Blog
Worker resistance and the gig economy: lessons from the Sheffield courier strike
29 March 2023For eight months, platform workers in Sheffield organised the longest strike in the history of the gig economy. History and Politics student Christopher Leach spoke to striking platform workers as part of a Sheffield Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) project.
3 October 2022
European pressures manifestly constrain and shape national capitalisms, yet they are fragmented and differentiating, producing capitalist variegation rather than convergence.
29 September 2022
Paying for the energy price guarantee has highlighted a deep political cleavage around tax ideology. Reframing windfall as emergency will be critical to leverage a change in direction.
22 September 2022
The implementation of the macroprudential policy programme in individual countries has been remarkably uneven. A closer look at the importance of national growth models and housing systems for issues of financial stability helps us understand why.
14 September 2022
Drawing on newly published research, this blog argues that while Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak both stated a desire to introduce tax cuts and reduce the size of the British state, history suggests that once in office either candidate would have resorted to industrial policy in the shadows.
13 July 2022
Devolution, combined with error-strewn Westminster governance, has led to the growth of pro-independence sentiment north of the border. Could we witness the break-up of Britain over the next decade?
12 July 2022
Brexit may have come as a surprise to many commentators, but there are long-standing historical reasons why it was entirely predictable.
11 July 2022
Pro-Brexit campaigners claimed Britain unshackled from the EU would project its power and influence internationally. The UK’s slow and ineffective response to the war in Ukraine suggests the opposite.
5 July 2022
In Reclaiming Economics, a group of activists and scholars present a compelling case against mainstream economics education. They highlight the role of this orthodoxy in many societal crises, but may overstate its potential as a domain of radical change.
27 June 2022
New research shows that a shift towards more left-leaning positions in receiving country governments relative to the sending country governments is associated with increased immigration.
15 June 2022
While the Green New Deal is a point of strategic unity for those committed to political-economic transformation, it is also site of political contestation across the capitalism-growth debate.
19 May 2022
Wary of unruly private global digital currency mavericks that monetise on people’s privacy, several central banks are developing their own digital legal tenders – but we should question how and by whom our money is controlled.
17 May 2022
This piece, based on original research in Kenya’s oil and gas industry, explores experiences of difference and belonging among black African women in the extractive industry.
12 May 2022
Brexit and the new Trade and Cooperation Agreement offer the UK an opportunity to diverge from the EU’s agri-food regulatory regime. However, it will benefit UK consumers in particular to maintain its alignment with EU food standards.
10 May 2022
Veganism offers a deep critique of contemporary food systems, but is susceptible to corporate co-optation that may reduce its transformative potential.
5 May 2022
Digital platforms continue to create new spatial networks for capital accumulation and surveillance. Creators and users alike are deeply embedded within these networks.
3 May 2022
This piece explores the varying conflicts, contradictions and possibilities of ethical clothes shopping, and offers some tips on how to navigate the growing trend of conscious consumerism.
28 April 2022
Modern LGBT+ movements may have advanced civil rights and improved queer lives, but they have also allowed queer issues to be co-opted by politics and corporations in mainstream discourse, obscuring the urgent every-day issues queer people actually face.
26 April 2022
This new blog series by members of SPERI’s Doctoral Researcher Network explores how a political economy analysis can help to explain experiences in our everyday lives.
5 April 2022
George Osborne’s ‘omnishambles’ of 2012 is generally regarded as politically the worst budget of modern times. But it will surely be run close by Rishi Sunak’s Spring Statement two weeks ago, which has had a disastrous reception in the press and within his own party. It was not just the criticism it attracted for doing so little for those on the lowest incomes in the face of the cost of living crisis. It was its nakedly political intent.
25 February 2022
My book Britain Alone is a history of Britain since the global financial crisis.
9 February 2022
Marxism is critiqued for being Eurocentric but Lenin’s analysis challenges this. It championed African independence and remains relevant today.
18 January 2022
New research shows that, after the EU referendum, people were less likely to move if they were aligned with the Brexit preferences of their district.
5 January 2022
There is something odd about one of the iconic stories we tell about the 2008 financial crisis.
