Prof Katherine Brickell
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kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell
@kbrickell.bsky.social
1.7K followers 920 following 140 posts

Prof Urban Studies KCL | Author Debt Trap Nation: Family Homelessness in a Failing State (2025) | Housing/Home/Law | UK & Cambodia | Editor Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers | Views own | https://www.debt-trap-nation.org/book .. more

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kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · Oct 10
Published today on #WorldHomelessDay: my book Debt Trap Nation – a deep dive into how government policy is driving families into homelessness & debt.

All royalties to @seacharity.bsky.social 💜

Families aren't failing. They're being failed.

📖 www.agendapub.com/page/detail/...

#DebtTrapNation

Reposted by Katherine Brickell

olliecrookwood.bsky.social
Ollie Crookwood @olliecrookwood.bsky.social · 18h
“Minor tweaks to taxation and spending, or cuts to corporate regulation and ministerial budgets, aren’t going to un-break Britain.”

More essential reading from the brilliant @graceblakeley.substack.com
Rachel Reeves is living on another planet
A country in crisis and a government in denial.
open.substack.com

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 19h
'We do not believe that the solution to a broken welfare system is to punish the most vulnerable'

Scrapping the 2-child limit is welcomed BUT as my book "Debt Trap Nation: Family Homelessness in a Failing State" reveals, this budget announcement can only be the start not the end.
sharedhealthgm.bsky.social Shared Health Foundation @sharedhealthgm.bsky.social · 21h
We welcome Rachel Reeves MP's announcement of the lift of the two-child benefit cap.

This is a much-needed change that will help support vulnerable families and children, and reduce the risk of homelessness for households across the country.

Reposted by Katherine Brickell

sharedhealthgm.bsky.social
Shared Health Foundation @sharedhealthgm.bsky.social · 21h
We welcome Rachel Reeves MP's announcement of the lift of the two-child benefit cap.

This is a much-needed change that will help support vulnerable families and children, and reduce the risk of homelessness for households across the country.

Reposted by Katherine Brickell

ruthpatrick0.bsky.social
Prof Ruth Patrick @ruthpatrick0.bsky.social · 1d
The two-child limit will be consigned to history. Incredible moment and one to welcome before we push on with the fight for ambitious action to drive child poverty down obr.uk/docs/dlm_upl...
obr.uk

Reposted by Katherine Brickell

holgersen.bsky.social
Ståle Holgersen @holgersen.bsky.social · 2d
Is construction best left to the capitalist market? No. Let's learn from history and build new non-profit construction companies!

💥 new paper with Maria Wallstam in @housingjournal.bsky.social 💥
Building beyond profit: the history and potential future of non-profit construction companies
When housing construction slows down due to diminished profit margins while the actual need for housing increases, people might raise the question: is residential construction best left to the capi...
www.tandfonline.com

Reposted by Dave O’Brien, Rebecca Sear, Margot C. Finn , and 3 more

hetanshah.bsky.social
Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 2d
Important role - new Chair of the Board of @ukri.org
£33k for one day a week. Closes 11 Jan. Would be good from my perspective to get someone who understands higher education and the value of the arts, humanities and social sciences!
plusportal.perrettlaver.com/VacancyDetai...
Perrett Laver - Leading Global Executive Search Firm
plusportal.perrettlaver.com

Reposted by Katherine Brickell, Gráinne McKeever

helenbarnard.bsky.social
Helen Barnard @helenbarnard.bsky.social · 2d
Brilliant guest blog from @LukeTryl & @Moreincommon_ for @trusselluk.bsky.social setting out why lifting the two child limit is a smart move for Labour and can help build public support (despite headline polling on the topic). www.trussell.org.uk/news-and-res...
Britons and the two-child limit | Trussell
Luke Tryl, Executive Director of More in Common, explains why lifting the two-child limit can help Labour to build public support.
www.trussell.org.uk

Reposted by Fabián Muniesa

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 3d
OUT NOW "Remittances as translocal collateral: How microfinance profitably sustains precarity in Cambodia"

@vincentguermond.bsky.social as lead, bringing together !5! studies on the relationship between migration, remittances, and microfinance debt.

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

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 3d
Call for Papers: "Neurodiversity, Inequalities and the City" @rc21.bsky.social Conference in Vienna (20-22 July 2026)

Organised by Rosalie Warnock of @sensory-lives-prj.bsky.social

Deadline 29 Dec 25

Submit your abstract here to session 102: rc21-vienna2026.org/call-for-abs...

