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maharafiatal.bsky.social
New Yorker abroad. Adam Smith Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Political Economy at University of Glasgow studying governance by/of corporations. Sometimes journalist. Always feminist.
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A huge loss. One thing I appreciated about Ferguson was his ability to change his mind. In the opening to Global Shadows (maybe my favorite text about globalization) he subtly guts the "anti-development" positioning of his own early work:

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Signed this with over 1000 colleagues: drive.google.com/file/d/1lGk2... docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

This reminds me of Italy, where the far-right demonized nonprofits who help migrants as "buonisti" ("do-gooders"). @adrianopedrana.bsky.social @brandaid-world.bsky.social and I discuss this criminalization of solidarity in our paper on Italian humanitarian funding research-api.cbs.dk/ws/portalfil...

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Ah but douglas, unfortunately for the people of Pakistan men like you *are* very much part of their history.

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

This is exactly what happened with "sustainability" 15 years ago. Lumping "sustains company," "sustains planet" and "sustains people" under one label absolutely allowed firms to fudge their labor and human rights commitments for a little bit of greening and a lot of profit.

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Me, getting into bed last night: "Oh finally, the first time in a month that I don't need to set an alarm and can sleep in." My body: "6am, wakey-wakey!"

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

An exasperated colleague on the Democratic Party: "This isn't even bringing a knife to a gun fight. This is fighting fascism with a pool noodle."

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Economists and historians, assemble. Everybody with hard drive space needs to grab as much of the BLS data sets as they can before it is all illegally deleted.

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

If people normalize this lawbreaking instead of pushing back, it will be very hard ever to restore the system of government that most of us grew up assuming it would be in place. Trump’s disregard for US constitution ‘a blitzkrieg on the law’, legal experts say

submitted 21 days ago • 2 comments

For, and also on, public consumption.

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

Excellent thread. One question I have is how this kind of polling breaks down by race. Do Scottish Asians who support Scottish independence also believe this? Would seem wild to have family in e.g. India or Pakistan and not know why those countries have a lot of streets with Scottish names.

submitted 24 days ago • 1 comment

This is the difference between Trump 1 and Trump 2. First time around, all his cronies were named stuff like Joey Macaroni and wanted to commit tax fraud and go on Dancing With The Stars. This time, they have names like John Hitlerfuhrer and have spent the last 15 years blogging about phrenology.

submitted 25 days ago • 40 comments

From a friend in the Army Corps of Engineers. Those "buyout" emails can't be legal, right?

submitted 25 days ago • 1 comment

A madlib for @schumer.senate.gov, who apparently needs the help:

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

Folks who actually organize Democrats know the important divide isn't left vs liberal. It's people who do the work and people who do not.

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

Thanks to @simonlester.com for unearthing these two nuggets from Katherine Tai's exit interview, critiquing the way US firms push the state to use trade policy for their benefit. She's right about this, but it raises new questions about her tenure at USTR: ielp.worldtradelaw.net/2025/01/kath...

submitted 27 days ago • 1 comment

It's fashionable to dunk on the Resistance or Wine Moms but actually organizing the Women's Marches mattered in 2017 because it let opponents of Trump see how many they were. Just seeing that gave them the confidence to do the substantive stuff like occupy airports against the Muslim ban.

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

Feels like a good time to remind everyone that if you are a public servant wishing to report retaliation, acts of corruption or abuse of government power, I have a page for that on my website: www.wyden.senate.gov/whistleblowe...

submitted 29 days ago • 357 comments

Thinking about the next four years of presidential politics in terms of policymaking is a category error. There's going to be a lot more "working toward the Führer," where Trump issues various incoherent demands and his lackeys scramble to translate them into state action.

submitted 31 days ago • 9 comments

In Busytown they’re having burrito taxi discourse about a taxi that’s literally a burrito

submitted 32 days ago • 2 comments

There was an individuals vs. organizations tension over this I saw a lot in activist spaces during Trump's first term. Organizations succeed when they have a few focused goals and also priorities of which goals matter most if they have to choose between them.

submitted 32 days ago • 1 comment

There are only two types of political science professor right now: (1) those with a haunted look in their eyes, their voices sounding like they should really be speaking to a therapist instead of a classroom full of students right now. (2) absolute psychopaths.

submitted 33 days ago • 30 comments