Antoine Paccoud

Why is enjoyment so difficult for some people? Why the need for circumvoluted expressions of cruelty, the artificial reterritorializations of D&G? Can’t they just leave people be?

Nothing is in fact more alien to the sadist than the wish to convince, to persuade […] He is interested in something quite different, namely to demonstrate that reasoning itself is a form of violence, and that he is on the side of violence, however calm and logical he may be.

Coldness & Cruelty

The more the system blows out of steam, the more its raw sadism is exposed.

Turn the libidinal in libidinal economy to its maximum, in the hope all else is forgotten.

Perversion as policy.

Perversion.

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

New in Urban Studies: urban change needs analyzing class AND housing tenure together. Coulter & Paccoud offer five "ideal types" showing how different class-tenure groups drive local change. From "molar" citywide patterns to "molecular" local intersections.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

« l’étude sincère purifie tout, comme le feu »

« l’étude d’un cas curieux de physiologie »

« chercher en eux la bête, ne voir que la bête, les jeter dans un drame violent, et noter scrupuleusement les sensations et les actes de ces êtres »

Zola, préface à Thérèse Raquin, 1868

Housing is central to the social dynamics of cities. However, many recent citywide analyses of social change have largely set aside housing to concentrate on shifts in income and occupational class structure. In this paper, we argue that examining the intersections of class with tenure provides a richer framework for making sense of patterns and processes of urban social change. Using data from the 2011 and 2021 Censuses, we examine (1) how the intersecting occupational class and housing tenure position of households in London has changed over the decade before (2) analysing the shifting locational and tenure positions of middle- and working-class households in the capital. The results show that ‘leasing space’ through the private rented sector is a key dynamic enabling the continued gentrification of Inner London boroughs. The apparent persistence of working-class London meanwhile masks disadvantageous changes in the residential position of working-class households, as declines in working-class homeownership and social housing have been offset by the growth of working-class private renting in the northern and western suburbs. These restructuring trends have major implications for social inequalities of wealth, residential security and access to opportunities.

New open access paper with Rory Coulter

Leasing space through the private rented sector: The intersections of class and tenure change in London, 2011–2021

doi.org/10.1177/0042...

The distribution of populations in cities is increasingly tied to the strategies of property investors and developers

could be of interest @markushesse60.bsky.social @justinkadi.bsky.social @aftp.bsky.social @tiago-flores.bsky.social @timwhite100.bsky.social @econgeo.bsky.social @goodfellowtom.bsky.social @adamcalo.bsky.social @felixanderl.bsky.social

Organised by @sila-demirors.bsky.social @hadoose.bsky.social @kiragk.bsky.social @hannahsender.bsky.social @callumny.bsky.social, Edward Shepherd, Chris Foye, Laure Casanova Enault & Michael Goldman

In this mini-conference, we are seeking to have a critical debate about land struggles over sovereignty, resources and means of survival. We are inviting folks to submit abstracts (no more than 1000 words) which raise land as the main object of analysis of power in a ‘post-globalisation order’. By seeking to re-centre the Land Question in contemporary socio and political economic debate and scholarship, we aim to illuminate how land and the power it confers shape institutions, create and mediate conflicts, and determine possibilities for both domination and resistance in an era marked by ecological crisis and geopolitical realignment. We are particularly interested in hearing about research which speaks to one of our key themes: 1. Land conflicts and new imperialisms 2. Extractivism and resource conflicts 3. Digital infrastructure and the material internet 4. Institutions and power in the regulation of land 5. Consequences of urban and rural land concentration 6. Land rent and heterodox economics

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf my co-organisers, I am writing to invite abstract submissions for the ‘Re-centring land conflicts in the post-globalisation order’ mini-conference (MC11) as part of the SASE 2026 Conference in Bordeaux (1-3 July).

sase.org/events/2026-...

Deadline: December 16th

YouTube video by Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) Society in Motion | Breaking the Deadlock: Evidence and Collaboration for Housing Reform | LISER

🎥 Breaking the Deadlock: Evidence and Collaboration for Housing Reform, featuring:

Michel-Edouard Ruben (Fondation Idea)
Ketty Dorla (IKO Real Estate)
Antoine Paccoud (LISER)
Paulette Lenert (Member of Parliament)
Luc Biever (Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning)

▶️https://youtu.be/V4QGqgZtFHk

👏 Congrats to Dr. Madalina MEZAROS who successfully defended her PhD thesis "Property, Policy, & Place: #Housing #Inequality & #Gentrification Dynamics in #Luxembourg"

👩‍🎓 @madalinamez.bsky.social was awarded a #PhD degree in #Geography from @uni.lu

🙏 Kudos to supervisor @douccap.bsky.social & jury!

