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solgamsu.bsky.social
Sol Gamsu
@solgamsu.bsky.social
1.2K followers 1.4K following 370 posts
Sociologist/sociologue/soziologe of education (elites, geographies, social mobility, dreaming/fighting for another education). Union rep UCU: organising in various capacities. Working/living in Durham/Newcastle mostly. https://linksta.cc/@Sol%20Gamsu
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solgamsu.bsky.social
Sol Gamsu @solgamsu.bsky.social · Feb 27
I wrote this for @bjsociology.bsky.social on organising in universities & the work we all need to do to defend & remake the university.

It's a reflection on being heavily involved in UCU with practical tips on what everyone can do, esp. now with redundancies.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
If You Want the University to Change, Don't Theorise—Organise!
Organising as workers to build industrial power within our universities is a key element of how we respond to redundancies, marketisation and other political pressures on higher education. This piece...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
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Reposted by Sol Gamsu
pierrebat.cpesr.fr
Pierre Bataille @pierrebat.cpesr.fr · 9h
"Scolarisations et formations de l’élite entrepreneuriale : parcours de vie et visions du monde"

Très beau programme pour les 16-17 octobre prochain @sspunil.bsky.social thanks to l'équipe @obelitessuisses.bsky.social

www.unil.ch/events/17522...
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Reposted by Sol Gamsu
rmtunion.bsky.social
RMT Union @rmtunion.bsky.social · 10h
RMT members working on the revenue and gateline contract for Northern Trains and employed by Carlisle Support Services are taking industrial action today for pay justice.
📸 Neil Terry - Manchester
Group of protesters holding a large green banner demanding fair pay at Carlisle Support Services with raised fists in front of a building. Group of protesters holding signs demanding fair pay at Carlisle Support Services on a city street. Group of protesters holding red Unite the Union and RMT flags outside a building, advocating for fair pay at Carlisle Support Services.
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solgamsu.bsky.social
Sol Gamsu @solgamsu.bsky.social · 13h
If that's the only form of political activity we engage in then we are lost.

If we can't find a way to contribute to building political organising and movements capable of supporting the politics we ascribe to then we shouldn't be surprised at the lack of public understanding/support for HE.
solgamsu.bsky.social
Sol Gamsu @solgamsu.bsky.social · 13h
The marginal gains approach to influencing (other middle/upper class people who run) the state as our main source of "impact" at a time when the state is increasingly fascist is even more contradictory and inadequate than it ever was.
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solgamsu.bsky.social
Sol Gamsu @solgamsu.bsky.social · 13h
I was also more naive about this job and what it entailed.

I still have hope though, it just has a different shape and form. I also believe that academia only really has any value when it aligns itself to social movements, trades unions, community campaigns, anarchists and so on.
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solgamsu.bsky.social
Sol Gamsu @solgamsu.bsky.social · 13h
We moved offices at work. My old office had a lovely blackboard in it. When I started this job in 2019 I scribbled these quotes up over the course of that year and never got rid of them.

I was younger then and it was easier to see hope and possibility in politics with Corbyn as Labour leader.
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Reposted by Sol Gamsu
nataliesedacca.bsky.social
Natalie Sedacca @nataliesedacca.bsky.social · 1d
Devastating critique of Labour’s plans to double wait to apply for ILR or claim benefits, and require volunteering to gain citizenship. RCN warns the NHS and social care would cease to function under these harsh rules, which would drive people and pander to Reform www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
NHS could cease to function under Labour’s new visa rules, say nurses
Exclusive: Royal College of Nursing says plan to tighten rules for foreign workers is ‘pandering’ to Reform UK
www.theguardian.com
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Reposted by Sol Gamsu
simoneveglio.bsky.social
Simone Vegliò @simoneveglio.bsky.social · 2d
Glad to share my new article just out in Urban Studies on the impacts of logistical and neo-extractive infrastructures in Buenos Aires! 🏗️ 🚢 Materiality + temporalities + environmental degradation + social struggles 🔥 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
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Reposted by Sol Gamsu
marcusjdl.bsky.social
MAREcus 👻/ 🏳️‍🌈🇧🇧 @marcusjdl.bsky.social · 2d
They didn’t put those flags up spontaneously it was an organised campaign to send a message that they are white nationalists who want Black and brown migrants to suffer
financialtimes.com
Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 4d
Blessed are the flagmakers as the UK pivots to patriotism on.ft.com/48NzdAZ | opinion
Blessed are the flagmakers as the UK pivots to patriotism
Intensified competition to prove devotion to king and country has ushered in good times for those in the business
on.ft.com
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Reposted by Sol Gamsu
earlymodlancs.bsky.social
Prof. Liz Oakley-Brown @earlymodlancs.bsky.social · 2d
Teaching Term Week 1

- the @lancasterucu.bsky.social ballot to determine strike action against redundancies closes on Friday

🗳☑️
earlymodlancs.bsky.social
Prof. Liz Oakley-Brown @earlymodlancs.bsky.social · Jul 30
- 400 jobs to go at Lancaster University

- 1 in 4 people will be made redundant

But where's the financial evidence for this extreme action?

