Giorgos Gouzoulis

Wall Street Journal, y'all

The first draft of my effort to theorize the political/coalitional characteristics of student debt is out for review.

It's really the first step in an effort to think through how to design a free college program with durable long-term coalitions

Correct. This is valuable time that researchers could be investing into changing the formatting styles of their citations between resubmissions.

Part of the problem is that we use the same word, "housing," to refer both to the flow of services and to the asset that produces those services. As if the word "ketchup" meant both the stuff we spread on burgers, and the factories that produce it.

You can also join us over on LinkedIn here:

www.linkedin.com/in/british-journal-of-industrial-relations

a man is riding a segway in an office with the words welcome aboard below him Alt: Michael Scott, character from the US Office, is riding a segway into an office with the words 'Welcome aboard!' below him

📣Hello Bluesky! 👋

Me (Holly Smith, new Social Media Editor), @ryanlamare.bsky.social (Editor-In-Chief), & the rest of the #BJIR board are delighted to launch our new socials today!

Join us here for all things #industrialrelations - related (is that a hashtag?)

When political figures threaten lawsuits against comedians, it’s not just about individual grievances. It’s about power.

Our research shows how a deregulated, profit-driven media system is especially vulnerable to legal and political intimidation. Read here: https://bit.ly/4rtcRLa

Reform by-election candidate suggested people who don’t have kids should pay more tax Exclusive: The Reform politician’s suggestion would ‘punish millions of women and strip them of their basic dignity to choose’, Labour’s deputy leader has warned

So as I struggled with miscarriage after miscarriage before having my 🌈 baby, Reform would seriously think I should pay more tax during that agony.

This policy isn’t just a slippery slope to a handmaids tale dystopian future - it’s a deliberate step towards it
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

Podcast Episode with Grace Blakeley and Clara Mattei on Economic Planning and Capitalism Recently an episode of the FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation) Podcast has been released, in which Grace Blakeley is interviewed by Clara Mattei. In the episode they touch (amongst other…

In this episode of the @freefreeforum.bsky.social podcast, Clara Mattei discusses with @graceblakeley.substack.com how economic planning happens under capitalism and what democratic economic planning could look like. www.indep.network/podcast-epis...

Our January newsletter is out! ❄ technologypolicy.substack.com/p/the-tip-ne...
We're particularly excited to invite you to our upcoming event with @ceciliarikap.bsky.social on 25 Feb 3pm GMT, where she will present her findings on the Cloud ☁️ in the age of AI 👉
www.tickettailor.com/events/techn...

The rich get richer, while others ...

New: Pordoceo Education Corporation — the financial corporation that runs several shady, predatory for-profit colleges — is behind a "ghost student" scheme.

They're knowingly allowing AI students to enroll so they can get federal government cash and boost shareholder value.

UK broadband operator sold to distressed debt specialist G.Network’s lenders trigger sale of company with £300mn of net debt but just 25,000 customers

The private equity investment strategy of USS should be subjected to scrutiny. How USS became main shareholder in debt-laden zombie firms like Thames Water and G.Network is a scandal. Trustees should read research by USS members instead of advice from asset managers
www.ft.com/content/2ca2...

The Political Economy of the US Media System: Excavating the Roots of the Present Crisis - Roosevelt Institute Bilal Baydoun, Shahrzad Shams, and Victor Pickard trace the roots of the US media crisis to decades of deregulation and commercial capture, outlining how consolidation, news deserts, and platform domi...

Concentrated ownership and weakened public-interest institutions threaten democratic information systems, making reform a structural imperative.

In December, we explored concentrated power in our media industry and its impacts #RI2025 https://bit.ly/4oTUrBz

Julia Hartley-Brewer: Why is colonialism bad?

Me: “When Britain arrived in 1700s, India had 27% of global GDP. After 200 years of theft and millions starved to death, by 1947 India had 3% of global GDP, 90% living below the poverty line, a literacy rate of 17% and life expectancy of 27”

Debt and the Future of Workers Debt and the Future of Workers - Financialization as Exploitation in the 21st Century; This book reveals the first comprehensive examination of how financialization and rising personal debt has quietl...

bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/debt-and-the...

