Ben Anderson | Lightnews

Ben Anderson @benandersongeog.bsky.social · 1d

A great example of our 5000 word revamped Intervention format!

Thomas Dekeyser @thomas-dekeyser.bsky.social · 1d

💥 New publication out on the alignment of AI & authoritarianism 💥

We argue that AI is not simply extending, but actively modulating, key dynamics of authoritarianism, and present a flexible analytical framework to account for these changes.

rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Thomas Dekeyser @thomas-dekeyser.bsky.social · 1d

💥 New publication out on the alignment of AI & authoritarianism 💥

We argue that AI is not simply extending, but actively modulating, key dynamics of authoritarianism, and present a flexible analytical framework to account for these changes.

rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Ben Anderson @benandersongeog.bsky.social · 1d

This is outstanding by @nesrinemalik.bsky.social - partly on the use of identity and the politics of absolution for racism

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Shabana Mahmood is an avatar of open Britain – that’s what makes her fable about immigration so seductive | Nesrine Malik

‘She is the daughter of immigrants,’ supporters of her cruel asylum policies say. ‘How can she be wrong?’ Let me put them straight, says Guardian columnist Nesrine Malik

www.theguardian.com

Jonny Darling @jonnydarling.bsky.social · 5d

Commentary on govt proposals to further restrict refugee protection, expand removals, and limit support. Talking tough will not fix govt failures on asylum, but it will hinder integration, cause harm, and further drive resentment towards those seeking protection theconversation.com/uk-to-overha...

UK to overhaul asylum policy – will the new measures work?

People who have been recognised as needing humanitarian protection will be under constant review.

theconversation.com

TIBG @tibg.bsky.social · 5d

New in TIBG:

'Asylum as artifice: Race, law and capital as regimes of abstractions in the United Kingdom's asylum accommodation system' by Anna Pearce

This paper charts the history of the category of 'asylum seeker' from 1993 to 2023.

doi.org/10.1111/tran...

Screenshot of a paper abstract in Transactions by Anna Pearce (2025) entitled: 'Asylum as Artifice: Race, Law and Capital as Regimes of Abstraction in the United Kingdom's Asylum Accommodation System' with a red banner at the top.

Taking as its case study the category of the ‘asylum seeker’ in UK law, this paper develops on latent concerns in legal geographies with processes of abstraction. Following Bhandar and Toscano, race, law and capital are here understood as different, co-articulating modalities of abstraction, through which the ‘asylum seeker’ is constituted and reconstituted by spatial practice and law over time. The case study charts the history of the category in UK law with the corresponding developments in the material and spatial infrastructures of asylum accommodation, from the point at which the ‘asylum seeker’ was first codified in UK law in 1993 to the delegitimisation of asylum itself in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 and the Illegal Migration Act 2023. As well as providing the application of Bhandar and Toscano's innovative methodology to a new empirical area, I further make the case that, as well as functioning as organisational nodes for race and capital, legal objects may also serve as conduits. In this way, these differing regimes of abstraction are put into mutually influential relationships with one another, with particularly concerning implications for the independence of law from capital. Though the case study and its legislative context are necessarily narrow in order to properly trace the contours of this particular legal object, the potential application of the theoretical arguments developed from this tight focus is broad, contributing to studies of immigration law, asylum reception and processing, as well as legal geographies more widely.

Ben Anderson @benandersongeog.bsky.social · 5d

Book launch for The Politics of Feeling with @ajsecor.bsky.social and @jemgilbert.bsky.social @will-davies.bsky.social on 25.11 at 15.00 in London. Details here, last time I checked there were a couple of tickets left

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-politi...

www.eventbrite.co.uk

Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 5d

'We need to get on with this' – Alison McGovern, Minister of State for Local Government and Homelessness.

In advance of the Homeless Strategy, it was an honour to be invited by the Minister to a Summit on its direction: "prevention", "harm reduction" & "recovery".

🧵 What did I say? Read on...

Geography at Durham @geogdurham.bsky.social · 12d

Our colleague Gavin Bridge has recently co-created a short animation called the ‘Future of UK Oil and Gas’. The film draws on insights from the Fraying Ties project on Networks, Territory and Transformation in the UK oil sector, and was produced by Seed Creativity: youtu.be/8MPHZAhzzLY

The future of UK oil and gas

YouTube video by DurhamUniversity

youtu.be

Social & Cultural Geography @scgrg.bsky.social · 15d

Upcoming Event: Social and Cultural Geography beyond the Academy – Opportunities in Policy and Practice
Friday 28 November, 11.00-12.30, ONLINE (UK)

This event joins academic and non-academic geographers to discuss their transition from the academy into the world beyond

Further info: scgrg.co.uk

Ben Anderson @benandersongeog.bsky.social · 18d

Really important petition here against the terrible situation Leicester human geographers (and others) are facing. Sign, write emails to senior people, protest etc!

www.change.org/p/save-geogr...

