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Burc Kostem

@bkostem.bsky.social

1.4K followers 640 following 23 posts

Assistant Professor of Media and Technology Studies at UNC Chapel Hill. Interested in ecology, affect, theories of value, Marxist thought, infrastructure, technology and media. Dungeon Master. He/him

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Burc Kostem @bkostem.bsky.social · Jan 20

My article is finally out w/ Rethinking Marxism! Thankful to all my colleagues who provided feedback at different stages including @kaibosworth.bsky.social & Uygar Baspehlivan. Super grateful to the editors too, they’ve been very generous and encouraging.

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

The Consummative Mood of Authoritarianism: The Affective and Material Politics of Megaprojects in Turkey

This essay builds on the work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari to outline a consummative mood of authoritarian politics in Turkey. It defines the consummative mood as the fetishization of effic...

www.tandfonline.com

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Wim Carton @wimcarton.bsky.social · 2d

The Long Heat is finally out from @versobooks.bsky.social today:

It deals with inter alia the promise of climate reversal, climate tipping points, the political economy of carbon removal and the very many antinomies of solar geoengineering.

www.versobooks.com/products/331...

The Long Heat

The world is crossing the 1.5°C global warming limit, perhaps exceeding 2°C soon after. What is to be done when these boundaries, set by the Paris Agreement, have been passed? In the overshoot era, sc...

www.versobooks.com

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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 2d

public research universities, holding on:
veronica gago wowed uic tonight with her forthcoming book, adapted here ctjournal.org/2025/06/03/n...

New Authoritarianism as Counterrevolution - Critical Times

Translated by Liz Mason-Deese Reflections on Authoritarian Times What is new about the authoritarianism that we are currently witnessing? It is useful to situate this authoritarianism within, and to...

ctjournal.org

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Chloe Ahmann @chloeahmann.bsky.social · 4d

📣 Friends, sharing a new collection on “Everyday and Emergent Ecofascisms” – edited with Zeynep Oguz for @societyandspace.bsky.social – that we hope folks find useful in These Times. Together, we “tend to the mundane ways ecofascist tenets organize the everyday...

t.co/JUowfqw7cB

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02637758251374876

t.co

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Kai Bosworth @kaibosworth.bsky.social · 2d

in "'Just trust me, bro: The consummative mood of reactionary decarbonization' i think through the overlap between everyday tech bro masculinities and decarbonization advocacy.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

journals.sagepub.com

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Kai Bosworth @kaibosworth.bsky.social · 2d

out now in @societyandspace.bsky.social, a volume of shorter interventions on new (and renewed) forms of reactionary environmentalisms around the world. my contribution below.

Chloe Ahmann @chloeahmann.bsky.social · 4d

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02637758251374876

t.co

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Kate Clancy @kateclancy.bsky.social · 23d

AAUP's statement on the universities and their anticipatory obedience issue re: Charlie Kirk comments

www.aaup.org/news/academi...

Academic Freedom and the Death of Charlie Kirk

The AAUP notes with great alarm the rash of recent administrative actions to discipline faculty, staff, and student speech in the aftermath of the murder of Charlie Kirk.

www.aaup.org

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Reposted by Burc Kostem

ktb ⧉ @kevinbaker.bsky.social · 28d

A real Gabe Winant "little press secretaries" tweet day.

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Burc Kostem @bkostem.bsky.social · 28d

I know a history MA living in Durham who would love to help. Can I pass your email along? Happy to talk more over dms!

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Burc Kostem @bkostem.bsky.social · Aug 16

This is SO useful! Thank you! I feel like the earth liberation studios poster could be featured somewhere here as inspiration? earthliberationstudio.com/shop/abolish...

Abolish A.I. – Earth Liberation Studio

earthliberationstudio.com

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Sarah Brouillette @sarahbrouillette.bsky.social · Aug 5

my pleasure to write this short piece about trauma plots, #metoo, mute compulsion of economic relations, what is love, et cetera

(h/t @alyaimsorry.bsky.social @lalouverouge.bsky.social @anniemcc.bsky.social @publicbooks.bsky.social & @sorenmau.bsky.social whose title I shamelessly copied)

Mute Compulsion - Public Books

The trauma plot and the slut-shaming dossier are actually parallel formations, reveals “The Guest.”

www.publicbooks.org

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Burc Kostem @bkostem.bsky.social · Aug 7

When we lost Jonathan Sterne last spring I had made this list of Jonathanisms. Now that I'm sitting down to prep syllabi, I thought of him a bit this morning. Anyway, sharing it here too. bonpourlorient.tumblr.com/post/7783226...

bonpourlorient.tumblr.com

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Burc Kostem @bkostem.bsky.social · Jun 13

In my reading notes I have written down, OK does communism have a non-conscious at all? lol.

