New Thinking: Is there a Chinese road to decarbonisation? w/ Chris Saltmarsh
Does China’s unique party-state capitalist political economy model hold the key for global climate transition? Can the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) translate its success in expanding green energy technology to the destruction of the fossil fuel industry? What does China’s idea of ecological civilisation offer that Western notions of green capitalism do not? How should activists in the West respond to the rise of China amid the climate crisis?Chris Saltmarsh is a postgraduate researcher at University of Sheffield and the executive producer of SPERI Presents… He joins Dr Remi Edwards to discuss his paper ‘The Chinese Road to Decarbonisation: Chinese Party-State Capitalism in the Political Economy of Fossil Energy Phase-Out’ recently published in Review of International Political Economy. They discuss the relationship between green energy build-out and fossil energy phase-out; the basis of China’s development in socialist revolution; whether China’s unique political economy affords it greater potentiality to phase-out fossil fuels; and both the practical challenges and theoretical implications of achieving such an undertaking.Publications discussed also include Cheek’s Xi Jinping’s Counter-Reformation: The Reassertion of Ideological Governance in Historical Perspective, Ban and Hasselbalch’s Green economic planning for rapid decarbonisation, Gabor and Braun’s Green macrofinancial regimes, Huber’s Theorizing the subterranean mode of production, and Malm’s Fossil Capital.'New Thinking in Political Economy' is a monthly podcast showcasing cutting-edge political economy research that helps us to understand the world around us.This episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Remi Edwards, Chris Saltmarsh, Frank Maracchione, Emma Mahoney, Dillon Wamsley and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Remi Edwards and Chris Saltmarsh. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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New Thinking: Why is labour governance failing racialised workers? w/ Natalie Langford
What is labour governance and why is it failing? How effective is civil society activism at improving labour conditions in global value chains? What does the Indian tea industry tell us about the consequences of colonialism and globalisation for racialised workers? What role did the collapse of the USSR play in creating our contemporary situation?Dr Natalie Langford is Lecturer in Sustainability at University of Sheffield. She joins Dr Remi Edwards to discuss her paper 'The limits of labor governance in global value chains: exclusions, ‘edge’ populations and civil society activism in unstable labor regimes' recently published in Review of International Political Economy. They consider how workers in the Indian tea industry experience extreme precarity and starvation deaths; the role of local trade unions, NGOs, governments and corporations in improving labour conditions in global supply chains; and challenges arising from the racialisation of workers through colonialism and globalisation.Publications discussed also include Bair and Werner's Commodity Chains and the Uneven Development of Global Capitalism (2011) and Bhattacharyya's Rethinking Racial Capitalism (2017).'New Thinking in Political Economy' is a monthly podcast showcasing cutting-edge political economy research that helps us to understand the world around us.This episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Remi Edwards, Chris Saltmarsh, Frank Maracchione, Emma Mahoney, Dillon Wamsley and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Remi Edwards and Chris Saltmarsh. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Live: Is organised violence central to capitalism? @ BISA 2025
How are technologies used by militaries to enact organised violence produced? How are post-industrial regions of the UK becoming dependent on the supply chains of the global war industry? What narratives enable organised violence perpetrated by elites, and how are they resisted? What is the role of everyday tedium and mundanity in producing such violence?Dr Joanna Tidy is a Senior Lecturer in Politics at University of Sheffield. Dr Beryl Pong is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the Centre for the Future of Intelligence, University of Cambridge. Dr Frank Maracchione is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at University of Kent. Dr Elena Simon is a doctoral alumnus of the University of Sheffield. Vicki Reif-Breitwieser is a postgraduate researcher at University of Sheffield and co-convenor of the SPERI Doctoral Researchers Network.They join Dr Remi Edwards to discuss the political economy of organised violence enacted by, between and within states. They consider the relationship between ruling elites' violence and capitalist economies; how violence is produced by particular ways of knowing; the boundary (or lack thereof) between the civil and the military; the everyday as an important site where violence is made and contested in the global political economy; and how novel forms of data collection can help us more effectively study organised violence.This SPERI Presents... episode is a live recording of the roundtable "Towards a Political Economy of organised violence: war, technologies, labour, and (re)production" at BISA 2025 conference. It took place in Belfast on Wednesday 18 June 2025.This episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Remi Edwards, Chris Saltmarsh, Frank Maracchione, Emma Mahoney, Dillon Wamsley and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Remi Edwards and Chris Saltmarsh. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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New Thinking: How does India's agrarian crisis harm women workers? w/ Shreya Sinha
The crisis of India's agrarian sector has been widely reported amid spates of farmer suicides and mass protest as incomes decline and indebtedness rises in response to falling productivity. What are the underlying causes of this persist crisis in India's agriculture? Is it right that we understand these phenomenon as 'crisis'? Who are the winners and losers? In particular, how are women workers disproportionately affected by the current upheavals?Dr Shreya Sinha is Senior Lecturer in Business and Society at Queen Mary, University of London. She joins Dr Remi Edwards to discuss her paper 'Shifting agrarian labour regimes, ecology, and the crisis for Dalit women’s work in India' (2024) recently published in the Journal of Economic Geography. They consider what makes the conditions of Indian agriculture a 'crisis', social reproduction and the crisis' effects on women workers, the relationship between ecology and labour, and how political ecology and political economy can help make sense of the situation.'New Thinking in Political Economy' is a monthly podcast showcasing cutting-edge political economy research that helps us to understand the world around us.This episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Remi Edwards, Chris Saltmarsh, Frank Maracchione, Emma Mahoney, Dillon Wamsley and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Remi Edwards and Chris Saltmarsh. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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New Thinking: Technocapitalism w/ Sami Moisio and Ugo Rossi
How have states evolved in tandem with the spread of techno-monopoly? Why do states and cities increasingly behave like startups? Is social polarisation a product of the startup economy or is it a necessary precondition? Sami Moisio is Professor of Spatial Planning and Policy in the Department of Geosciences and Geography at the University of Helsinki. Ugo Rossi is Professor of Economic and Political Geography at the Gran Sasso Science Institute University. Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Knowledge Governance at University of Sheffield and Director of the Urban Institute.They join Dr Remi Edwards to discuss Sami and Ugo's new book The Urban Field: Capital and Governmentality in the Age of Techno-Monopoly. They consider the relationship between the urban field and techno-capitalism, inequalities between the creative class and casual workers in the knowledge economy, and the relationship between the startup economy and cities. 'New Thinking in Political Economy' is a monthly podcast showcasing cutting-edge political economy research that helps us to understand the world around us.This episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Remi Edwards, Chris Saltmarsh, Frank Maracchione, Emma Mahoney, Dillon Wamsley and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Remi Edwards and Chris Saltmarsh. Music and audio by Andy_Gambino. Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
'SPERI Presents…' is a podcast taking on the big questions in political economy for scholars, students and publics within and beyond the discipline.We also host 'New Thinking in Political Economy', an ongoing series with monthly episodes. Dr Remi Edwards is joined by authors of new research to explore the motivations behind, contributions and implications of their work for understanding power and politics in the global economy.The first limited series was 'Lessons in Power'. Professor Michael Jacobs and Mems Ayinla interview ministers and advisors from the New Labour administration (1997-2010) to tease out lessons on a range of issues for Keir Starmer’s newly formed Labour government.Coming soon: Crisis Point hosted by Chris Saltmarsh and Dr Dillon Wamsley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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