Barbora Cernusakova

‘Left-behind’ amid the ‘boom’? Large-scale green technology projects and reinforced peripheralisation in Eastern Germany - Hannes Langguth, 2025 Driven by the recent investment surge in large-scale green technology projects, the European Union’s shift towards climate neutrality has sparked new developmen...

Hannes Langguth's research of a new EV battery gigafactory in Thuringia (Germany) challenges the view that transnational investments in strategic production necessarily benefits the 'left-behind' spaces. A complex explanation is offered:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

This new book on the theory and method of law and technology by the brilliant @rcalo.bsky.social is so important! Congrats Ryan!

🚨New video!

Communities impacted by green hydrogen projects in South Africa finally had their voices heard by MEPs and the European Commission for the first time.

🤥 Incredibly disappointing: the Commission denied the EU was involved in any of the projects shown

corporateeurope.org/en/2025/07/h...

Doing Good Social Science: Lessons from Immersion, Understanding Social Life and Exploring the In-between Doing Good Social Science takes readers on a personal and thought-provoking journey and empowers readers to become unshakeable, free-thinking scholars. Drawing from nearly two decades of experience in...

Do you know anyone who would like to review my book for an excellent methods journals? If so please tag them or DM me. It would be perfrct for a PhD student. Info on the book here: www.routledge.com/Doing-Good-S....

ArcelorMittal withdraws from green steel transformation – DW – 07/01/2025 ArcelorMittal has withdrawn from its green steel projects in Germany. The company says its former goals are no longer feasible in the current market environment. Meanwhile, workers fear for their jobs...

Steel maker ArcelorMittal has pulled the plug on its green steel plans, despite the offer of €1.3bn in subsidies. It claims it didn't make business sense.

It begs the question: can the market deliver on the green transition - and if not, what other model do we need?

www.dw.com/en/arcelormi...

"Of the 29 healthcare workers in our study, 14 say they could not make a living if on-demand nursing apps were their only source of income. Four workers earn so little that they qualify for Medicare or Medicaid. Two others, rather ironically given their profession, had no health insurance at all."

“Including labour law in any 28th regime would allow rich tech-bros to completely ignore the rights to fair pay and decent conditions which workers have won at national level over the last century" ⚠️

#28thRegime #deregulation

Next week at @isa-sociology.org Forum I'll talk about "The dynamics of racialised labour disciplining in East Central Europe". Together Angela Kóczé we discuss the tension between the anti-immigrant & racist narratives & the imperatives of the political economy/ labour shortages.
shorturl.at/9PPtV

Intel will lay off 15% to 20% of its factory workers, memo says Next month’s layoffs will take place at Intel factories around the world but could have an especially big effect in Oregon.

Intel says it's targeting layoffs between 15% and 20% in its Foundry business next month -- cuts that will have a profound effect on manufacturing and research.

Other business units plan major cuts, too, but the depth of those layoffs aren't yet clear.

"What once appeared as disconnected struggles—between truckers in Indonesia, data-centre workers in Malaysia, and platform couriers in Bangkok—are now increasingly visible as part of interlinked systems of governance and control."

Between Fires in Los Angeles and Fascism in America Altadena’s vision of regeneration is the antidote to the political conflagration that threatens us all.

Robin DG Kelley on Black neighborhoods in the LA fires and nationwide fascism

hammerandhope.org/article/los-...

Simplification: Council agrees position to ‘stop-the-clock’ on due diligence rules for batteries Member states’ representatives (Coreper) approved today the Council’s position on one of the Commission’s proposals to simplify EU rules and thus boost EU competitiveness in the field of batteries.

EU Member States agree to delay applying due diligence rules for batteries
www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/pre...

Negotiating the boundaries of Blackness and naming whiteness: the racialisation and identity formation process of French citizens of Indian descent This article explores the racialisation and identity formation process of French citizens of Indian descent, an invisible minority in France. To do so, it centres the voices of two groups with conn...

My piece for @ersjournal.com is out! I explore how French people of Indian descent, an invisible minority in France, are racialised through anti-Blackness + variations of Orientalism, and how my participants negotiate this.
@ethnicityuk.bsky.social @uomsociology.bsky.social

Disciplining of Roma workers through predatory debt in Czechia Looking at the entrapment of Roma workers in unpayable debts in Czechia, this article discusses the relationship between racialisation, predatory debt and labour disciplining. Drawing on long-term ...

In this article in the New Political Economy, I discuss the extractive & disciplinary power of household debt over Roma workers in Czechia. Drawing on ethnography, I show how the unpayable debt becomes a mechanism to discipline labour as a whole.

shorturl.at/VOQrB
@uomsociology.bsky.social

"Rather than inducing mass unemployment, the more immediate effects of generative AI are likely to mirror broader trends of job transformation already unfolding today, namely de-skilling and surveillance."

