Prof Katherine Brickell

Want to reduce the costs of temporary accommodation? Then get to grips with male violence Long-seeded failures to invest enough in domestic abuse prevention are playing out poorly for local authorities and dangerously for survivors themselves, write Katherine Brickell and Mel Nowicki

"Want to reduce the costs of temporary accommodation? Then get to grips with male violence".

Check out our OpEd in Inside Housing:

www.insidehousing.co.uk/comment/want...

LSE Geography & Environment is recruiting: Assistant Professor and Associate Professor in Urban Planning.

Expertise in sustainable cities, planning regulation, or planning law is especially welcome.

For more info, pls visit here 👉 jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

#LSE #UrbanPlanning #AcademicJobs

Published today on #WorldHomelessDay: my book Debt Trap Nation – a deep dive into how government policy is driving families into homelessness & debt.

All royalties to @seacharity.bsky.social 💜

Families aren't failing. They're being failed.

📖 www.agendapub.com/page/detail/...

#DebtTrapNation

Phillipson presses Starmer and Reeves to abolish two-child benefit cap in full Exclusive: education secretary tells the Guardian scrapping limit entirely in November’s budget most cost-effective way to tackle child poverty Bridget Phillipson is pushing the prime minister and chancellor to scrap the two-child benefit cap entirely in next month’s budget, with the education secretary telling the Guardian the evidence is clear that it needs to be removed. Phillipson, who is finalising a report to Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves on child poverty, said abolishing the cap was the most cost effective way to make lives better for young disadvantaged people. Continue reading...

Phillipson presses Starmer and Reeves to abolish two-child benefit cap in full

An interviewer asked me about America's "cost of living crisis," and I was struck again by how casually we've let such profoundly nightmarish phrases slip into our everyday lexicon.

‘Fear and hopelessness’: study finds one in four professors consider leaving US south Survey by American Association of Professors shows nearly quarter of respondents are switching due to states’s politics

Discussing this phenomenon w/ a group of profs. Someone morbidly joked, “& northern profs are fleeing the country.” The next person said…”even if we were all willing & able to abandon this place there are not enough jobs for us globally and the U.S. employs a huge # of international scholars too.”

'Abject failure' as UK's homeless deaths rise - including children The government's homelessness minister, Alison McGovern MP, has described the increased number of deaths as an "abject failure that cannot be tolerated".

We cannot accept this.

news.sky.com/story/abject...

It felt a career highlight to meet Liz Davies KC from @gardencourtlaw.bsky.social to discuss the legal implications of my research on domestic abuse, rent arrears, and housing allocations.

Together with @cihhousing.bsky.social we are drafting a best practice guide for local authorities + HAs.

This is appalling. It seems the parish council made a mistake, and some adults complained. And it's children and young people who lose out, with plans for a new play space pushed into next year at least.

It's the sound of children playing, FFS.

‘Ultra-volatile’ enrolments cause ‘turbulence’ in student housing Developers fear ‘glory days’ of non-stop building over as some areas face over-supply problems while city centre overcrowding intensifies

I'm cited in here about the role of upscale student accommodation in the crisis of housing affordability in our major cities www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ultra-v... #housing #gentrification www.nospacelikehome.study

Carpet poverty: 'I cried when I saw our new home had bare floors' Kassie lives in social housing, where landlords do not have to provide flooring in the bedrooms.

Carpet poverty: 'I cried when I saw our new home had bare and uneven floorboards'

And as my research shows, debt also 'greets' tenants moving in social housing given the costs of flooring
www.debt-trap-nation.org/book

Put flooring in The Decent Home Standard!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This year's Claire Dwyer lecture @uclgeography.bsky.social is with Dr Shabna Begum (@runnymedetrust.bsky.social) – reflecting on the 60th anniversary of the Race Relations Act of 1965

Tuesday 25 Nov, tickets below

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-2025-c...

Photo of a pile of books. The books are 'Debt Trap Nation' by Katherine Brickell and Mel Nowicki. Cover image features a woman and small child in a deep concrete basin or pit with no way of climbing out as the ladder is too short.

“A chilling and eye-opening exposé... gives voice to those living at the sharpest edge of austerity and makes an irrefutable case for change.”

@graceblakeley.substack.com on 'Debt Trap Nation' by
@kbrickell.bsky.social & Mel Nowicki (out next week).

uk.bookshop.org/p/books/debt...

#housing #debt

The Homeless We Don’t See | Jay Neugeboren As housing costs have risen and affordable housing remains in short supply, even Americans with full-time job are experiencing homelessness.

Truly moved and thankful for this remarkably generous, in-depth review in @nybooks.com.

"The great virtue of There Is No Place for Us is its refusal to look away from the disheartening reality it depicts, or from the depth and pervasiveness of the problem and the pain it causes people."

📣 I'M HIRING! Please spread the word 📣

🔎 Looking for a 1-year postdoctoral research associate to support @sensory-lives-prj.bsky.social & UK-wide tour of a playhouse tent communicating neurodivergent children’s experiences of Temporary Accommodation.

🛜 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOL488/p...