Reposted by Katherine Brickell, Ben Anderson

tibg.bsky.social
TIBG @tibg.bsky.social · 7d
New in TIBG:

'Asylum as artifice: Race, law and capital as regimes of abstractions in the United Kingdom's asylum accommodation system' by Anna Pearce

This paper charts the history of the category of 'asylum seeker' from 1993 to 2023.

doi.org/10.1111/tran...
Screenshot of a paper abstract in Transactions by Anna Pearce (2025) entitled: 'Asylum as Artifice: Race, Law and Capital as Regimes of Abstraction in the United Kingdom's Asylum Accommodation System' with a red banner at the top. Taking as its case study the category of the ‘asylum seeker’ in UK law, this paper develops on latent concerns in legal geographies with processes of abstraction. Following Bhandar and Toscano, race, law and capital are here understood as different, co-articulating modalities of abstraction, through which the ‘asylum seeker’ is constituted and reconstituted by spatial practice and law over time. The case study charts the history of the category in UK law with the corresponding developments in the material and spatial infrastructures of asylum accommodation, from the point at which the ‘asylum seeker’ was first codified in UK law in 1993 to the delegitimisation of asylum itself in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 and the Illegal Migration Act 2023. As well as providing the application of Bhandar and Toscano's innovative methodology to a new empirical area, I further make the case that, as well as functioning as organisational nodes for race and capital, legal objects may also serve as conduits. In this way, these differing regimes of abstraction are put into mutually influential relationships with one another, with particularly concerning implications for the independence of law from capital. Though the case study and its legislative context are necessarily narrow in order to properly trace the contours of this particular legal object, the potential application of the theoretical arguments developed from this tight focus is broad, contributing to studies of immigration law, asylum reception and processing, as well as legal geographies more widely.

Reposted by Katherine Brickell

benandersongeog.bsky.social
Ben Anderson @benandersongeog.bsky.social · 7d
Book launch for The Politics of Feeling with @ajsecor.bsky.social and @jemgilbert.bsky.social @will-davies.bsky.social on 25.11 at 15.00 in London. Details here, last time I checked there were a couple of tickets left

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-politi...
www.eventbrite.co.uk

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 7d
💡Fourth, encourage and better fund councils to use prevention funds to clear rent arrears. It’s cheaper, safer, and keeps children out of Temporary Accommodation.

The strategy is expected to be published before Christmas. As the Minister alluded to, there is no time to waste.

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 7d
💡Third, free families from the prison of Temporary Accommodation sooner: Introduce secondary legislation so that domestic abuse survivors and their children aren’t disqualified for social housing by local authority debt rules – our research shows that 88% of councils in England have these rules.

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 7d
💡Second, invest to save:  One in five homeless households are in Temporary Accommodation because of domestic abuse – prevention makes fiscal and moral sense. Embed the prevention of male violence and sustainable funding for domestic abuse services in the homelessness strategy.

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 7d
💡 First, end the use of hotels and B&Bs for families and address the harm caused to neurodivergent children especially. Our @leverhulme.ac.uk @sensory-lives-prj.bsky.social research reveals Temporary Accommodation to be experienced as 'torture'. At least 25,000 neurodivergent children are impacted.

Reposted by Ben Anderson

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 7d
'We need to get on with this' – Alison McGovern, Minister of State for Local Government and Homelessness.

In advance of the Homeless Strategy, it was an honour to be invited by the Minister to a Summit on its direction: "prevention", "harm reduction" & "recovery".

🧵 What did I say? Read on...

Reposted by Katherine Brickell, Nick Clarke

thomas-dekeyser.bsky.social
Thomas Dekeyser @thomas-dekeyser.bsky.social · 7d
I am inviting applications for PhD projects at Uni of Southampton, focused on: politics of refusal, digital tech, urban interventions and/or geographical theory. Funding app's would be made to the South Coast DTP.

Please check out my work to ensure a fit!

www.thomasdekeyser.com/phd-supervis...
PhD supervision — Thomas Dekeyser
www.thomasdekeyser.com

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 9d
Next step for Debt Trap Nation? Parliament!

Thanks to APPG for Households in Temporary Accommodation for organising this parliamentary book launch.

Please spread the word about the book – all royalties are being donated to @seacharity.bsky.social

www.debt-trap-nation.org/book

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 10d
Coming up at Furnishing Futures' gorgeous new Atrium space in East London, a FREE book talk + exhibition to mark launch of 'Debt Trap Nation: Family Homelessness in a Failing State'.

📕 www.debt-trap-nation.org/book

🗓️ 27 Nov 25, 6.30pm for 7pm start

🎟️ www.furnishingfutures.org/events/kathe...

Reposted by Katherine Brickell

plutopress.bsky.social
Pluto Press @plutopress.bsky.social · 10d
Capitalism has created a world of bullshit abundance and artificial scarcity.

Listen to the latest Radicals in Conversation with the authors of Radical Abundance, @kaiheron.bsky.social, @kmilb.bsky.social and @bertrussell.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLrh...
Why Liberal Abundance is Bullsh*t
Capitalism has created a world of bullsh*t abundance and artificial scarcity, where we have too much of what we don’t need and too little of what we do. The system’s pursuit of profits has put us on…
www.youtube.com

Reposted by Katherine Brickell

jrf-uk.bsky.social
Joseph Rowntree Foundation @jrf-uk.bsky.social · 13d
Universal Credit was missing a crucial objective from its inception: to address poverty.