Burc Kostem @bkostem.bsky.social · Jun 13

Agreed on both counts. I don't see why you can't have a concept of proletarian self-organization as communism without having to resort to a fully self-transparent/self-conscious collective subject. And yea, I'll always be partial to a concept like transindividual organizing.

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Burc Kostem @bkostem.bsky.social · Jun 12

At several points he describes the org of self org as a kind of "catalytic convertor" "transistor" "black box" etc. that allows that self org to critique and amplify itself. When I try to think of it in practice though I agree that it resembles plain organization. I'm not sure I fully get it either.

Burc Kostem @bkostem.bsky.social · Jun 12

In the book, at least, self-organization is supposed to have a component of reflexivity. And the organization of self organization is trying to hold together both difference & distance and that sense of reflexivity.

Burc Kostem @bkostem.bsky.social · Jun 12

Have you been reading The Future of Revolution? (Not to say you haven't asked/thought this question before haha).

Reposted by Burc Kostem

Alex Heffron @alexheffron.bsky.social · Mar 8

Growing a stronger political ecosystem in agroecology through the 'vanguard function'.

A post that works with Rodrigo Nunes' 'Neither Vertical Nor Horizontal' in relation to agroecology as a political ecosystem.

thestruggleforland.substack.com/p/growing-a-...

Growing a stronger political ecosystem in agroecology through the vanguard function

Thinking with Rodrigo Nunes' 'Neither Vertical Nor Horizontal' towards a stronger, relational, agroecological political ecosystem that supports its own vanguards

thestruggleforland.substack.com

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Tim Christiaens @timchristiaens.bsky.social · Feb 28

Interview on the history of @endnotesjournal.bsky.social .

chuangcn.org/2025/02/neit...

Neither Prophets nor Orphans: An Interview with Endnotes

In the meantime, neither orphans of the labour movement, nor prophets of the communism to come, we participate in the class struggle as it is on a daily basis and as it produces theory.

chuangcn.org

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Dissent Magazine @dissentmag.bsky.social · Jan 30

The Measure ULA campaign shows how a housing-labor coalition can transform the political landscape, even in the face of staunch special interest reaction.

www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-...

The Battle Over Los Angeles's Mansion Tax - Dissent Magazine

The Measure ULA campaign shows how a housing-labor coalition can transform the political landscape, even in the face of staunch special interest reaction.

www.dissentmagazine.org

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Burc Kostem @bkostem.bsky.social · Feb 27

It's SO good! Both super clear and analytical & at the same time insightful and relatable. (Also, I really wish more of humanities writing would put the same effort into reflecting on methods.)

Burc Kostem @bkostem.bsky.social · Jan 20

There’s a lot more that I want to do with this concept & I have a lot more material about it. I hopefully will get a chance to expand on the article in the book.

Burc Kostem @bkostem.bsky.social · Jan 20

I didn’t feel equipped to write about the pavyon just because I hadn’t researched it and felt it probably deserves its own article. But it’s precisely the place where you might find a contractor/real estate developer type.

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Burc Kostem @bkostem.bsky.social · Jan 20

I borrow the concept of consummation from D&G’s work in AO. But the word konsomasyon actually exists in Turkish! It’s used in the Turkish version of a night club/strip club (pavyon) to describe the food and drinks that are brought to the table.

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Burc Kostem @bkostem.bsky.social · Jan 20

A lot of the research for this took place during fieldwork in İstanbul. One huge inspiration for me has been the work of several scholars from Turkey, working on radical critiques of political economy. This includes people like Bengi Akbulut, Yahya Madra, Ceren Özselçuk and Cihan Tuğal.

Burc Kostem @bkostem.bsky.social · Jan 20

Another way to think of this is as an alliance between two complimentary notions of freedom as sovereignty (as in authoritarianism) and autonomy (as economic growth). A point I borrow from the recent Toscano book on Late Fascism.