SPERI Blog
Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute
SPERI develops and promotes new analysis and understanding of contemporary capitalism, and the major economic and political challenges arising from it.
Latest posts
Algorithmic hate: The political economy of the Far-Right online
Sara Hill - 28 January 2025Examinations of online far-right activity often focus on harmful content proliferation and its social and political impact. However, understandings of its spread often lack a consideration of the emerging political economy of social media algorithms and surveillance capitalism.
A different specter haunts the world
Fred Block - 27 January 2025The world is being held hostage to bad measurement practices because official economic statistics fail to include outlays to improve the skills and capacities of the labor force. This piece draws on arguments developed in his book, The Habitation Society: Creating Sustainable Prosperity (Agenda Publishing) forthcoming in February 2025.
The Lehman Trilogy: Political Economy on the Stage
Chris Saltmarsh - 19 December 2024Chris Saltmarsh reviews Sam Mendes’ stage production of the Lehman Trilogy. He discusses its treatment of political economy issues including the development of American capitalism, financial crisis and cultural change.
‘The economy’, the ideational, whiteness and re-election of Donald Trump
Jessica Eastland-Underwood - 17 December 2024As many consider the economic factors that contributed to the Trump presidency, political economy scholars should pay as much attention to the ideational as the material. While inflation provides a parsimonious explanation for the 2024 US presidential election, everyday understandings of ‘the economy’ suggest that race was as salient a factor in the final outcome.
Part 5: A View to a Kill? Counter Accounting and the Potential to Leverage Violence for Change
David Yates - 12 December 2024In a globalised world, is it ever possible to know the violence that lies behind the curtain of our perceived realities and consumptive lifestyles? Can counter accounting help to redress the balance, and help individuals make more responsibility-informed lifestyle choices? Part of our series 'The production of organised violence'.