2 November 2021
Jack Mosse has written a book about modern monetary theory (MMT) that ranges from conversations in a North London housing estate to elite financiers’ offices, to explain, without academic jargon, the central economic question of our day.
19 October 2021
This blog summarises Dr Scott Lavery’s presentation at the first 2021-22 meeting of the SPERI Doctoral Researchers Network, on ‘The Political Economy of COVID-19’.
16 September 2021
Focusing on short-term efficiency gains can lead to long-term inefficiency. The work of Schumpeter provides an alternative that could lead to greater prosperity.
10 September 2021
While making payments more convenient many FinTech solutions exploit our digital footprints. Opening the ‘black box’ of such technologies is crucial to ensure we benefit from their fusion into our lives.
9 September 2021
When shopping is not feeding capitalism but the only way of fighting for freedom.
8 September 2021
While activist coalitions have forced the end of state-sanctioned forced labour in Uzbekistan, the rise of the private sector and continued undermining of political and social rights may mean exploitation in the cotton sector persists.
7 September 2021
Despite drastic changes to the economy and labour market in recent decades, trade unions continue to be pivotal stakeholders in current social movements.
6 September 2021
A new series of blogs by members of SPERI’s Doctoral Researcher Network will explore how different types and forms of social contestation are shaping the global economy.
8 July 2021
While David Cameron’s Conservative government used austerity to their political advantage, Boris Johnson’s government has so far given it a wide berth.
7 July 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the indebted nature of Britain into the spotlight once again – but this is a problem with much deeper historical roots.
6 July 2021
Boris Johnson’s regional agenda is doomed to fail unless we tackle Britain’s ‘finance curse’.
28 June 2021
New research by Rex McKenzie and Rowland Atkinson shows the scale of inward offshore investment into Liverpool and the effects in the city.
13 May 2021
The Kalifa Review of UK Fintech failed to prioritise financial inclusion and poverty eradication. What should policymakers do to establish the UK as a leader of ethical and socially impactful fintech?
13 May 2021
The financial and Covid-19 crises have illustrated the need for a green model of capitalism. The implementation of this new model will be vital for ensuring a sustainable future.
22 April 2021
The Suez Canal crisis has apparently been resolved. However, global value chains will create similar bottlenecks in the future. As a solution, we must consider stopgap solutions, install bypasses or undergo a strict “diet” to rethink resource flows. An ambitious circular economy, relying on narrower, slower, and shorter resource loops may help avoid future disruption.
29 March 2021
Individualisation has undermined the central purpose of pensions provision – and paradoxically compelled the state to further intervene to support the private pensions industry.
14 March 2021
While the development of vaccines has given the world hope, success will depend upon closer global cooperation and the waiving of intellectual property protections.
22 February 2021
No scholar has done more than Vivien Schmidt to illuminate the contemporary European Union’s democratic and legitimacy deficits.
1 June 2022
This blog argues that in past decades, financial factors have been more important than competitiveness.
10 February 2021
Part 2 of this blog series looks at the response of Big Tech companies to the problem of 'fake news'.
3 February 2021
Part 1 of this blog series asks what is the past and future of the term 'fake news'? Is self regulation by social media companies an effective solution?
18 December 2020
As we slowly emerge from the second lockdown and prepare with hope for the new year, I though it timely [...]
11 November 2020
Why Brexit negotiations on the level playing field should be seen in light of the EU’s experience with FTAs and criticisms of labour standards provisions.
5 November 2020
While Central and Eastern European states were initially constrained by neoliberalism, the rise of populism has lead to a form of developmental 'statism'.
22 October 2020
Despite growing concern about the power of Big Tech, regulators have struggled to hold these companies and their executives to account. Here's why.
14 October 2020
The influence of private lobbies in policymaking is dependent on the two-directional interaction between policymakers and lobbyists.
7 October 2020
In part 2 of this two-part blog, we consider divides constructed between the permanent/temporary and the skilled/unskilled in relation to workers rights
5 October 2020
The legal characterisation of people who move across borders for work has profound implications for their labour rights. In Part One of this two-part blog, three legal scholars consider some of the binaries used to justify their legal characterisation and suggest that we need a new way to discuss this phenomenon. The authors begin by considering the inside/outside jurisdiction binary.