15 years on, it’s time we made Universal Credit the poverty-fighting system it could be, writes @iainkporter.bsky.social for @bigissue.com

https://bit.ly/4pc0PVB
It's time we made universal credit the game changer it can be
In November 2010, the coalition government published its white paper detailing its plans for universal credit. How much has changed?
www.bigissue.com

Reposted by Edmund Heery, Katherine Brickell

eicathomefinn.bsky.social
Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 14d
'The prospect of hundreds of job cuts at Lancaster University could damage the city's economy, students have warned.'

'Could'? Surely 'will'.
Fears Lancaster University job cuts would hit city's businesses
Lancaster University is seeking to cut 400 full-time posts as part of efforts to save £30m.
www.bbc.co.uk

Reposted by Rosemary A. Joyce, American Library Association, Robert C. Richards , and 7 more

brian-goldstone.bsky.social
Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 14d
This is far worse than anyone expected.

Trump's HUD plan would cut *two-thirds* of permanent housing and push as many as 170,000 formerly homeless people back onto the street—redirecting funds to work mandates, forced treatment, and encampment sweeps.

All as mass internment camps are being built.
Trump Administration to Drastically Cut Housing Grants
www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Gary Sheffield, Katherine Brickell

thelondonjournal.bsky.social
The London Journal @thelondonjournal.bsky.social · 14d
Applications are now open for the Curriers Prize, awarded by the Worshipful Company of Curriers in association with ourselves and the @ihr.bsky.social for the best entered essay on any aspect of London's history from Roman times to the present.
The Curriers’ Prize
The Worshipful Company of Curriers, has established an essay prize on the history of London, in association with The London Journal Trust and the IHR.
www.history.ac.uk

Reposted by Katherine Brickell

squirerachael.bsky.social
Rachael Squire @squirerachael.bsky.social · 15d
Crafting the Ocean: The Geographies of Environmental World-Making - a new paper by Kim Peters and I in @tibg.bsky.social. rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Huge thanks to the team at Transactions for such a constructive process.
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers | RGS Journal | Wiley Online Library
The paper departs from existing analyses of ‘world making’, bringing cultural and environmental geographies into further conversation through linking theories of crafting and world-making together, t....
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Reposted by Dave O’Brien

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 15d
Tomorrow my new book 'Debt Trap Nation: Family Homelessness in a Failing State' will land in the dreaming spires of Oxford.

A city home to 269 homeless children+ 18 households with children in hotels + B&Bs above 6 week limit.

Here's the Rent Cultures Network event:

torch.ox.ac.uk/event/debt-t...
Debt Trap Nation: Family Homelessness in a Failing State
torch.ox.ac.uk

Reposted by Katherine Brickell

julesbirch.bsky.social
Jules Birch @julesbirch.bsky.social · 17d
Interesting move by Crisis

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Crisis charity to become a landlord in attempt to rectify ‘catastrophic’ housing in UK
Exclusive: Homelessness charity planning to buy properties as it can no longer rely on access to social housing
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Katherine Brickell

theguardian.com
The Guardian @theguardian.com · 18d
HMRC trial of child benefit crackdown wrongly suspected fraud in 46% of cases
HMRC trial of child benefit crackdown wrongly suspected fraud in 46% of cases
Exclusive: Almost half of families flagged as emigrants based on Home Office travel data were still living in UK Home Office travel records used in a trial of a controversial anti-fraud crackdown that under which thousands of parents lost their child benefit were so flawed that almost half of the families initially flagged as having emigrated were still living in the UK, it has emerged. The pilot scheme saved HMRC £17m but left 46% of families targeted incorrectly suspected of fraud, a margin of error far in excess of the 1% to 5% scientifically acceptable. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 19d
🪅 HOW EXCITING IS THIS! 🪅

So delighted that George Small has won the Brenda Trenowden Feminist Analysis Essay prize.

'Home is where the art is: Trans* self-portraiture as a praxis of homemaking' was written for my 3rd year UG course 'Geographies of Home'.
giwlkings.bsky.social King's Global Institute for Women's Leadership @giwlkings.bsky.social · 19d
Celebrating the 2025 Brenda Trenowden Feminist Analysis Essay Prize Winners 🎉

Humayra Ismail
Ida Di Stasio
George Small

Read their winning essays: www.kcl.ac.uk/giwl/assets/...

Reposted by Katherine Brickell

paulabarkermp.bsky.social
Paula Barker MP @paulabarkermp.bsky.social · 19d
We are in the midst of a homelessness emergency, the cross departmental strategy for ending homelessness cannot be delayed any longer. The human cost is far too high.

Thank you to @nadinebh.bsky.social at @politicshome.bsky.social

www.politicshome.com/news/article...
Government To Hold Homelessness Summit As Sector Calls For More Urgency
The government is being urged to step up its efforts to reduce homelessness as it prepares to host a summit on tackling rough sleeping.
www.politicshome.com