Basak Kus

We're now inviting proposals for the New Thinking in Industrial Policy Conference, November 6–7, 2025, at Columbia University!

It is a great opportunity to present and discuss the latest research on industrial policy across the social sciences.

Hello folks, we are hiring in the area of global justice (potential research areas include human rights, international inequality, migration, global health, the environment, international law, or the erosion of democracy).

Here is the ad: wesleyan.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/career...

In Constitutional Clash Between Trump and Courts on Tariffs, Risks Ahead for Progressive Policies - Roosevelt Institute Today, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard oral arguments in two lawsuits brought against the Trump administration’s chaotic deployment of tariffs. To some observers, these cases may seem like arcane, boring trade law in a federal court that few have heard of. To others, the lawsuits represent an opportunity to resist Trump and fight his overreach on tariff hikes that are already starting to pinch consumers’ wallets. But it’s important to step back and look at some less obvious stakes in these disputes: Namely, what kind of powers do or should presidents have in the future to deal with economic emergencies?

A new blog post by Director of Industrial Policy and Trade @toddntucker.com breaks down what’s really at stake from the tariff court hearing—and why the outcome could shape economic policymaking for years.

Read more 📄 rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/c...

“The postwar order rested on three pillars: American hegemony, the fossil-fuel energy system, and an open, multilateral trading order. America has now attacked each pillar at the foundation of its hydrocarbon global order.” —
New: @katemac.bsky.social & I
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/bri...

In I’m Still Here, a Mother Refuses to Let a Dictatorship Rewrite Reality - Public Seminar Sonali Chakravarti reviews I'M STILL HERE, and discusses the importance of fighting for a full life under fascism.

My brilliant colleague and friend Sonali Chakravarti (who's not here) wrote about I'm Still Here. It's a lovely piece.
@publicseminar.bsky.social

publicseminar.org/2025/04/im-s...

Just as welfare states can be categorized by their various functions—how much they decommodify, how much they equalize, the source of provision, and whom they primarily benefit—green states can also be conceptualized and categorized by the roles they play and how those roles are structured.

How to think about the green state? "Just as the welfare state was a political response to protect the social body from the risks and fluctuations of market-based economic systems, green states are a political response to shield against the many changes and disruptions caused by climate change...

We argue that "fully addressing the transformative challenges brought up by climate change requires a fundamental rethinking of core PE concepts related to the state, distributional struggles, economic growth, varieties of capitalism, and markets."

Green Transitions: Rethinking Political Economy in the Context of Climate Change Although political economy (PE) has long engaged with environmental issues, climate change has remained at the margins of the field until very recently. This article argues that fully addressing the ....

Full special issue out today: Greening the Economy: Toward a New Political Economy: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/17485991...
See the open access article by GJ and yours truly: "Green Transitions: Rethinking Political Economy in the Context of Climate Change": onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

ABSTRACT Although political economy (PE) has long engaged with environmental issues, climate change has remained at the margins of the field until very recently. This article argues that fully addressing the transformative challenges brought up by climate change requires a fundamental rethinking of core PE concepts related to the state, distributional struggles, economic growth, varieties of capitalism, and markets. Rather than treating the state as a neutral regulator or market facilitator, we conceptualize the green state as actively structuring transitions through mitigation policies, adaptation strategies, and the governance of just transition conflicts. Green transitions generate new distributional conflicts—within and across countries, between incumbent and emerging industries, and among social groups with unequal exposure to climate risks and transition costs. Climate policy also challenges growth-centered economic models, raising questions about the viability of green growth versus degrowth strategies. Different varieties of capitalism are evolving in response, with distinct institutional pathways shaping the speed and character of transition efforts. Finally, we critique market-based approaches that assume price mechanisms alone can drive decarbonization, highlighting the role of non-economic values, institutional constraints, and distributional struggles in shaping green markets. By linking climate change to core debates in comparative and international political economy, we identify new research agendas for understanding the uneven and contested pathways of green transitions across economic systems. This article, along with the others in this special issue on Greening the Economy: Toward a New Political Economy, aims to bridge some of these critical gaps.

#Specialissue #Greentransitions #Politicaleconomy

'Green Transitions: Rethinking Political Economy in the Context of Climate Change'
by @basakkus.bsky.social & Gregory Jackson

See special issue introduction 👇

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Ah! I forgot about THIS amazing paper by @trgn.bsky.social and Luuk Schmitz. You want to know what the divestments and losses involved with decarbonization mean for the regulatory state? Make sure to read it!
@reggovjournal.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

Climate Politics in Latin America: The Cases of Chile and Mexico This paper focuses on climate coalitions and commitments in the Global South by comparing the cases of two Latin American countries, Chile and Mexico. Chile, once a laggard, emerged as a regional lea...

