Nick Bernards
@nickbernards.bsky.social
1.7K followers 480 following 260 posts
Critical Political Economist -- Author: A critical history of poverty finance (http://bit.ly/3pEV7Cf); Fictions of financialization (http://bit.ly/3PUWzdR) -- Reader in Global Sustainable Development, University of Warwick. Views mine.
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nickbernards.bsky.social
I've gotten faintly tired of talking *about* Fictions of Financialization now it's been out for a year or so, so am going to try talking around and beyond it to think about the state and finance capital...

www.plutobooks.com/product/fict...
Fictions of Financialization - Pluto Press
What if the financial sector isn’t the real enemy?
www.plutobooks.com
nickbernards.bsky.social
I'm really looking forward to this talk at QMUL in a couple weeks. Come by if you're around London!
clasp-qmul.bsky.social
Interested about financialisation and why states foster policies that lead to the dominance of financial capital? Come to CLaSP's seminar:
Event: Financial Capital, the State, and Politics
When: 30th October, 2025; 4-530 PM
Where: Graduate Centre, QMUL Mile End Campus
Speaker: Dr. Nicholas Bernards
Reposted by Nick Bernards
sidneyrothstein.bsky.social
Out now in Competition & Change
@compchange.bsky.social

“Dependent development in digital
capitalism: The politics of startup
policies in the new periphery”

@journals.sagepub.com
#polisky
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

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first page of "Dependent development in digital capitalism: The politics of startup policies in the new periphery." abstract: As digital technology’s economic importance increases, policymakers pivot to supporting startups – new, small, high-risk firms that produce technological innovation. Tracing the passage of startup policies in Brazil and Spain between 2014 – 2022, this article argues that startup policies do little to reduce peripheral countries’ dependence on the core. In each case, startups advocated for these policies by relying on financial and organizational resources from the giant US-based technology firms known as “Big Tech.” The article makes three contributions to the framework of dependent development. First, it reinforces existing observations that dependence on Big Tech extends beyond the Global South. Second, it revives political analysis of dependency, exploring the political conditions for economic development in the periphery. Lastly, it shows how startups’ political dependence on Big Tech implies important limits on startups’ ability to lead peripheral economies out of dependence on the core.
Reposted by Nick Bernards
greenprofgreen.bsky.social
Today is the day!!! Existential Politics is out in the world!

Read about why we’re doing climate policy wrong (too focused on measuring emissions) & what we should do instead (focus on $$ to constrain fossil asset owners & expand green asset owners). Just in time for #COP30.
Existential Politics
A new way to tackle the real politics of climate change through asset revaluation
press.princeton.edu
nickbernards.bsky.social
The word ‘despite’ is doing an incredible amount of work here.

How else *would* an asylum hotel provider make a £180m profit? This is exactly the ‘efficiency’ the private sector offers…
nickbernards.bsky.social
Exciting new arrival on my pile of books I don’t know when I’ll get to read now that term has started!
nickbernards.bsky.social
Genuinely unclear whether the ‘Direct rule by consultants and private equity guys’ is being floated *because* it’s obviously unacceptable to Palestinians or because someone genuinely thinks this is a good idea
nickbernards.bsky.social
Congrats Kai! Well deserved.
nickbernards.bsky.social
Surely to be added to 1939 and 1967 borders etc. on future lists of things that Palestinians 'could have had but they decided to fight instead'...
nickbernards.bsky.social
In which it becomes very clear that the 'peace plan' -- which is a unilateral fever dream of twentieth century colonial governance except run by real estate developers and McKinsey ghouls -- is nothing more than a flimsy pretext to continue the killing.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...
Trump and Netanyahu to Hamas: accept Gaza peace plan or face consequences
Pair say proposal represents new chapter but Israeli PM threatens to ‘finish the job’ if Hamas officials fail to agree
www.theguardian.com
Reposted by Nick Bernards
mattkranke.bsky.social
📣 Yet another SI for you, folks! Delighted to announce the publication of a @gepjournal.bsky.social special issue on “Global Green Visions and World Order in the Anthropocene”, co-edited with my dear colleague Bruna Bosi-Moreira.
👉 direct.mit.edu/glep/issue/2...
Volume 25 Issue 3 | Global Environmental Politics | MIT Press
direct.mit.edu
nickbernards.bsky.social
Twenty-first century colonialism apparently includes a 'property rights preservation unit' and a 'Palestinian Executive Authority' which would 'interface more directly with Palestinians'.
nickbernards.bsky.social
Ethically investing in weapons manufacturing.

on.ft.com/3WeZY9T
Reposted by Nick Bernards
pgolka.bsky.social
It’s out!

Do check it out if you’re interested in #impactinvesting and it’s surprisingly large variety!
Reposted by Nick Bernards
pmbigger.bsky.social
I'm so excited to share the launch of a new collaboration between @cmmonwealth.bsky.social and @cplusc.bsky.social: The Transition Security Project. TSP will be a home for research, analysis, and new policy thinking at the intersection of climate, economy, & the military industries of the US and UK🧵
Reposted by Nick Bernards
mklaz.bsky.social
My first book, Socializing Land: Plantations, Dispossession, and Resistance in Laos (University of Hawai'i Press, 2025), exists in this world!

Check it out at: uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/social...

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