SPERI Presents...

SPERI

'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.

  1. Ground Level: Food and War w/ Nadine Bahour

    1 DAY AGO

    Ground Level: Food and War w/ Nadine Bahour

    Everyday life is often described as common, usual, uneventful, slow, and mundane, yet it can easily become unpredictable, anxious, and traumatic. This episode explores contexts in which war and political violence closely interact with everyday life.  To discuss the everyday political economy of state-mandated violence, we focus on survival. Where critical political economy frames survival as part of everyday resistance connected to labour agency, we move to discuss the political economy of actual survival as represented by gathering food when supply chains become instruments for violence and repression.  We discuss the political economy of survival by exploring the sources of food insecurity in Palestine and the food-related abuses employed by the Israeli state, first as part of its colonial project and after October 2023 as part of the genocide of the Palestinian people.  Concepts discussed: survival, social reproduction, genocide, violence, resistance, starvation, humanitarianism.  Hosts: Dr Frank Maracchione, SOAS University of London. Gwilym Evans, University of Sheffield. Speakers: Nadine Bahour is the Research Program Coordinator for the Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. Nadine is originally from Ramallah, Palestine, and her work studies the impact of settler colonialism on healthcare access and quality.  Material discussed in the episode:  Bahour, N., Anabtawi, O., Muhareb, R., Wispelwey, B., Asi, Y., Hammoudeh, W., Bassett, M. T., Mills, D., & Tanous, O. (2025). Food insecurity, starvation and malnutrition in the Gaza Strip. Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, 31(4), 281–284. https://doi.org/10.26719/2025.31.4.281 Gisha. (2012). Reader: "Food Consumption in the Gaza Strip - Red Lines". Gisha - Legal Centre for Freedom of Movement. https://www.gisha.org/UserFiles/File/publications/redlines/redlines-position-paper-eng.pdf  Ross, A. (2021). Stone Men: The Palestinians Who Built Israel. Verso Books. Further readings:  Abusalim, J., Bing, J. and M. Marryman-Lotze. (2022). Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire. Chicago: Haymarket Books.  Devereux, S. (2024). Was There a Famine in Gaza in 2024? IDS Working Paper 613. Brighton: Institute of Development Studies. https://doi.org/10.19088/IDS.2024.042.  El Masri, Y. (2024). 12: Food-Making in the Sisterhoods of Bourj Albarajenah Refugee Camp: Towards Radical Food Geographies of Displacement. In: Hammelman, C., Levkoe, C.Z. and Kristin Reynolds. (Eds). Radical Food Geographies. Bristol University Press. https://doi.org/10.51952/9781529233445.ch012 IPC - Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. (2025). GAZA STRIP: Famine confirmed in Gaza Governorate, projected to expand | 1 July – 30 September 2025. 22 August. https://www.ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ipcinfo/docs/IPC_Gaza_Strip_Acute_Food_Insecurity_Malnutrition_July_Sept2025_Special_Snapshot.pdf  Nimer, F. (2024). Food Sovereignty in a Palestinian Economy of Resistance. Al-Shabaka’s Palestine, 27 August. https://al-shabaka.org/briefs/food-sovereignty-in-a-palestinian-economy-of-resistance/  Pearce, F. (2025). As War Halts, the Environmental Devastation in Gaza Runs Deep. Yale Environment 360, 6 February. https://e360.yale.edu/features/gaza-war-environment  Roy, S. (2023). The Long War on Gaza. The New York Review of Books, 19 December. https://www.nybooks.com/online/2023/12/19/the-long-war-on-gaza/  Seidel, T. (2021). Settler Colonialism and Land-Based Struggle in Palestine: Toward a Decolonial Political Economy. In: Tartir, A., Dana, T., Seidel, T. (eds) Political Economy of Palestine. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68643-7_4 This episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Chris Saltmarsh, Josh White, Frank Maracchione, and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Frank Maracchione with support from 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.

