Hamish Kallin

‘Nousferatu’: the notorious consultancy advising Edinburgh uni amid 'huge' cuts Scotland’s largest university has turned to Nous Group at the same time as it is making savings that could lead to nearly 2,000 job losses. Staff say they were misled about the extent of its work.

Some of our most precarious members, tutors and demonstrators on 'guaranteed hours' contracts, have had their work hours cut or disappeared entirely in management's cost cutting spree. All the money paid to Nous could have gone to them.
#StopStaffCutsatUoE

www.theferret.scot/consultancy-...

At this rate, I honestly don't know why we aren't seeing mass riots against AI, which drains our most precious resources, replaces our jobs, steals our culture, will likely break our economy (again), infantalises us, and syphons money up to the uber rich who see themselves as rulers of our future.

Collingwood @admcollingwood 田 Date joined January 2017 • Account based in Europe Veritied since Since August 2024 > 1 username change Last on January 2017 Connected via Eastern Europe (Non-EU) Android App

This is one of the big accounts boosting Tommy Robinson, Farage and Reform and ‘English Patriots’.

It’s Russian.

Thanks Hugh! I apparently had notifications off for Bluesky so completely missed this, but appreciate you sharing it. It was bloody freezing at the time (as you know) and playing music outside at -1 was a nice challenge!

I do hope that Peter Mathieson can hear this from his office and that he is finding it REALLY annoying. Well done, @hamishkallin.bsky.social

RALLY TOMORROW!

Join the fightback against job cuts!
Wednesday 19th November at 1pm at the
Scottish parliament.

Calling all staff and students at UoE, and all those who care about its future: join us on the picket lines!
Teach outs, picket locations, bake sale... see our FAQ
#UCU
#WearetheUniversity
#StopStaffCutsatUoE

www.ucuedinburgh.org.uk/industrial-d...

A link to a petition to save Geography, its staff, department and degree programmes at Leicester University, UK

SAVE GEOGRAPHY at Leicester University (UK) - We call on the University of Leicester to urgently reconsider the proposal to dissolve Geography. This is direct attack on the discipline of Geography at Leicester with likely loss of Geography staff. Please sign + share

www.change.org/p/save-geogr...

my band Shinlifter have their EP launch on Saturday and with impeccable timing our Instagram has been hacked so we’ve lost our main channel for promoting it. if anyone wanted to help share this brilliant poster by my pal Grace there, here or elsewhere we’d be very grateful!

Universities across the world seeing this:

"its only wrong 45% of the time!!
Lets buy free licenses for our students, staff and faculty!!
Lets lock into contracts with rapacious predatory AI companies with shitty technofascist politics, sucking up water and jacking up electricity prices!!"

A leaked memo, a Maga-style hat and a trail of broken pledges – it’s Labour’s great housing betrayal | Aditya Chakrabortty Ignore the bombast: Steve ‘build, baby, build’ Reed’s boast looks likely to end in targets more pathetic than they are now, says Guardian columnist Aditya Chakrabortty

Chakrabortty on fine form: this is economically, politically, and morally bankrupt nonsense from Steve Reed, the new Labour housing minister.

Screenshot of a commentary abstract in Transactions by James D. Sidaway (2025) entitled 'Decolonial limits to Henri Lefebvre's spatial revolution' with a red banner at the top. This commentary appreciates Hamish Kallin's (2024) account of the prospects for reconciliation of anarchist and Marxist approaches via engaging Henri Lefebvre's work, but signals equivocation about Lefebvre triggered by his depictions of colonialism, Islam and the tropics. I argue that these are inconsistent with ongoing decolonial moves in geography.

New commentary in Transactions:

'Decolonial limits to Henri Lefebvre's spatial revolution' by James D. Sidaway

In this commentary, Sidaway responds to @hamishkallin.bsky.social's recent TIBG paper on the reconciliation of anarchist and Marxist approaches in geography.

doi.org/10.1111/tran...

I see we're at the "put Jewish people on a special surveillance list" stage of "combating antisemitism"

Playing on pickets is always immensely fun, I recommend it.

We're striking to stop budget cuts and mass redundancies and standing up for the future of our students' education. There is no deficit.

Holding the Line: Gentrification and the Dispossession of the Kirkgate Benches EXCLUSIVE FEATURE

Interesting reflection on the removal of the Kirkgate benches by Connor Robertson. What did it signify and why does it matter? "The benches are back, but the battle for the right to the city continues."

Lovely show on the life and politics of the anarchist Colin Ward on @resonancefm.bsky.social just now. You can listen via the link below.

Israeli Forces Bulldoze Palestinian Seed Bank

Israeli forces bulldozed Palestinian seed bank in Al-Khalil/Hebron, home to 22 years of seed collection efforts to preserve heritage varieties and plants with valuable traits: e360.yale.edu/digest/hebro...

There was a time when the government would piss on us and tell us it was raining; now they're pissing on us and telling us it's piss.

‘Worrying’ levels of screen time means young people losing confidence to socialise in person, minister warns – UK politics live Culture secretary Lisa Nandy says ‘majority of young people spend all, or almost all, of their free time alone in their bedrooms, online’

This is not caused primarily by "screen time".

It's been caused by the mass eradication of third places for young people in basically every city over the past three decades - and a society that's hostile to the concept of teens socialising in public spaces.

www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...

I watch some football highlights on Youtube, and it recommends I watch these next (on a browser with no cookies or account).

If the internet is now our public space, how do we fight the far right without fighting this algorithmic shepherding?

This feels so urgent and impossible.

Additional word on my door as of this morning. I think I'm officially old now.

Many Jewish staff in Scottish universities reject IHRA definition of antisemitism | Letter Letter: Prof Philip Wadler responds to an article about Edinburgh University reviewing its adoption of the IHRA definition

An important response to the IHRA debate - many Jewish staff at Edinburgh (myself included) believe it must be scrapped.

Open letter from UK university staff: Request for biometric deferral and safe evacuation of incoming Palestinian students and scholars from Gaza to UK Universities More than 40 students currently trapped in Gaza with full scholarships to UK Universities are asking for a safe route to come and study. We, the academic community hoping to welcome these scholars, ca...

>40 students currently trapped in Gaza with full scholarships to UK Universities are asking for a safe route to come and study

Petition for UK academics asking govt to facilitate a biometric visa deferral and open a route of safe passage

Sign & share ⏬️

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Any Edinburgh colleagues know anything about this shady group?

Gaza suffering man-made mass starvation, says WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus issues warning, as more than 100 aid groups urge Israel to ease blockade

No words 💔

📣 Call for Papers:
Debt Urbanism and the Housing Question

ℹ️ I'm putting together a symposium proposal to The International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (IJURR) with co-editors @sklosterkamp.bsky.social & Mel Nowicki

🗓️ Deadline for abstracts 22 August 2025

🏹 Please spread the word!

To me it's just a case of a stupid animal mascot complicating what should be simple and direct messaging. I realise I'm probably just being a grumpy bastard but I feel like if you showed this signage to someone from London Underground's design team, they'd have a heart attack.

Why do none of the signs clearly and unambiguously explain that you need to tap your payment card before boarding and after disembarking to pay? All the "toto says" stuff is a total waste of space. It's embarrassing.