Promotional banner for the book "Debt and the Future of Workers: Financialization as Exploitation in the 21st Century" by Giorgos Gouzoulis, published by Bristol University Press. The red cover of the book shows a stack of cash inside a bear trap. The banner displays the book in print, tablet, and phone formats, with a QR code labeled "Pre-order now." Text notes: UK release April 2026, US release May 2026. Bristol University Press and Policy Press logos appear at the bottom.

Extremely grateful to @thomaspiketty.bsky.social for his very generous endorsement of my forthcoming book, 𝘿𝙚𝙗𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙁𝙪𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙧𝙨.

🔜The book is out from @brisunipress.bsky.social on 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 𝟮𝟯𝗿𝗱 in the UK & 𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝟮𝟲𝘁𝗵 in the US (link in the comments below)

The new debtors' prison: Conceptualising the relationship between prisoner debt, prison violence and prisoner crisis - Kate Gooch, 2025 Although imprisonment for debt was abolished in England and Wales more than 50 years ago, a new debtor's prison has emerged. Debt within prison is now a si...

The new debtors' prison: Conceptualising the relationship between prisoner debt, prison violence and prisoner crisis journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

America's richest 10% now hold 60% of the nation's wealth.

The bottom half of America? It holds just 6%.

Wealth inequality is eating this country alive.

I’m hiring a postdoc! Flexible in terms of details, but I’m looking for someone to collaborate with on research about labor market inequality. I’ll review applications as they come in and the posting just went up here:
apply.interfolio.com/178873

US-style student debt bondage coming soon to a UK campus near you...

Almost a third of your water bill pays for dividends for shareholders, and for private water companies to pay off their debt, according to research by @cmmonwealth.bsky.social

Will Rachel Reeves end the rip-off and bring down water bills in this Budget? #Budget

"academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it... The dominant four collectively generated... $12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024."

China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research, documents show Sheffield Hallam University apologises to Professor Laura Murphy for restricting her academic freedom.

Seems like evidence for the neo-liberal university label - when the market triumphs over principle (academic freedom) - except that we are opposed. The reactions will be revealing

China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research, documents show www.bbc.com/news/article...

Happy to share the first empirical chapter of my PhD thesis accepted for publication - now in the proofs stage at the International Labour Review, the International Labour Organization’s flagship journal!

Marc Lobliner post on X: "Why the hell are we giving food stamps to 40 million people? Does anyone work anymore?"

SNAP isn't about "people who don't work." It's about people who don't get paid enough to live.

Of the 40 or so million people who rely on food stamps:

* Two-thirds are children, seniors, or disabled

* Most working-age adults who receive SNAP are employed—but in jobs that pay poverty wages

Will be at @redemmas.org with Ho-fung Hung this Wednesday. In Baltimore? Come on down!

River or sankey diagram showing the allocation of profits from global oil and gas companies to quantiles of the US wealth size distribution via financial system intermediaries, such as asset managers, and categories of ultimate beneficiaries, such as business owners, pension funds and shareholders in listed companies. The scale is hundreds of billions of US dollars, and ultimately 50.4% of profits reaching the US personal wealth distribution go to the richest 1% of households.

🚨NEW PAPER🚨
We all know the 2022 energy price shock fueled the cost of living crisis. It also caused a profit bonanza for the very rich. We show the US reaped the largest profits ($377bn) of any country. 50% went to the richest 1%, only 1% to the bottom 50%. A🧵 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Transitioning Out of Capitalism Towards a Green Future A conversation with the authors of "Radical Abundance: How to Win a Green Democratic Future" about what it will take to build a livable world for all.

What would it really take to build a green, democratic future?

@sarahljaffe.bsky.social interviews the authors of “Radical Abundance: How to Win a Green Democratic Future,” who lay out a roadmap for transitioning out of capitalism through public-common partnerships and collective power.

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.

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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