A graphic showing the title page of Transactions on a read background with TIBG in large letters on the right hand page. On the left hand page are eight tiles with 2 interventions and 6 standard articles, with the names of papers in the issue. 1) 'On limit and love in times of environmental crises' by Ihnji Jon 2) 'Geographies of creativity/creative geographies' by Pat Noxolo 3) '‘My body was no longer a problem’: Electric mountain biking, disability, and the cultural politics of green exercise' by Jim Cherrington & James Brighton 4) '‘A wonderful day and a wonderful crossing!’: Internment (im)mobilities, ambivalence, and the residual tourist gaze in Second World War Britain' by Michael Holden & Peter Adey 5) '‘Smartness’ narratives: A critical discourse analysis of smart eldercare in urban China' by Yi Yu 6) 'Critique beyond relation: The stakes of working with the negative, the void and the abyss' by David Chandler & Jonathan Pugh 7) 'Poetics in the work of three urban photographers: Love for the chaotic city from the site of urban rooftops' by Paulina Nordstrom 8) 'Places as refrains: A non-constructive alternative to assemblage thinking' by Peter Merriman

A graphic showing the title page of Transactions on a read background with TIBG in large letters on the right hand page. On the left hand page are nine tiles with standard articles, with the names of papers in the issue. 1) Climate change, bodies and diplomacy: Performing watery futures in Tuvalu Liam Saddington 2) Digital animal deathscapes: The online circulation of animals killed for conservation Alexandra Palmer 3) The medium is the message: The geographies of cryptocurrency remittances to Venezuela Daniel Robins 4) ‘One school, two systems’: Navigating the geographies of alternative education in an elite primary school in China Zhenjie Yuan, Huiyu Xie, Hong Zhu 5) Translating India to India: Travelling translations, Patanjali Ayurveda, and the visual language of spiritual consumerism Raksha Pande, Alastair Bonnett 6) Urban political ecologies of sewage surveillance: Creating vital and valuable public health data from wastewater 7) Constructive (in)visibility and the trafficking industrial complex: Leveraging borders for exploitation Audrey Lumley-Sapanski, Katarina Schwarz 8) Translations, translocations, and pluralism: A transnational and multilingual analysis of the circulation of radical geographical knowledge Federico Ferretti 9) From biopower to affirmative biopolitics: A (bio)political ecology of becoming with wolves Valerio Donfrancesco, Chris Sandbrook

A graphic showing the title page of Transactions on a read background with TIBG in large letters on the right hand page. On the left hand page are eight tiles with 6 standard articles and 2 commentaries, with the names of papers in the issue. 1) Mining an Anthropocene in Japan: On the making and work of geological imaginaries Deborah P. Dixon, Carina J. Fearnley, Mark Pendleton 2) Uneven ambient futures: Intersecting heat and housing trajectories in England and Wales Caitlin Robinson, Lenka Hasova, Lin Zhang 3) Examining the ‘gendered’ places and spaces of UK doctoral education using multilevel modelling Laura Harriet Sheppard, Jonathan Reades, Richard P. J. Freeman 4) The (non-)performance of the financial frontier: Building investment pipelines for the Sustainable Development Goals in Ghana Abbie Yunita 5) Thinking through an ethnography of infrastructure: Commonsensical reasoning, road sharing, and everyday infrastructural settlements Alan Latham, Russell Hitchings, Michael Nattrass 6) (Re)wilding London: Fabric, politics, and aesthetics Jonathon Turnbull, Tom Fry, Jamie Lorimer 7) Resilient education: The role of digital technology in supporting geographical education in Ukraine Simon M. Hutchinson, Elizabeth R. Hurrell, Kateryna Borysenko, Vladyslav Popov, Dariia Kholiavchuk, Yana Popiuk 8) Imagining post-war futures amid cycles of destruction and efforts of reconstruction Constance Carr, Olga Kryvets

📢New issue of TIBG📢

Transactions' September Issue features two interventions on environmental crisis & geographies of creativity, 21 papers, and two commentaries on the war in Ukraine.

22/25 pieces are #OpenAccess and available to read here⬇️

rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14755661...

Congratulations to former Leverhulme Early Career Fellows Eleanor Barraclough and Hannah Durkin for being shortlisted for the UK’s most prestigious history writing prize – #WolfsonHistoryPrize 2025!

A book cover for Julian Brigstocke's forthcoming book 'Non-Authoritarian Authority: Cities, Materially and the Aesthetics of Power' published by LSE Press and the RGS-IBG, with a black and white aerial photograph of a large crowd in the background.

A book cover for Laurie Parson's forthcoming book 'Climate Hegemony: Confronting the Politics of Environmental Impasse' published by LSE Press and the RGS-IBG, with a black and white photograph of three people riding on a scooter above a body of water filled with litter.

Pleased to share the first two RGS-IBG Book Series titles to be published fully open access with @lsepress.bsky.social, available early 2026...

@laurieparsons.bsky.social
@jbrigstocke.bsky.social

press.lse.ac.uk/books/coming...