Please read 👇

Sign the petition 👇

chng.it/7F52bThYqn
Sign the Petition
Stop Mass Redundancies at Lancaster University – Hold Senior Management Accountable
chng.it
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Reposted by Sol Gamsu
jonnelledge.bsky.social
Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 5d
why are West Midlands police allowing flag hangers to block a public highway, exactly
khuar.bsky.social
Kings Heath United Against Racism @khuar.bsky.social · 5d
Flags went up in Stirchley a few days ago & were taken down by local residents the same evening.

The men returned with a cherry picker and coned off parts of the road with police accompanying them as they put up new flags along the High Street.

Residents who object have been met with verbal abuse.
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Reposted by Sol Gamsu
implausibleblog.bsky.social
Farrukh @implausibleblog.bsky.social · 5d
Zack Polanski saying what every politician should be saying,

"It's problematic to weaponise the synagogue attack to silence protest in this country against the genocide in Gaza"

"These are separate things and we should condemn them both"
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solgamsu.bsky.social
Sol Gamsu @solgamsu.bsky.social · 5d
A combination of frank discussions within subject associations combined with formulating political demands in UCU & beyond would be necessary. Will that happen?

I hope so, but it will require more academics to actively engage in politics that requires the unpicking of many hierarchies.
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solgamsu.bsky.social
Sol Gamsu @solgamsu.bsky.social · 5d
Staff generally don't control these decisions, they're generally imposed from above. But if we are ever to build or even demand a more egalitarian model of HE then we need to be able to discuss how sociology, & other disciplines, are structured by the market in ways that reinforce inequalities.
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solgamsu.bsky.social
Sol Gamsu @solgamsu.bsky.social · 5d
This is not a question of laying blame or guilt at all but rather to say that we don't have a good way to discuss, let alone formulate political demands, around the political economy of our disciplines and how they are shaped by the market, rankings, geography and history of higher education.
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solgamsu.bsky.social
Sol Gamsu @solgamsu.bsky.social · 5d
Most universities, even those highly ranked in national league tables for UG study like Durham, can't compete in the same way with the juggernaut that is UCL particularly at PGT.

The combination of London's appeal & the research power of UCL, KCL, Imperial etc creates a v. different PGT market.
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solgamsu.bsky.social
Sol Gamsu @solgamsu.bsky.social · 5d
What does all that mean for sociology provision? UCL's expansion into sociology teaching will create new space for sociological education and research and all power to that but what will its effects be on sociology provision within London and across the UK?
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solgamsu.bsky.social
Sol Gamsu @solgamsu.bsky.social · 5d
What UCL senior management gambled on, in a way that maybe paid off more clearly than it has say for Edinburgh (though I don't know the details well enough to say that clearly) was that size/scale, rankings & research funding hegemony were key to inter/national success.
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solgamsu.bsky.social
Sol Gamsu @solgamsu.bsky.social · 5d
Where I am now in the North East the landscape is very different but the closure of Durham's Stockton campus and the loss of Politics, Languages and History at Sunderland (whilst Durham has continued to expand student numbers of course) shares some parallels.
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solgamsu.bsky.social
Sol Gamsu @solgamsu.bsky.social · 5d
I know from talking to people that worked there then that the BA Education remit (a strong focus on WP and adult learners) changed substantially after the merger (it was I think the only/one of the few BA courses the IoE offered pre-merger, most courses were PGT/PGCE).
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solgamsu.bsky.social
Sol Gamsu @solgamsu.bsky.social · 5d
The federal UoL structure probably wasn't some democratic nirvana but there was at least some coordination of provision/places.

When I went to UCL in the late 2000s, it was already in its expansionist groove, the controversial merger with the IoE being the last one I saw whilst living in London.
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solgamsu.bsky.social
Sol Gamsu @solgamsu.bsky.social · 5d
There are great colleagues and students at UCL and I wish them every success with the new masters and undergrad programmes.

UCL not having sociology was, I think, due to the federal structure of the Uni of London, with sociology provided by LSE, Goldsmiths City, UEL & other (then) polytechnics.
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solgamsu.bsky.social
Sol Gamsu @solgamsu.bsky.social · 5d
When I was an undergrad at UCL, it was a bit frustrating there was no sociology department, though there were sociology courses, courtesy of an earlier expansion of UCL (its absorption of the School of Slavonic & Eastern European Studies) & various social theory courses.

Now I feel more ambivalent.
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solgamsu.bsky.social
Sol Gamsu @solgamsu.bsky.social · 6d
Quite a clip youtube.com/shorts/lyJpC...
Do private schools create different children?
YouTube video by U
youtube.com
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solgamsu.bsky.social
Sol Gamsu @solgamsu.bsky.social · 7d
Proud of one of our former sociology students, Regina Haokip, who has published her undergrad dissertation on how young people navigate two highly selective free schools/academy sixth forms in East London, Brampton Manor & London Academy of Excellence.

Important study!
doi.org/10.1080/0142...
The Etons of the East End: the ambiguities of educational urgency and the neoliberal fantasy
This paper scrutinises the concept of educational urgency through the experiences of former students at two sixth forms in a working-class, ethnic minority borough in East London, Brampton Manor Ac...
doi.org
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