    38 min
  2. Ground Level: Ageing and Care w/ Yingzi Shen

    4 DAYS AGO

    Ground Level: Ageing and Care w/ Yingzi Shen

    Supporting the most vulnerable, including children and the elderly, is one of the main forms of caring labour for social reproduction. The moral and economic choices individuals and families make every day when dealing with children, as well as old age, have broad implications for the global political economy of care.  These decisions unfold within a context where populations in wealthy economies are ageing, while birth rates are rising in many postcolonial societies. This demographic divergence contributes to the (re)production and entrenchment of gendered and racialised hierarchies.  Yet, children and the elderly are not only passive subjects or caring. They often become active carers and central agents of social reproduction labour. Today’s episode will centre on this more agential role of vulnerable populations by exploring the contribution of grandparents’ caring role to the formal labour economy.  Concepts discussed: social reproduction, care labour, urban/rural divide.  Hosted by: Dr Frank Maracchione, SOAS University of London.  Speakers: Dr Yingzi Shen recently completed her PhD at the School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations, University of Sheffield. Her PhD research looked at the intergenerational cooperation in childcare in rural-to-urban migrant families in China and how it is affected by rural migrants' limited access to welfare and social inequalities. Her research interests lie broadly in the nexus between care and migration, as well as ageing, family studies, and rural-urban inequalities.  Reading list:  Chan, K. W., Cai, F., Wan, G., & Wang, M. (2019) Urbanization with Chinese characteristics: the Hukou system and migration. London: Routledge.  Liang, J., Huang, W., & He, Y. (2024) Report on the cost of shengyu in China 2024. Yuwa Population Research. Available at: https://www.yuwa.org.cn/article/reports?id=2. Lin, Q. and Mao, J. (2022) ‘“A new job after retirement”: Negotiating grandparenting and intergenerational relationships in urban China’, China perspectives, (1), pp. 47–56. doi: 10.4000/chinaperspectives.13520 Liu, J. (2023) ‘Filial piety, love or money? Foundation of old-age support in urban China’, Journal of Ageing Studies, 64, pp. 101104–101104. doi: 10.1016/j.jaging.2023.101104. Liu, J. Y. (2017) ‘Intimacy and Intergenerational Relations in Rural China’, Sociology (Oxford), 51(5), pp. 1034–1049. doi:10.1177/0038038516639505. National Health and Family Planning Commission. (2018) Report on the development of China’s migration population 2018. Beijing: China Population Publishing House. Shen, Y. (2025) Caring through intergenerational support: Childcare practices in rural-to-urban migrant families in China. PhD thesis, University of Sheffield. Tronto, J. C. (1993) Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for An Ethic of Care. Georgetown: Taylor & Francis Group.  Tronto, J. C. (2013) Caring Democracy: Markets, Equality, and Justice. New York, NY: New York University Press. World Health Organisation. ‘Ageing and health in China’. Available at: https://www.who.int/china/health-topics/ageing. This episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Chris Saltmarsh, Josh White, Frank Maracchione, and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Frank Maracchione with support from 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.

    48 min
  3. Ground Level: The International and the Everyday w/ Juanita Elias & Frank Maracchione

    5 MAR

    Ground Level: The International and the Everyday w/ Juanita Elias & Frank Maracchione

    Across factory floors, family kitchens, neighbourhoods, and informal markets, the international economy is lived and negotiated in ordinary places. This episode introduces the theoretical concepts behind Ground Level, SPERI’s podcast series on Everyday Political Economy. Ground Level’s host, Dr Frank Maracchione, speaks with Professor Juanita Elias about why everyday life matters for studying and understanding global political economy. Together, they trace the emergence of everyday political economy, highlighting feminist and social reproduction approaches that have reshaped the field, before turning to the relationship between the everyday and the international.  The episode sets the conceptual foundations for the series and asks a simple but powerful question: What does the global economy look like when we start from everyday life? Concepts discussed: commodification, social reproduction, agency, violence, and resistance. Speakers:  Juanita Elias is Professor of International Political Economy at the University of Warwick. Juanita has held significant leadership roles within Politics and International Studies. She has been editor of Review of International Political Economy, until recently, and is one of the editors of the innovative IPE teaching and learning website I-PEEL, international political economy of everyday life. She currently serves as chair of the British International Studies Association (BISA).  Dr Frank Maracchione, host of the Ground Level series, is an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies, SOAS University of London. Frank is a political economist studying Global China, specialising in how local sociocultural norms shape global political and economic processes.  Reading list:  Brassett, J., Elias, J., Rethel, L., & Richardson, B. (Eds.). (2015–2026). I-PEEL: International Political Economy of Everyday Life. https://i-peel.org/ Davies, M. (2006). Everyday life in the global political economy. In M. de Goede (Ed.), International political economy and poststructural politics (pp. 173–190). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230800892_12  Elias, J., & Rai, S. M. (2019). Feminist everyday political economy: Space, time, and violence. Review of International Studies, 45(2), 201–220. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210518000323 Elias, J., & Rethel, L. (Eds.). (2016). The everyday political economy of Southeast Asia. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316402092 Elias, J., & Roberts, A. (2016). Feminist global political economies of the everyday: From bananas to bingo. Globalizations, 13(6), 787–800. https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2016.1155797 Hobson, J. M., & Seabrooke, L. (Eds.). (2007). Everyday politics of the world economy. Cambridge University Press.  Maracchione, F. (2025). Decentring narratives of (de)globalization and crisis: Uzbekistan’s ‘everyday’ political economy amidst Russia’s war in Ukraine. Globalizations, 1–21. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14747731.2025.2533666  Rai, S. M. (2024). Depletion: The human costs of caring. Oxford University Press. Scheper-Hughes, N. (1992). Death without weeping: The violence of everyday life in Brazil. University of California Press. This episode is produced by the SPERI Presents… committee, including Chris Saltmarsh, Josh White, Frank Maracchione, and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Frank Maracchione with support from 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.

