Jack Head

Do they understand how mad they sound? As if anyone has ever decided to cross the Channel in a small boat because, if they make it, they might get to take a free taxi to a doctor's appointment?

"Pull factors" on steroids.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university? When Essex University’s Southend campus opened, it was a message of hope for a ‘left behind’ UK seaside town. Its closure will be felt far beyond its 800 students, some of whom will not get their degr...

Everything in this report reflects on what we value, for communities, for peripheral places, for young people, for education, for the future - and it looks like we’ve got it all wrong.

I have a plan 2 student loan plus postgrad - borrowed £55k, have paid back £7.5k, now owe £98k

I have a plan 2 student loan plus postgrad - borrowed £55k, have paid back £7.5k, now owe £98k

400 jobs at risk. A campus set to close.

This film explains what’s happening at the University of Essex and why staff, students and the local community are organising to stop it.

📍 Southend rally | 5 February

There is evil and then there is this

That Bentham line….good god

Opening page for the Royal Historical Society article 'Writing the History of Neoliberalism: A Comment'. Full abstract: This series of comments brings together four historians of neoliberalism, each of whom focuses on a different part of the world but whose work has implications that are transnational if not global. Quinn Slobodian reconstructs the rise of the category of neoliberalism among historians and identifies the different paths of inquiry it is generating. Priya Lal, offering an Africanist’s perspective, moves beyond the reduction of the neoliberal narrative of the continent to one of linear declension and abjection by way of structural adjustment to show continuities from the colonial era to early independence. Gary Gerstle, an Americanist by training, offers a macro take on the move from a Keynesian and social democratic order to a neoliberal one while insisting we attend to the diverse ways policies and elite neoliberal ideas are taken up by populations for whom promises of freedom may mean something different from what intellectuals intended. Finally, Tehila Sasson, a historian of modern Britain and the world, explores the left-wing features of what has come to be called neoliberalism, insisting we keep a keen eye out for unintended consequences and unlikely origins. Together, the comment offers a satellite’s eye view of a subfield reaching maturity."

'Writing the History of Neoliberalism: A Comment' bit.ly/3LKB8NF - new article in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society'.

With contributions from Quinn Slobodian, Priya Lal, Gary Gerstle & Tehila Sasson.

@quinnslobodian.com, @priyalalista.bsky.social @tsasson.bsky.social #Skystorians 1/2

Imagine being this brave!

It’s not as if they ever take very long to read though ? You can almost end up reading them by accident…

Health security—Why is ‘public health’ not enough? There is a growing tendency in global discourse to describe a health issue as a security issue. But why is this health security language and framing necessary during times of crisis? Why is the term “health security” used when perhaps simply saying ...

Looks like this article discusses the change, though not at length

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Very true! I’m sure a few cleverly crafted FOIs would yield interesting documents

Presumably someone has written about this in the context of establishment of UKHSA? If not, would be an interesting piece

Yes it is the job of politicians to do this? The pronouncements of states form a really important part of customary international law…(at least in theory! )

"international law must be followed" is european for "thoughts and prayers"

This is super interesting! Says a lot about what No10 / the PM would reasonably be keeping abreast of too vs needing to be informed/ reminded about

I always find these memorials at Postman’s Park unbearably moving. They make my eyes water every time. It’s a lovely idea, to commemorate ordinary people who do extraordinary things.

'Cornwall is beautiful, rather austere, but I think that if I am here long enough I shall paint good things,' so said Christopher Wood. This painting of St Ives is from 1926

We Reject the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence for Reflexive Qualitative Research - Tanisha Jowsey, Virginia Braun, Victoria Clarke, Deborah Lupton, Michelle Fine, 2025 Four hundred and nineteen experienced qualitative researchers from 32 countries invite readers of Qualitative Inquiry to consider their position on use of gener...

Now published…

We Reject the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence for Reflexive Qualitative Research - Tanisha Jowsey, Virginia Braun, Victoria Clarke, Deborah Lupton, Michelle Fine, 2025

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

This!!!

as a historian i have spent several hours going down rabbit holes to find an original 19th-century newspaper article rather than relying on a transcription or someone else's discussion of it and some folks cant be bothered to verify that the papers they cite are real, far less read them?? 😭

It was a very discombobulating experience this year to see someone (in a rebuttal to a review I had submitted for their paper) cite a paper by me, on a topic I publish in, in a journal I publish in, with coauthors I publish with, but which DIDN’T EXIST!
Stop this crap immediately.

@osaumarezsmith.bsky.social @municipaldreams.bsky.social - might be of interest

This would be a good starting point for anyone writing a history of the Barratt box!

Would make a great project

Christmas present: Centre for Cities’ thoughts on the new NPPF - Centre for Cities A new draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) has been published, this blog is a quick summary of our thoughts so far.

A new NPPF with lots @centreforcities.bsky.social is enthusiastic about.

Reforms on land near train stations and urban densities gladly make putting houses near jobs a priority. But we, as per, think more can be done.

Read our thoughts here: www.centreforcities.org/blog/christm...

Nice little explainer thread on why doctors are angry and many can’t find jobs, despite the NHS being in crisis

Sad to hear that John Carey has died - I first read The Intellectual and the Masses when I was a grossly precocious sixth form student…remember finding it so interesting and provocative then, and have done on subsequent readings!

An incredible critical voice

It's wild. We have so many real problems as a country, and instead a large chunk of our political class would rather hallucinate that one of the safest big global cities in the world is actually dangerous.

This destruction at Essex isn’t going to result in an improved learning or working environment. It will ossify research, it will diminish student learning environments, it will be catastrophic for working conditions.

Hard to see what the outcome will be aside from something not like a university.