Sign the Petition

Save Geography at the University of Leicester

www.change.org

Ben Anderson @benandersongeog.bsky.social · 19d

Absolutely shocking news, awful for everyone affected.

Angela Last @mutablematter.bsky.social · 19d

Human Geography at Leicester is facing closure. Staff contracts are to end in June 2026; students are to be relocated to other universities, or taught out by a maximum of two (!) teaching-only staff. Other departments and subjects are facing closure, too. Please join the demo!

Angela Last @mutablematter.bsky.social · 19d

Human Geography at Leicester is facing closure. Staff contracts are to end in June 2026; students are to be relocated to other universities, or taught out by a maximum of two (!) teaching-only staff. Other departments and subjects are facing closure, too. Please join the demo!

Colin McFarlane @colinmcfarlane.bsky.social · 20d

A special issue here of the journal Agoriad entitled 'Thinking with fragments: The allure of the broken, discarded, and disjointed in urban space'.

Exploring what the 'fragment' might offer as a way of thinking about and writing the urban.

agoriad.cardiffuniversitypress.org

Agoriad: A Journal of Spatial Theory

agoriad.cardiffuniversitypress.org

Felicity Callard @felicitycallard.bsky.social · 26d

Ooh! Current issue of History of the Present has a forum (currently freely accessible) on

Klaus Theweleit’s Male Fantasies - in his time and ours read.dukeupress.edu/history-of-t...

Volume 15 Issue 2 | History of the Present | Duke University Press

read.dukeupress.edu

Cristina Temenos @ctemenos.bsky.social · 27d

As an alumni of Syracuse University, it's appalling that they are capitulating against a right-wing campaign against Professor Farhana Sultana for exercising her first amendment rights. Do consider signing this letter calling on Syracuse University to reinstate her docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Letter of Support for Professor Farhana Sultana

As scholars within and beyond academia, we write in solidarity with academic freedom of expression with our colleague, Dr. Farhana Sultana, an internationally recognized scholar and tenured Full Profe...

docs.google.com

Ben Anderson @benandersongeog.bsky.social · Oct 22

Fantastic book launch in Frankfurt for The Politics of Feeling last night! Great responses/questions - periodisation and how to tell a story of change, relation between affect and ideology, importance of disintermediation, spatial thinking in the book, sexual fantasies in right wing populism, etc

Ben Anderson @benandersongeog.bsky.social · Oct 16

That’s really fantastic (and unexpected) to hear!

Ben Anderson @benandersongeog.bsky.social · Oct 16

In Frankfurt next week for a visit to Thomas Lemke’s Fixing Futures group. Various activities, including a public lecture on the politics of intensity, and this book launch : )

Julia Schubert @juliaschubert.bsky.social · Oct 15

We are happy to have @benandersongeog.bsky.social discuss “The Politics of Feeling”, a new book he wrote together with @ajsecor.bsky.social, in Frankfurt.

Tuesday, Oct 21 at 6:15pm on Campus Westend (SH1.101).

@fskelton.bsky.social and @soviele.bsky.social will share comments.

Come join us!

Hayden Lorimer @slipshodspeller.bsky.social · Oct 13

Winter Well is on air BBC Radio 4 this week.

An audio guide to thriving in winter, with advice from medics, artists, poets and future-gazers on simple but effective ways to bring light into your life during the darkest part of the year.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

@hesterparr.bsky.social

Ben Anderson @benandersongeog.bsky.social · Oct 2

A great issue!

TIBG @tibg.bsky.social · Oct 1

📢New issue of TIBG📢

Transactions' September Issue features two interventions on environmental crisis & geographies of creativity, 21 papers, and two commentaries on the war in Ukraine.

22/25 pieces are #OpenAccess and available to read here⬇️

rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14755661...

A graphic showing the title page of Transactions on a read background with TIBG in large letters on the right hand page. On the left hand page are eight tiles with 2 interventions and 6 standard articles, with the names of papers in the issue.

1) 'On limit and love in times of environmental crises' by Ihnji Jon
2) 'Geographies of creativity/creative geographies' by Pat Noxolo
3) '‘My body was no longer a problem’: Electric mountain biking, disability, and the cultural politics of green exercise' by Jim Cherrington & James Brighton
4) '‘A wonderful day and a wonderful crossing!’: Internment (im)mobilities, ambivalence, and the residual tourist gaze in Second World War Britain' by Michael Holden & Peter Adey
5) '‘Smartness’ narratives: A critical discourse analysis of smart eldercare in urban China' by Yi Yu
6) 'Critique beyond relation: The stakes of working with the negative, the void and the abyss' by David Chandler & Jonathan Pugh
7) 'Poetics in the work of three urban photographers: Love for the chaotic city from the site of urban rooftops' by Paulina Nordstrom
8) 'Places as refrains: A non-constructive alternative to assemblage thinking' by Peter Merriman

A graphic showing the title page of Transactions on a read background with TIBG in large letters on the right hand page. On the left hand page are nine tiles with standard articles, with the names of papers in the issue.