    38 min
  4. New Thinking: Winter Tourism w/ Valentina Ausserladscheider

    25 FEB

    New Thinking: Winter Tourism w/ Valentina Ausserladscheider

    How important is winter tourism to certain regions in Austria? How skiing resorts are being affected by climate change? Can regions survive without it? What comes next if it melts away? Valentina Ausserladscheider is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economic Sociology at University of Vienna. She joins Josh White to talk about her article 'Decoupling climate change: winter tourism and the maintenance of regional growth' (2024) published in New Political Economy journal. They discuss regional economies based around winter tourism, including the role of agriculture; the politics of managing economic change in the context of climate change, including the role of regional government; ownership models of skiing resorts including public, private and foreign; potential futures for post-skiing tourism in the region; and, most importantly, how they make artificial snow. '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 Chris Saltmarsh, Josh White, Frank Maracchione, and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Josh White with support from 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.

    43 min
  5. New Thinking: Disrupting Climate Transition? w/ Nicholas Beuret

    14 JAN

    New Thinking: Disrupting Climate Transition? w/ Nicholas Beuret

    Is the climate transition really happening? If so, what does it look like in reality? Has its promises been broken? Who profits and who loses? Should the environmental movement actually resist climate transition, and how? Dr Nicholas Beuret is Lecturer at Essex Business School, University of Essex. He joins Josh White to talk about his book Or Something Worse: Why We Need to Disrupt the Climate Transition (2025), published with Verso. They discuss the realities of the climate crisis for people in the UK today; the relationship between climate and the cost-of-living crisis; how 'the installation economy' is a far cry from the green jobs we were promised; the new spheres of accumulation forged in climate transition; and the need for a militant environmental movement and worker organising to disrupt its injustices. '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, Josh White, Frank Maracchione, and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Josh White 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.

    46 min
  6. New Thinking: Financialisation of Football w/ James Jackson

    03/12/2025

    New Thinking: Financialisation of Football w/ James Jackson

    Who makes money out of football: broadcasters, clubs, players, or investment banks? Why are clubs selling their own assets to themselves? How do fans and players take collective action to resist the further financialisation of the sport? How important are local and foreign fans to the Premier League's boom? Is it inevitable that the Premier League will go bust? Dr James Jackson is a Hallsworth Research Fellow in Politics at University of Manchester. He joins Dr Remi Edwards and Josh White to discuss his article 'A league made in the economy's image: destabilised stability and the English Premier League's Minsky moment' (2025) co-authored with Dr James Silverwood and published in British Politics journal. They discuss the basis of football's financialisation in Thatcherism, the enduring importance of fans in making and disrupting the 'product' of Premier League football, and what might cause the Premier League's bubble to burst. Works cited in this episode include: David Webber, ‘Playing on the break’: Karl Polanyi and the double-movement ‘Against Modern Football’ (2015) Edwards & Jackson, The political economy of everyday life (2022) Cox & Philippou, Measuring the resilience of English Premier league clubs to economic recessions (2022) Kennedy & Kennedy, Towards a Marxist political economy of football supporters (2010) '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, Josh White, Frank Maracchione, and Andrew Hindmoor. This episode was edited by Remi Edwards, Josh White 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.

    46 min
  7. New Thinking: Capitalist Value Chains w/ Benjamin Selwyn

    23/10/2025

    New Thinking: Capitalist Value Chains w/ Benjamin Selwyn

    How important is exploitation in the organisation of global supply chains? How do they drive geopolitical conflict and ecological destruction while depressing wages? How does the capitalist state drive and uphold capitalist accumulation? What does US-China rivalry mean for value chains? Benjamin Selwyn is Professor of International Relations and International Development at University of Sussex. He joins Dr Remi Edwards to discuss his new book Capitalist Value Chains: Labour Exploitation, Nature Destruction, Geopolitics (Oxford University Press, 2025), co-authored with Christin Bernhold. They consider the limitations of mainstream 'global value chains' literature; how critical approaches draw stronger connections between geopolitics, labour exploitation and environmental destruction; the role of the state in reproducing the domination of labour by capital; and visions for an alternative plant-based food system organised according to need, not profit. '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, 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.

    45 min
  8. New Thinking: Is there a Chinese road to decarbonisation? w/ Chris Saltmarsh

    23/09/2025

    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.

    44 min
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About

'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.

Information

  • Creator
    SPERI
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    40
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI)
  • Show Website
    SPERI Presents...

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