Sombre news to start Wednesday with.
Living in temporary accommodation has contributed to the deaths of 104 children in England in the past six years, 76 of whom were under the age of one.
www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
⚠️ What risks and hazards do neurodivergent children living in temporary accommodation face? ⚠️
I'll be presenting these – and ways forward – at the Housing Studies Association conference this week. Come along on 11am weds Assembly Room if you are there!
#HSA2026
‘As I get ready for work, my eyes keep returning to the gas stove. I last ate yesterday afternoon, some lentils with chapatis. It has been more than a day. I am very hungry, but there is only enough gas left for four or five meals.’
www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...
Not just a London problem and there’s not one simple solution but maybe begin by refusing to accept that housing costs that price families out of housing are some sort of natural phenomenon
giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... What is a city without children?
We paying attention Labour?
Fantastic to see the @hackneygreenparty.bsky.social manifesto including one of our recommendations on taking a far less punitive approach to debt as a disqualifier in social housing allocations.
Manifesto: www.hackneygreens.org.uk/manifesto
Debt research: www.debt-trap-nation.org
As the crowdfunder for the first radical bookshop icon Newcastle for 40 years gets closer to the end I’m making the bold move of calling on all the academics I sort of vaguely know and also those I don’t to share the link for our crowdfunder: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/booksfromb...
Fantastic PhD studentship opportunity - Spitting Image: political satire in Britain in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Working across @exeter.ac.uk and @theul.bsky.social in partnership with the @camglamresearch.bsky.social and drawing on the Roger Law archive.
#PhDsky
Screenshot of the 2025 Area Prize-winner announcement: Madelaine Joyce (Royal Holloway University of London, UK) “Sensing the sky’s edge: Atmospheric insights into the Korean demilitarised zone” With this innovative article, Madelaine Joyce pushes cultural and political geographers to attend closely and creatively to both affective and material atmospheres. Taking the anticipation of an encounter with the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea as both prompt and problematic for rethinking borders across fog, radio signals, and no-go zones, Joyce’s article is a deserving Area Prize winner.
🏆Area Prize Announcement!🏆
This year's Area Prize for the best paper written by an ECR has been awarded to 𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐉𝐨𝐲𝐜𝐞 for her paper 'Sensing the sky's edge: Atmospheric insights into the Korean demilitarised zone' ⬇️
doi.org/10.1111/area...
@maddiejoyce.bsky.social @rhulgeography.bsky.social
In partnership with Financial Times for Schools, we regularly create free resources linked to articles on geographical topics 🌏
Explore two recent resources on global governance:
☀️ Conflict and energy: bit.ly/4s93oIN
🌊 Geopolitics of oceans: bit.ly/4v0iSS3
My son and I enjoyed listening driving to the Isle of Wight
It was really great! Congrats!
Want to learn about and act on the risks and hazards faced by neurodivergent children living in Temporary Accommodation?
Sign up for 28 April
ℹ️ We'll cover physical safety risks; sensory + environmental hazards; psychological + emotional risks; + safeguarding risks
www.avalonhousing.co.uk/shrt
🌑 Suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)? Interested in light generally?
🌞 I'd highly recommend listening to this episode of What's Up Docs with the van Tulleken brothers & @hesterparr.bsky.social
❤️ Loving the Drs' crush on human geography ❤️
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
I'm pleased to see The London Assembly's new report on social housing allocation recognise the urgent issues faced by families with neurodivergent children – issues our Sensory Lives Project with @sharedhealthgm.bsky.social raised with the Inquiry.
www.london.gov.uk/who-we-are/w...
A very timely piece in today’s Guardian, on attacks on lawyers, judges and the rule of law. Tomorrow in my presentation at the SLSA, I will be talking about the UK government’s framing of UK immigration lawyers and the threat it poses to the Rule of Law.
www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...
This is the situation we find ourselves in
It’s official: we cleaned up London’s air 184 years sooner than predicted.
The capital now meets legal limits for nitrogen dioxide air pollution. And you can feel the difference across our city.
🏙️ OUT TODAY. 🏙️
The London Assembly have published its inquiry “Barriers at Every Turn” – a devastating account of London’s social housing allocation system
Proud to have been a panellist, with many of our recommendations adopted on debt + equalities concerns.
www.london.gov.uk/who-we-are/w...
NEW: Extreme heat hits financially insecure Londoners hardest 🥵
☀️ Our latest study finds Londoners facing financial hardship during the final heatwave of 2025 were more than twice as likely to say they were severely affected by extreme temperatures than those that were financially secure
⬇️
Debt Trap Nation "sets an example for housing scholars...and is an essential read for anyone seeking to understand contemporary neoliberal societies through the lens of gender and housing"
Thanks @dollyloo.bsky.social for book review!
www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....
Screenshot of CNN piece about There Is No Place for Us: “There are people who say I do everything right — I work hard and pay my bills. Why should I care about people like Celeste and others who are homeless? What is so striking about the term, ‘the working homeless,’ is the ways it explodes myths about the American dream: The idea that if you just work hard enough, if you just clock enough hours, you … might not make it rich, but you’ll at least have a modicum of stability. You’ll at least be able to meet your most basic material needs. The term ‘working homeless’ immediately explodes that myth. What it says is the line separating the housed from the unhoused has become devastatingly porous in this country. The line between us and them is much thinner than we would like to believe.”
On the term "working homeless":
“It is clear that if housebuilding is left to the private sector, we will be denied the homes, amenities, workspaces and landscapes we deserve.” – build bloody council houses! Shape the market, don’t just depend on it! www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Cover of Predatory Welfare: Debt, Race, and Cash Transfers by Erin Torkelson. The cover features a Black person in an orange shirt holding a bright green debit card covering their card number with their finger. The bottom is a dark teal with the title, subtitle, and author all in a sans serif font. ‘Predatory’ is written in white and ‘welfare’ is written in bright green. The subtitle is in grey. The author’s name is in a yellow orange.
In "Predatory Welfare," @erintorkelson.bsky.social draws on seven years of ethnographic fieldwork to explore how South Africa’s direct cash transfer program has become a means of continued upward wealth redistribution despite promises otherwise. Read the intro for free now:
buff.ly/W0c94cY
This analysis from @zackpolanski.bsky.social is objectively true and everyone - especially those who have profited obscenely from rip-off Britain - knows it.
And this is why it'll be attacked by the plutocrat personnel in media and the entire Reform/Tory/Labour bloc.
The evidence is overwhelming: Brexit has been a disaster for London and the UK.
Rejoining the EU is now clearly in our national interest. The option to rejoin should be on the ballot at the next General Election.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
❤️ Geography
“In London, where child homelessness is highest, only a third of boroughs provide cots...That means many babies are sleeping in unsafe conditions purely because of their postcode.”
Freedom of Information research I undertook is behind this sobering piece.
www.insidehousing.co.uk/home/unsafe-...