1) Climate change, bodies and diplomacy: Performing watery futures in Tuvalu
Liam Saddington
2) Digital animal deathscapes: The online circulation of animals killed for conservation
Alexandra Palmer
3) The medium is the message: The geographies of cryptocurrency remittances to Venezuela
Daniel Robins
4) ‘One school, two systems’: Navigating the geographies of alternative education in an elite primary school in China
Zhenjie Yuan, Huiyu Xie, Hong Zhu
5) Translating India to India: Travelling translations, Patanjali Ayurveda, and the visual language of spiritual consumerism
Raksha Pande, Alastair Bonnett
6) Urban political ecologies of sewage surveillance: Creating vital and valuable public health data from wastewater
7) Constructive (in)visibility and the trafficking industrial complex: Leveraging borders for exploitation
Audrey Lumley-Sapanski, Katarina Schwarz
8) Translations, translocations, and pluralism: A transnational and multilingual analysis of the circulation of radical geographical knowledge
Federico Ferretti
9) From biopower to affirmative biopolitics: A (bio)political ecology of becoming with wolves
Valerio Donfrancesco, Chris Sandbrook

TIBG @tibg.bsky.social · Oct 1

📢New issue of TIBG📢

Transactions' September Issue features two interventions on environmental crisis & geographies of creativity, 21 papers, and two commentaries on the war in Ukraine.

22/25 pieces are #OpenAccess and available to read here⬇️

rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14755661...

Mark Rhodes @cartomark.bsky.social · Oct 1

Just received my copy of the open access Promise of Cultural Geography edited by @vickiezhang.bsky.social & @benandersongeog.bsky.social. Happy to have contributed!! Honestly, I'm surprised it survived the post, though: they saved me the trouble of opening anything 😄!

Cover of The Promise of Cultural Geography.

Back cover of The Promise of Cultural Geography.

Ben Anderson @benandersongeog.bsky.social · Sep 29

This is good. But, not good for some disciplines … it’s clearly part of a broader direction of travel in HE policy - to concentrate funding to subjects that align with ‘missions’/industrial strategy (it’ll be interesting how they manage fluctuations in international fee income re the levy)

Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · Sep 29

UK government to reintroduce maintenance grants (rather than loans) for students from the lowest income families
www.gov.uk/government/n...

Targeted maintenance grants for students to be reintroduced

Disadvantaged students studying priority courses will benefit from extra financial support to access and excel in higher education.

www.gov.uk

Steve Peers @stevepeers.bsky.social · Sep 29

UK government to reintroduce maintenance grants (rather than loans) for students from the lowest income families
www.gov.uk/government/n...

Targeted maintenance grants for students to be reintroduced

Disadvantaged students studying priority courses will benefit from extra financial support to access and excel in higher education.

www.gov.uk

Anna Secor @ajsecor.bsky.social · Sep 29

London people come discuss and celebrate with us! A launch event for The Politics of Feeling on 25th November at the October Gallery, with @will-davies.bsky.social and @jemgilbert.bsky.social. Eventbrite link below! 🥂
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-politi...

The Politics of Feeling and this Conjunctural Crisis

A workshop on the politics of feeling in this conjunctural crisis, with Anna Secor, Ben Anderson, Will Davies, Jeremy Gilbert.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · Sep 26

Looking forward to discussing @benandersongeog.bsky.social & Anna Secor's brilliant new @goldsmithspress.bsky.social book, The Politics of Feeling, with the authors and @jemgilbert.bsky.social on 25th Nov - all welcome, register here www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-politi...

The Politics of Feeling and this Conjunctural Crisis

A workshop on the politics of feeling in this conjunctural crisis, with Anna Secor, Ben Anderson, Will Davies, Jeremy Gilbert.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

Geography at Durham @geogdurham.bsky.social · Sep 26

Book launch workshop event with our colleagues @benandersongeog.bsky.social & @ajsecor.bsky.social entitled 'The Politics of Feeling and this Conjunctural Crisis'. The event in London, also involving Will Davies & Jeremy Gilbert, is on Tuesday November 25th:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-politi...

The Politics of Feeling and this Conjunctural Crisis

A workshop on the politics of feeling in this conjunctural crisis, with Anna Secor, Ben Anderson, Will Davies, Jeremy Gilbert.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

Ben Anderson @benandersongeog.bsky.social · Sep 26

Link here:

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-politi...

The Politics of Feeling and this Conjunctural Crisis

A workshop on the politics of feeling in this conjunctural crisis, with Anna Secor, Ben Anderson, Will Davies, Jeremy Gilbert.

www.eventbrite.co.uk

Ben Anderson @benandersongeog.bsky.social · Sep 26

London launch event for The Politics of Feeling on 25th November at the October Gallery, with @will-davies.bsky.social and @jemgilbert.bsky.social We’ll be thinking from the book about the politics of feeling in the post General Election/US Presidential election period. Eventbrite link below

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