📢 Upcoming Seminar at LISER
Join us on 16 October 2025 for an engaging seminar with Prof. Dr. Desiree Fields (UC Berkeley).

📍 Location: LISER, Maison des Sciences Humaines, Belval
🗓️ Date & Time: 16 October 2025, 11:00 – 12:30

🔗 Learn more & register here: www.liser.lu/events/RSSUD...

Leerstand in der Hauptstadt: Lydie Polfer auf Konfrontationskurs - Reporter.lu Lydie Polfer lehnt ein Gebäuderegister für die Hauptstadt ab. Damit stößt die DP-Politikerin nicht nur ihren Parteikollegen Claude Meisch vor den Kopf. Ihre Haltung torpediert die Regierungspläne zur ...

Lydie Polfer lehnt ein Gebäuderegister für die Hauptstadt ab. Damit stößt die DP-Politikerin nicht nur ihren Parteikollegen Claude Meisch vor den Kopf. Ihre Haltung torpediert die Regierungspläne zur Einführung einer Leerstandsteuer – und könnte noch andere Folgen haben.

Sadism as a slogan

Not sure the sadism is performative!

Perverse practices are constructed and repeated so as to give back to the Other (America) that which it is thought to be missing, the object a at the heart of the subject (greatness). A double imaginary move to legitimise cruelty and the pleasure it provides.

Sadism, the perverse subjective structure that is an essential infrastructure to the maintenance and legitimation of capitalist domination:

…I don’t care about ameliorating my own wellbeing as long as ‘the others’ get only what they ‘deserve’…

Anyone up for some fieldwork to see if these 146 properties are still vacant?

Un peu de travail de terrain pour voir si ces 146 biens sont toujours inoccupés ?

leerstandsmelder.de/region/luxem...

Anyone up for some fieldwork to see if these 146 properties are still vacant?

Un peu de travail de terrain pour voir si ces 146 biens sont toujours inoccupés ?

leerstandsmelder.de/region/luxem...

…

I'm glad people are starting to use the word 'sadism'.

because that is what this is.

📣 BOOK "The Political Economy of Housing: The Case of Turkey" authored by LISER researcher @sila-demirors.bsky.social

ℹ️ Prof. Demirörs explores the analytical & historical process of how #housing, becomes an instrument of speculative finance to feed itself.

🔗 brill.com/display/titl...

1/3

The political economy of housing: the case of Turkey Published in International Journal of Housing Policy (Vol. 25, No. 3, 2025)

🔎 Discover a NEW book review forum in the summer issue of IJHP

📘 Review by Prof. Zacarés @harveymurenow.bsky.social :
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

📘 Review by Prof. Berry:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

💡 Prof. Demirörs' response: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

2/3

Lovely day in Luxembourg then Dudelange then across border into France today with @douccap.bsky.social & @madalinamez.bsky.social learnt so much 😊

There is a kind of mysticism in perversion: the greater the renunciation, the greater and the more secure the gains […] pleasure ceases to motivate the will and is abjured, disavowed, "renounced," the better to be recovered as a reward or consequence, and as a law.

It has itself become an idea or ideal. Pleasure is now a form of behavior related to repetition, accompanying and following repetition, which has itself become an awesome, independent force.

Beneath the sound and fury of sadism and masochism the terrible force of repetition is at work […] Instead of repetition being governed by the idea of experiencing or reexperiencing pleasure, repetition runs wild and becomes independent of all previous pleasure.

C’est comme dans une théologie noire où le plaisir cesse d’être le motif de la volonté, est essentiellement abjuré, dénié, « renoncé », mais pour mieux être retrouvé comme récompense ou résultat, et comme loi.

Deleuze, Sacher Masoch

Et c’est le plaisir qui est devenu conduite à l’égard de la répétition, c’est lui qui accompagne et suit maintenant la répétition comme terrible puissance indépendante […] Il y a un mysticisme du pervers : le pervers retrouve d’autant plus et d’autant mieux, qu’il a plus abandonné.

Sous les tam-tams sadique et masochiste, il y a bien la répétition comme puissance terrible […] Au lieu que la répétition soit commandée par l’idée d’un plaisir à retrouver ou à obtenir, voilà que la répétition se déchaîne, est devenue indépendante de tout plaisir préalable.