Workers describe abusive treatment in Taiwan’s semiconductor factories A record number of people are leaving the Philippines to work in Taiwanese factories, where they face long shifts, low pay, and unequal treatment.

A record number of people are leaving the Philippines to work in Taiwanese semiconductor factories, where they face long shifts, low pay, unequal treatment and the threat of deportation, report Hsiuwen Liu and @michaelbeltran.bsky.social for @restofworld.org
restofworld.org/2025/filipin...

AI Surveillance Won’t Stop Theft, but It Might Stop Unions The loss prevention industry is excited about using technology to combat shoplifting. But workers are getting caught up in the dragnet.

“In this brave new world of worker surveillance, innocuous behavior will be criminalized, safety will be weaponized, and the ability to exercise one’s legally protected right to organize a union will be endangered.”

Just a day off Wearing his white trainers, polo shirt and clean jeans, he enters the waiting room and inhales the smell of disinfectant mixed with the lavender scent-sticks on one of the windows. Half an hour lat…

Good insights on the human plasma industry...
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...
... a while ago, I wrote this short story on how it is related to labour informality and precarious lives:
ostravart.com/2023/08/05/j...

I argue that in capitalism, racialisation goes beyond fragmentation of proletariat. It establishes hierarchies within labour and determines life opportunities on structural level. Intertwined with household finance, racialisation of Roma in Czechia gave a rise to a powerful labour control mechanism.

My article "Disciplining of Roma workers through predatory debt in Czechia" got accepted by New Political Economy.

Drawing on a long-term ethnography, which I started in 2016, it outlines the contours of the extractive & disciplinary power of household debt over labour.

"...if they find that a country is becoming an unfavourable place to do business, they can simply move the jobs elsewhere. (After the lawsuits were brought in Kenya, Meta simply relocated its African moderators to Ghana – where they face even worse conditions than before.)"

African workers are taking on Meta and the world should pay attention A landmark case could see Meta forced to take responsibility for workers’ rights abuses not just in Kenya but globally.

Mercy Mutemi writing in @aljazeera.com today: A landmark case could see the US tech giant forced to take responsibility for workers’ rights violations not just in Kenya but globally.

www.aljazeera.com/opinions/202...

Why Apple can’t just quit China Patrick McGee, author of the new book Apple in China, on the too-close-to-break relationship between the world’s second-most valuable company and its biggest geopolitical rival.

“Apple’s influence on China exceeds that of the Marshall Plan’s impact on Europe after World War II.”
— @patrickmcgee.bsky.social, speaking with @violazhou.bsky.social about his new book “Apple in China.”

Read the full interview:
restofworld.org/2025/apple-c...

A good overview of theorising the effects of real and formal subsumption (and understanding of the current state of capitalism) from Banaji and Harootunian to Balibar and Negri:

Research on labour in data industry "needs to frame technology-induced labour transformations in terms of globalisation dynamics, international supply chains, and power relationships, in addition to algorithmic management and loss of labour rights."

Moneylending or financial service: the politics of regulating microfinance in India The Andhra Crisis of 2010 is well known as a critical juncture for microfinance as borrowers were coerced and reportedly committed suicide due to repayment pressures. This presented a regulatory ch...

Sharing here my recently published article on the politics of regulating microfinance in India. I look at political struggles in the Indian state in defining and legislating microfinance. State actors debated if microfinance is moneylending or a financial service? www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The Elgar Companion to Regulating Platform Work ‘Bringing together leading voices, this Companion offers a critical and forward-looking analysis of how to regulate the industry''s impact on work and workers. With insightful case studies and expert ...

The Elgar Companion to Regulating Platform Work, co-edited with @silviarainone.bsky.social, is now available @elgarpublishing.bsky.social @etui.bsky.social
Thanks to the authors for their insights on app-based food delivery!

More info 👉 www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/the...

#GigEconomy #FoodForThought

Singapore’s Extra Large Order of Chips The sale of advanced AI processors came up during a recent phone call about the Trump administration’s tariffs.

The sale of advanced AI processors to Singapore came up during a recent phone call about the Trump administration’s tariffs.

The techfare state: debt, discipline, and accelerated neoliberalism In this exploratory article, we aim to open a research agenda for renewed attention to the relationship between the capitalist state and the technology ecosystem. Over the last decade, private tech...

Ali Bhagat & Rachel Phillips on how techfare serves (both capital and state) to discipline low-income workers, including gig workers.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....