Isik Ozel on climate politics in Latin America: why is it that "Chile, once a laggard, emerged as a regional leader in climate policy in the early 2020s, while Mexico, a pioneer until the early 2010s, experienced a backlash and retreated"?
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

The Development of Carbon Markets in Upper‐Middle‐Income Countries Upper-middle-income economies face a specific set of trade-offs when reducing carbon emissions, which differ from the trade-offs faced in low- and high-income economies. To mobilize domestic funds, m...

Check out these two wonderful papers! It’s not just about carbon in the West—what’s happening in other regions of the world? Renato Lima de Oliveira and Pieter Stek on carbon markets in Brazil, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
@reggovjournal.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Climate Change and the Social Order Despite decades of awareness, societies have failed to adequately respond to climate change, as evidenced by rising CO2 emissions and the continued dominance of fossil fuels in global energy consumpt...

And Jens Beckert frames the climate crisis as a crisis of legitimation. He argues that the climate crisis and the politics of adaptation will be the defining issues in the coming decades, and social scientists must engage with these issues.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The Green Economy and the Global South The idea of a “green economy” is one of the latest attempts to bridge the environment and development aims, with a focus on economic growth that makes it appealing to countries that still see a signi...

Kathryn Hochstetler focuses on green economy and the Global South: Are the promises of the green economy credible in the conditions of the Global South? Will the green economy reach the poorest populations of the Global South?
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Political Economy and Climate Change The crisis of climate change threatens the existence of human civilization. As social scientists, we should be positioned to theorize and study whether or not the existing system of global capitalism...

Neil Fligstein offers a critical discussion of eco-Marxism and the varieties of capitalism perspectives in addressing the relationship between capitalism and climate change, presenting an agenda for a political economy of climate change.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

As part of our special issue on the political economy of climate change, Gregory Jackson and I invited essays from three senior scholars to discuss the issue from perspectives they believe need to be addressed: Jens Beckert, Kathryn Hochstetler, and Neil Fligstein.

@reggovjournal.bsky.social has arrived on Bsky. Hello hello!

Another paper out from our special issue on Greening the Economy. @joseatiles.bsky.social and David Whyte examine the role of "regulatory havens" in climate change by looking at fossil capital in the Caribbean. Read here: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

@fredericmerand.bsky.social and I tried to reach all of Neil's PhD students through the lists that were provided to us, but we worry that we may still have missed some. If this applies to you, our apologies! If you're interested in attending, please let us know!

Feel free to share!

In May, we will convene in Berkeley for a 2-day conference to honor Neil Fligstein, our retiring mentor, and discuss recent developments in economic sociology and political economy. Many thanks to Berkeley Economy and Society Initiative and the Dept of Sociology.
sites.google.com/berkeley.edu...

Here it is: scholar.harvard.edu/files/boniko...

It seems to me that the scholarship on the topic is still heavily focused on electoral politics and we don't know that much about how populism has penetrated into other political institutional spaces.

Reading @bartbonikowski.bsky.social "Three Lessons..." this morning in preparation for a discussion with my students this afternoon. I appreciate his argument that populism must be examined "in the full range of its empirical manifestations, not just in electoral politics..."

We cannot wait to hear about @julietschor.bsky.social's new research on companies implementing four-day work trials. I am especially excited to see how it connects to her earlier work, starting with The Overworked American, and her recent writing on climate change and degrowth.

This week in my class: Lebovic on Espionage Act, D.Stuart on the 1947 NSA, @lisastampnitzky.bsky.social on experts and terrorism, @davidcole-gtown.bsky.social Enemy Aliens, @nadiamarzouki.bsky.social -Islam:An American Religion, Ackerman-Before the Next Attack. Every single one of them, must read

Look look! @bycatherineegan.bsky.social has a new book out.

If these topics happen to be your cup of tea, I’d love for you to give them a read.

The New Right roots of Donald Trump and JD Vance’s conservative populism In the 2024 election, former President Donald Trump and Senator and Vice-Presidential nominee JD Vance have embraced a form of conservative populism focused on social and cultural issues. Basak Kus…

And another that traces the roots of contemporary conservative populism in the US back to the “New Right” movement in the 1960s: blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/20...

The Right Hand of the State and the American Left - Public Seminar The rift within the Democratic base stems not so much from disagreement over the left hand—which both sides support, albeit in varying ways and degrees—but over the excesses of the right hand.

Another one discussing how the "national securitization" of the state is creating a rift within the Democratic base between establishment liberals and the progressive Left: publicseminar.org/2024/05/the-...