Blog
2024
Moral panics and “anti-gender” politics: what can (queer) political economy tell us about global struggles over gender and sexuality?
Ellie Gore - 14 November 2024Based on recently published research in Ghana, Ellie Gore argues that contemporary contestations over LGBTQ+ rights are entwined in colonial and neoliberal political economy. A queer political economy approach is therefore useful for understanding the shifting transnational landscapes of “anti-gender” politics.
What impact do terrorist attacks have on our shared sense of identity?
Georgios Efthyvoulou, Harry Pickard & Vincenzo Bove - 12 November 2024New research shows that higher exposure to terrorism strengthens identification with Britain but has no effect on identification with its constituent nations.
GB Energy: The Future of Energy Governance?
Harvey Wood - 7 October 2024The international community and its constituents find themselves in an awkward situation regarding climate change politics and energy governance. Labour should commit to progressive energy governance that meet the demands of the present situation and that renews Britain’s presence in international energy politics.
Has Keir Starmer healed Britain's 'fractured union'?
Scott Lavery - 30 September 2024Review - Fractured Union: Politics, Sovereignty and the Fight to Save the UK by Michael Kenny.
City fortunes: The sources of wealth and international homeownership of the world’s urban wealth elite
Rowland Atkinson, Katie Higgins & Jonathan Bourne - 5 September 2024We reveal the dominant industrial sectors for particular cities, key differences in the levels of inherited/self-made wealth, and the geography of their additional homes. What are the implications of new data to reveal the roots of urban fortunes around the world?
Stricter ESG regulations may increase greenwashing risks and investor backlash
Erhan Kilincarslan & Jiafan Li - 27 August 2024As regulations around Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices intensify, companies face heightened scrutiny. While these regulations aim to promote transparency and accountability, they may inadvertently increase the risk of greenwashing and provoke investor backlash against ESG initiatives.
Beyond the two-child benefit cap: a long-term strategy against poverty?
Benjamin Stokes - 22 August 2024The ministerial taskforce set up in July should consider targeted aims to lower housing, energy and food costs. That will take investment – but it’s the only way to sustainably turn the tide on acute inequality in the UK.
Trade union repression in the Costa Rican bananera
Remi Edwards - 6 August 2024Despite industry and national commitments to protect Freedom of Association in the Costa Rican banana sector, recent fieldwork suggests collective rights remain precarious due to cost-cutting pressures of the global supply chain combined with conflictual local industrial relations. Lee este blog en español.
Lessons in Power: what can the new Labour government learn from the last one?
Michael Jacobs and Mems Ayinla - 9 July 2024A brand new podcast series from 'SPERI Presents...' invites former advisors and ministers from the 1997-2010 Labour governments to reflect on lessons for Starmer and his Cabinet. Listen on Spotify.
How the fallout of Liz Truss’s premiership narrows economic discussion in British politics
Dillon Wamsley - 26 June 2024Despite being the shortest serving Prime Minister in British history, Liz Truss’s premiership has cast a much wider shadow over British politics. In the leadup to the 2024 election, the economic discussion has been dominated by a conservative macroeconomic consensus consolidating in the aftermath of her downfall.
The election arms race is on - but what role for Yorkshire steel?
Joseph Ward and Gregory Stiles - 7 May 2024Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer have both been touting their defence and security credentials in recent weeks. Here we test the feasibility of this ‘election arms race’ and examine the role the steel sector might play in relation to it, both nationally and locally throughout South Yorkshire.
The politics of embedding a new economic consensus
Tony Payne - 15 April 2024Rachel Reeve's Mais Lecture charts a new economic course for Labour - but what will it take to embed a new economic consensus?
Why Sinoscepticism will remake British politics
Liam Stanley - 25 March 2024‘Sinoscepticism’, which we can define as a political position defined by opposition to the increasing power of China and its ruling Communist Party, prompts questions: why has this position become so prominent and what effects will it have? This piece is based on newly published research by the author.
Why the NHS is in crisis: an answer at three levels
Benjamin Stokes - 18 March 2024If we can only face looking back so far as the Covid pandemic and the political dynamics set in motion from 2010 - highly significant as they are - we’ll be missing the full story.
Materialising the immaterial, via the Belfast peace walls
Michael Livesey - 05 February 2024During the ‘Troubles’, the British Army and Government built ‘peace walls’ in Northern Irish cities to separate predominantly Catholic/nationalist from predominantly Protestant/unionist neighbourhoods. These walls imprinted ‘immaterial’ ideas about the relationship between social class and violence within ‘material’ structures of city space.