Top cop warns of 'distraction' from threat facing women — Sky News Helen Millichap told Sky News that the

Rape crisis centres are closing due to lack of funds. Violent misogyny is skyrocketing online and off. But gender based violence is only weaponized against migrants and trans women, never tackled and taken seriously in its own right. apple.news/AjjROSc0kSGS...

Building More Won't Fix the Housing Crisis Housing has become a financial asset that generates vast gains for the wealthy.

"Ending the housing crisis requires attacking one of the foundations of neoliberal capitalism: the idea that we are all little, budding capitalists just waiting for the opportunity to invest in financial markets."

graceblakeley.substack.com/p/building-m...

Graphic that reads ‘The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and The British Academy Knowledge Frontiers Symposium’

Applications for the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and The British Academy Knowledge Frontiers Symposium 2026 are now open. The application deadline is 29 October. Find out more: https://bit.ly/4nyWsmv

Stop blaming migrants and tackle UK’s real problems, 100 charities tell home secretary A letter warns Shabana Mahmood that ‘targeting refugees will do nothing to tackle’ problems with housing and the NHS More than 100 charities have sent a letter to the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, calling for an end to the “scapegoating of migrants”. The letter, sent before her speech at the Labour party conference in Liverpool on Monday afternoon, was coordinated by Refugee Action and signed by 105 organisations from a wide range of sectors – including Save the Children, Mind, Oxfam, Shelter, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, as well as dozens of migrant and anti-racism charities. It has also been signed by the PCS union, which represents Border Force workers. Continue reading...

Stop blaming migrants and tackle UK’s real problems, 100 charities tell home secretary

Children left short of clean water and sleep amid ‘prolonged’ detention by Ice, watchdog groups allege Legal experts speak of ‘cruel’ and harmful deprivations for families held in Texas immigration facility

Children left short of clean water and sleep amid ‘prolonged’ detention by Ice, watchdog groups allege

Legal experts speak of ‘cruel’ and harmful deprivations for families held in Texas immigration facility

When and Where Is Home? | Adam Thirlwell The South Korean artist Do Ho Suh’s replicas of places he has lived are extraordinary feats of magical engineering.

Do Ho Suh is “best known for making replicas of places he has lived: architectural spaces in fabric or paper that are extraordinary feats of magical engineering.” —Adam Thirlwell

Labour is pitching the New Towns announcement today as a return to the "transformative post-war housing boom under Clement Attlee".

Actually it looks much more like housing policy under Blair, or even Thatcher and Boris Johnson (thread)

Debt Strike! Abolish Corporate Landlords & Build Tenant Power The rent is too damn high — and corporate landlords are to blame! Join the Debt Collective as we make a huge announcement: we’re launching a national Back-Rent Debt Strike against the fifth largest…

On Oct 1, @debtcollective.bsky.social is taking on one of the country's biggest landlords by launching:

⚡ Debt Strike: Brave individuals who owe back-rent will collectively refuse to pay.

⚡ A new tool for renters to fight debt + junk fees

Debtors are organizing. RSVP: bit.ly/DebtStrike2025

Final call to get your applications in! If you are interested in doing a postdoc in #urbanecology. A multi-city project across three Canadian cities; Vancouver, Montréal, and Québec
@ffgg-ulaval.bsky.social
@cef-cfr.bsky.social
See details below ⬇️

Homesick: how housing broke London and how to fix it My new book is out today! Here is an extract of the introduction.

When I was born, you could buy a house in east London with a modest, irregular income.

Now, it costs £1,000 a month to rent a room in one on the same street.

What on earth happened? My new book Homesick is out today - read an extract here:

peteapps.substack.com/p/homesick-h...

A blue tile with a quote from the editorial introduction to the 'Legacies of Austerity' Special Section by S. van Lanen & S.M. Hall (2025): "As political discourse transforms and the period of fierce austerity implementation moves into history, we believe critical geographers should remain attentive to its traces in everyday practices, policy realities and material conditions. To imagine alternative futures, austerity's legacies should not be forgotten".

A blue tile sharing the titles of 8 open access papers within the 'Legacies of Austerity' Special Section: 1) 'Legacies of Austerity: Editorial Introduction' by Sander van Lanen & Sarah Marie Hall 2) 'Family Hubs and the vulnerable care ecologies of child and family welfare in austerity' by Tom Disney et al. 3) 'Relational legacies and relative experiences: Austerity, inequality and access to special educational needs and disability (SEND) support in London, England' by Rosalie Warnock 4) 'Lived experiences of utilities-based indebtedness in Greece: Tracing the afterlives of austerity' by Aliki Koutlou 5) 'Grassroots temporary urbanism as a challenge to the city of austerity? Lessons from a self-organised park in Thessaloniki, Greece' by Matina Kapsali 6) 'De-municipalisation? Legacies of austerity for England's urban parks' by Andrew Smith et al. 7) 'Austerity's afterlives? The case of community asset transfer in the UK' by Neil Turnbull 8) 'Austere futures: From hardship to hope?' by Julie MacLeavy

Special Section in The GJ:

'Legacies of Austerity', edited by @smhall.bsky.social & @sanvanlan.bsky.social

This #OpenAccess collection explores how the lens of legacies can be applied to understand austerity's effects in Europe. Available here⬇️

rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1...