaity.bsky.social on the search for accountability after his daughter’s preventable death in hospital: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Paul Laity · After Martha

For the hospital, and for the NHS, it was a closed case, another preventable death: medicine is imperfect, such things...

Reposted by Brett Christophers

isabella pojuner @ipojuner.bsky.social · 21d

it's 100 years since the land registry (and therefore the modern property market) was established in england and wales. next tuesday i'll be talking with @sarahkeenan.bsky.social, lorna fox o'mahony and lucy finchett-maddock about the politics of registration. join: www.eventbrite.ca/e/perpetual-...

www.eventbrite.ca

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Jamie Peck @jamiepeck.bsky.social · 21d

Our pitch for constructivist economic geographies - Rachel Phillips, Chris Meulbroek, Jamie Peck, 2025 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Constructivist economic geographies - Rachel Phillips, Chris Meulbroek, Jamie Peck, 2025

The paper makes a case for explicitly constructivist approaches and projects in economic geography. Constructivism names and problematizes the relationship betw...

journals.sagepub.com

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Housing, Theory and Society @housingtheory.bsky.social · 21d

We have some new online publications, great readings on home ownership, rentierism, and decarbonized living!

🔸 Susan Smith and Gavin Wood discusses the edges of owner occupation and rentier capitalism
➡️ www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The Edges of Owner-Occupation versus Rentier Capitalism

Over the past half century, housing systems have been reconfigured through processes variously labelled financialization, assetization and rentierization. Unevenly advanced by successive rounds of ...

www.tandfonline.com