Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jason Hickel

@jasonhickel.bsky.social

33K followers 110 following 600 posts

Professor at ICTA-UAB and Visiting Senior Fellow at LSE • Author of THE DIVIDE and LESS IS MORE • Global inequality, political economy and ecological economics

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · Jan 2

Here’s a quick roundup of highlights from research we published in 2024, on unequal exchange, ecosocialism, and post-capitalist transformation.

As always, free PDFs are available via the link at the end of the thread. 🧵

35 310 1.1K

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 21h

To those who say that capitalism is democratic because consumers "vote with their dollars", this is not true and I explain why here: jasonhickel.substack.com/p/why-capita...

Why capitalism is fundamentally undemocratic

The antidote is economic democracy.

jasonhickel.substack.com

2 19 57

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 21h

The full programme and all speeches are available here: beyondgrowth.es

Conferencia Más Allá del Crecimiento España 2025

beyondgrowth.es

1 5 16

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 21h

Part 2

1 9 22

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 21h

My brief address at the Spanish Parliament last week, on how capitalism is driving the polycrisis, and how we can begin to align production with democratically ratified objectives.

(Part 2 below)

1 35 100

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 21h

Read David in his own words: x.com/davidrkadler...

x.com

2 15

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 21h

Don't let anyone ever tell you that Zionism is about the protection of Jewish people. Zionists reserve special hatred for Jews who reject their genocidal project and who insist on the equal humanity of Palestinians.

2 17 70

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 21h

My friend David Adler, a Jewish-American who was on the flotilla and was kidnapped by the Zionist regime, is detained illegally in an Israeli prison and no one has had contact with him for four days.

Shamefully, the US government has done nothing to help him.

1 31 82

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 21h

Check out this new BBC series exploring the social and political determinants of child health in the UK... where 4.5 million children live in poverty in one of the "richest" countries in the world. With the brilliant @drguddisingh.bsky.social

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

BBC Radio 4 - Three Ages of Child

A journey through the landscape that shapes the health of our children.

www.bbc.co.uk

24 52

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 1d

And absolutely staggering inequalities between countries, with rich countries causing most of the ecological overshoot and poorer countries suffering most of the ecological shortfall.

2 17 42

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 1d

Here's the paper, open access: nature.com/articles/s41...

And here is an interactive website with time-series data from 2000 to 2022: doughnuteconomics.org/doughnut

Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries monitors a world out of balance - Nature

A revised ‘Doughnut’ providing a visual assessment of trends in social deprivation and planetary degradation over the past two decades shows more than doubling of global GDP accompanied by accelerating ecological overshoot but only a modest reduction in human deprivation.

nature.com

1 18 28

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 1d

It shows once again that capitalism is an extremely inefficient system characterized by high levels of aggregate production to the point of driving ecological breakdown, even while masses of humanity remain deprived of basic needs.

1 8 19

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 1d

This new study in Nature provides a comprehensive update to the "doughnut" framework.

3 29 76

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 1d

The JG would make a material difference in people's lives and could be a decisive policy in enabling the left to defeat the right and win the coming elections.

1 2 19

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 1d

This also dramatically improves workers' bargaining power.

All of these things should be appealing to any progressive or socialist political party, such as those that are in the Spanish government.

1 2 20

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 1d

3. The JG creates a mechanism for setting wages and working standards across the whole economy. If the JG implements living wages, a 35 hour workweek, workplace democracy, etc., the private sector will need to match these standards if they want to retain staff.

1 2 16

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 1d

so as to accelerate social and ecological progress. There's a lot of work to be done to build a just and ecological society, and we cannot wait around for capital to decide it is profitable enough to employ people to do it!

1 1 15

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 1d

2. The JG creates a mechanism for *reorienting* labour toward socially and ecologically beneficial activities, and *increasing* production where necessary (renewable energy development, public transit expansion, regenerative agriculture, ecological restoration, care, etc.),

1 2 18

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 1d

thereby allowing us to undertake such downscaling without the social consequences that currently make this politically undesirable.

1 2 15

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 1d

1. The JG creates a mechanism for *preventing* any unemployment that may arise from downscaling ecologically destructive and socially unnecessary industries (eg, fossil fuels, SUVs, fast fashion, etc),

1 3 23

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 1d

This is a terribly incorrect understanding of the JG. Yes, the JG can be a powerful tool for ending unemployment and ensuring good livelihoods for all (and for this alone Spain should do it, because 10% is in fact an egregiously high figure!), but that is not the only reason it's important:

2 2 17

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 1d

I have been informed that the Spanish government recently considered pursuing a public job guarantee but decided against it, on the grounds that the unemployment rate has been declining and is now "only" 10%.

1 16 55

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 4d

You are not seeing this slaughter live-streamed to your devices because Israel has murdered most of Gaza’s most prominent journalists in targeted assassinations.

Breaking News, World News and Video from Al Jazeera @aje.io.web.brid.gy · 6d

LIVE: A least 61 killed as Global Sumud Flotilla nears Gaza

At least 61 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza as a flotilla of more than 50 ships carrying aid approach.

www.aljazeera.com

1 380 720

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 4d

Full solidarity with the flotilla, which represents the very best of humanity.

And eternal shame to the European states who refused to protect it from Israeli assault and establish a corridor for aid to Gaza.

1 93 380

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 4d

On the 1st of October 1965, the US collaborated in initiating a coup against Sukarno, the first president of independent Indonesia. The coup-makers installed a brutal right-wing dictatorship that systematically exterminated up to one million people with the direct support of the CIA.

7 100 270

Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social · 7d

New research shows that ocean acidification has now crossed the planetary boundary. That's 7 of 9 boundaries crossed. Capitalism is driving ecological catastrophe and will continue to do so until we align production to a new law of value.

www.france24.com/en/live-news...

Scientists announce that 7 of 9 key 'planetary boundaries' have been crossed

A team of global scientists issued a new report on Wednesday, noting that seven out of nine of key "planetary boundaries" have been crossed. Carbon dioxide emissions have increased ocean acidification...

www.france24.com

4 84 140