Live: Is organised violence central to capitalism? @ BISA 2025
How are technologies used by militaries to enact organised violence produced? How are post-industrial regions of the UK becoming dependent on the supply chains of the global war industry? What narratives enable organised violence perpetrated by elites, and how are they resisted? What is the role of everyday tedium and mundanity in producing such violence?Dr Joanna Tidy is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at University of Sheffield. Dr Beryl Pong is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge. Dr Frank Maracchione is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at University of Kent. Dr Elena Simon is a doctoral alumnus of the University of Sheffield. Vicki Reif-Breitwieser is a postgraduate researcher at University of Sheffield and co-convenor of the SPERI Doctoral Researchers Network.They join Dr Remi Edwards to discuss the political economy of organised violence enacted by, between and within states. They consider the relationship between ruling elites' violence and capitalist economies; how violence is produced by particular ways of knowing; the boundary (or lack thereof) between the civil and the military; the everyday as an important site where violence is made and contested in the global political economy; and how novel forms of data collection can help us more effectively study organised violence.This SPERI Presents... episode is a live recording of the roundtable "Towards a Political Economy of organised violence: war, technologies, labour, and (re)production" at BISA 2025 conference. It took place in Belfast on Wednesday 18 June 2025.This episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Remi Edwards, Chris Saltmarsh, Frank Maracchione, Emma Mahoney, Dillon Wamsley and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Remi Edwards and Chris Saltmarsh. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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New Thinking: How does India's agrarian crisis harm women workers? w/ Shreya Sinha
The crisis of India's agrarian sector has been widely reported amid spates of farmer suicides and mass protest as incomes decline and indebtedness rises in response to falling productivity. What are the underlying causes of this persist crisis in India's agriculture? Is it right that we understand these phenomenon as 'crisis'? Who are the winners and losers? In particular, how are women workers disproportionately affected by the current upheavals?Dr Shreya Sinha is Senior Lecturer in Business and Society at Queen Mary, University of London. She joins Dr Remi Edwards to discuss her paper 'Shifting agrarian labour regimes, ecology, and the crisis for Dalit women’s work in India' (2024) recently published in the Journal of Economic Geography. They consider what makes the conditions of Indian agriculture a 'crisis', social reproduction and the crisis' effects on women workers, the relationship between ecology and labour, and how political ecology and political economy can help make sense of the situation.'New Thinking in Political Economy' is a monthly podcast showcasing cutting-edge political economy research that helps us to understand the world around us.This episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Remi Edwards, Chris Saltmarsh, Frank Maracchione, Emma Mahoney, Dillon Wamsley and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Remi Edwards and Chris Saltmarsh. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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New Thinking: Technocapitalism w/ Sami Moisio and Ugo Rossi
How have states evolved in tandem with the spread of techno-monopoly? Why do states and cities increasingly behave like startups? Is social polarisation a product of the startup economy or is it a necessary precondition? Sami Moisio is Professor of Spatial Planning and Policy in the Department of Geosciences and Geography at the University of Helsinki. Ugo Rossi is Professor of Economic and Political Geography at the Gran Sasso Science Institute University. Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Knowledge Governance at University of Sheffield and Director of the Urban Institute.They join Dr Remi Edwards to discuss Sami and Ugo's new book The Urban Field: Capital and Governmentality in the Age of Techno-Monopoly. They consider the relationship between the urban field and techno-capitalism, inequalities between the creative class and casual workers in the knowledge economy, and the relationship between the startup economy and cities. 'New Thinking in Political Economy' is a monthly podcast showcasing cutting-edge political economy research that helps us to understand the world around us.This episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Remi Edwards, Chris Saltmarsh, Frank Maracchione, Emma Mahoney, Dillon Wamsley and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Remi Edwards and Chris Saltmarsh. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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New Thinking: Big Pharma w/ Owain Williams
A tiny number of huge companies dominate the pharmaceutical industry, making extraordinary profits in the process. All the while, the poorest people around the world struggle to access medicines they need to survive. What does the COVID-19 pandemic tell us about Big Pharma? What's the problem with a cartelized global market? What role does Bill Gates play in solving (or reproducing) the big challenges of global health? Is there a political economy explanation for rising anti-vaccine sentiment? Should we expect Trump's second Presidency to challenge the dominance of Big Pharma?Dr Owain Williams is a Senior Research Fellow at the Commercial and Economic Determinants of Health Research Translation Centre at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia and a Visiting Associate Professor in Global Political Economy and Health at University of Leeds. Professor Simon Rushton is Professor of International Politics at University of Sheffield. They join Dr Remi Edwards to discuss Owain's recent co-authored paper COVID and structural cartelisation: market-state-society ties and the political economy of Pharma (2024). They consider the relationship between states and big pharmaceutical firms; the role of philanthropic-capitalist organisations like the Gates Foundation in global health governance; how effective (or not) markets are in delivering welfare goods like vaccinations; and the rise of vaccine hesitancy across the political spectrum.'New Thinking in Political Economy' is a monthly podcast showcasing cutting-edge political economy research that helps us to understand the world around us.This episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Remi Edwards, Chris Saltmarsh, Frank Maracchione, Emma Mahoney, Dillon Wamsley and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Remi Edwards and Chris Saltmarsh. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Crisis Point: A Theory Of Crisis w/ Dillon Wamsley & Chris Saltmarsh
How do we make sense of the multitude of so-called crises that dominate our current conjuncture? Is polycrisis a useful concept for getting to grips with the present condition of political economy? Are its proponents right to embrace uncertainty at the expense of theoretical explanation? Or can we hope to make sense of what's going on and chart a path forward?Chris Saltmarsh is a postgraduate researcher at University of Sheffield. Dillon Wamsley is a postdoctoral researcher the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI). They are producers and co-hosts of Crisis Point, a SPERI Presents... limited series introducing the political economy of capitalist crises, providing historical and theoretical rigour to discourses around crisis in the present. In this final episode, they review the series by proposing a definition and theory of crisis. They draw distinction between crises of accumulation and legitimation, reflect on the nature of political economy in the aftermath of the 2008 crash, consider what the idiosyncrasies of climate change mean for the general theory, and finish by asking 'what is to be done'?Works referenced in this episode:Gamble, The Spectre at the Feast (Bloomsbury, 2009)Adam Tooze on polycrisis (YouTube lecture)Further Reading:1) Tooze, 'Chartbook #130 Defining polycrisis - from crisis pictures to the crisis matrix' (2022)2) Holgersen, Against the Crisis: Economy and Ecology in a Burning World (Verso, 2024)This episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Remi Edwards, Chris Saltmarsh, Frank Maracchione, Emma Mahoney, Dillon Wamsley and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Chris Saltmarsh and Dillon Wamsley. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
'SPERI Presents…' is a podcast taking on the big questions in political economy for scholars, students and publics within and beyond the discipline.We also host 'New Thinking in Political Economy', an ongoing series with monthly episodes. Dr Remi Edwards is joined by authors of new research to explore the motivations behind, contributions and implications of their work for understanding power and politics in the global economy.The first limited series was 'Lessons in Power'. Professor Michael Jacobs and Mems Ayinla interview ministers and advisors from the New Labour administration (1997-2010) to tease out lessons on a range of issues for Keir Starmer’s newly formed Labour government.Coming soon: Crisis Point hosted by Chris Saltmarsh and Dr Dillon Wamsley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
South Africa