Prof Katherine Brickell
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kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell
@kbrickell.bsky.social
1.7K followers 930 following 150 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 Margreet Zwarteveen, Katherine Brickell, Jeremy J. Schmidt

ejmccann.bsky.social
Eugene McCann @ejmccann.bsky.social · 3d
Be our colleague… Hiring an Assistant Prof of Urban Geography & Climate Crisis.

www.sfu.ca/geography/ab...
Assistant Professor of Urban Geography/Climate Crisis
www.sfu.ca

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 7d
Wishing all reviewers, contributors, & associate editors a merry festive period from Transactions.

Thanks for all your energy, time & ideas in 2025!

Special thanks to Anna Lawrence, Managing Editor at @rgsibg.bsky.social and co-editors @benandersongeog.bsky.social & Beth Greenhough

💌 Geography!

Reposted by Colin McFarlane, Katherine Brickell, Ben Anderson

tibg.bsky.social
TIBG @tibg.bsky.social · 7d
📢December Issue of TIBG📢

Our latest issue gathers papers around 3 broad themes: the more-than-human, borders, and working from home. It also features the third collection in our 'Geography in the World' series.

23/24 papers are #OpenAccess ⬇️
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14755661...
A graphic showing the title page of Transactions on a read background with TIBG in large letters on the right hand page. On the left hand page are nine tiles sharing 6 papers in a Themed Intervention and 3 standard articles, with the names of papers in the issue. 1) Worlding geography, area studies and the study of area Han Cheng, Deen Sharp 2) Egypt's geographical tradition: The post-independence moment and shifting regional imaginations Aya Nassar 3) Constructing and contesting meta-geographies in Russian area studies debates Vera Smirnova 4) Geography and area studies as critical bedfellows? The view from Singapore Brenda S. A. Yeoh 5) Global China's spatial ambition and area studies with geography Han Cheng 6) Beyond the Limpopo: Geography and the worlding of South(ern) Africa Maano Ramutsindela 7) Unseasonable seasons: Shifting geographies of weather and migration mobilities Kaya Barry 8) Staged ecologies: Aesthetics, nature and infrastructure in the late-modern metropolis Zuhri James 9) Multispecies slavery–environment nexus in resource extraction and animals' ecological politics: Coercive donkey labour in Indian river sand mining Yamini Narayanan A graphic showing the title page of Transactions on a read background with TIBG in large letters on the right hand page. On the left hand page are nine tiles with standard articles, with the names of papers in the issue. 1) Before it's too late: The extinction script, multi-species reproductive futurism and Extinction Rebellion Amy Robson 2) Infrastructure as archive: Examining the colonial geographies of rivers Austin Read 3) Infra-culture and infrastructures: Relational placemaking at the coast Julian Clark 4) Hotels, refuge, and the rise of carceral hospitality Jonathan Darling, Andrew Burridge 5) On the natural border: A bio-geo-political reading Matteo Proto, Francesco Buscemi 6) Postimperial melancholia and the English North–South divide: Reading the life stories of Northern women of colour in London Saskia Papadakis 7) Theorising legal gaps geographically: Exploring the transition from asylum seeker to refugee in the UK Sarah M. Hughes 8) On the politics of movement: Borderscapes, choreopolicing and choreopolitics Charlotte Veal 9) High-resolution property: Drone enclosures in digital India Thomas Cowan A graphic showing the title page of Transactions on a read background with TIBG in large letters on the right hand page. On the left hand page are six tiles with 4 standard articles, 1 commentary, and a Themed Intervention with the names of papers in the issue. 1) Post-pandemic geographies of working from home: More of the same for spatial inequalities? David McCollum 2) The place where we live: Children, families, play, neighbourhoods and spaces of care during and after the pandemic Alison Stenning, Wendy Russell 3) Living a ‘shadow life’: The disorientations of losing orientation and agency while waiting through furlough Victoria J. E. Jones 4) What does it mean to be present at work? Negotiating attention, distraction and presence in working from home David Bissell, Elisabetta Crovara, Andrew Gorman-Murray, Elizabeth Straughan 5) Subtractive, ambient and bifurcated attention at work and when working from home: Towards a geography of workplace attention 6) Crisis of imagination/(re)imaginations for a (climate) crisis Ankit Kumar, Chandni Singh, Lauren Hermanus, Lalitha Kamath, Wangui Kimari, Mark Pelling, Harriet Bulkeley

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 8d
Last gig of 2025: giving evidence at London Assembly inquiry on social housing allocations

London is the epicentre of debt-based disqualifications. In 1 month of FOI data, 79% of disqualified HHs in England living in Temporary Accommodation were in London (3,000+ HHs). Nearly 1/2 incl. children.

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 9d
Spotted! Debt Trap Nation in Manchester Waterstones.

Particularly pleasing with the majority of families in the book living in Greater Manchester.

And featured in the British History section. What a damning history it will tell about how children and their families have been treated.

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 9d
Thanks Ben! If Ealing Greens would like to chat on this at any point they would be very welcomed. Ealing numbers on families in temporary accommodation are huge!

Reposted by Keith Lilley, Katherine Brickell

tim-waterman.co.uk
Tim Waterman @tim-waterman.co.uk · 9d
International Workshop: “More Than Child’s Play: Global Perspectives on the History of Playgrounds”

26–28 August 2026

ETH Zürich gmw.ethz.ch/en/
Homepage - Professorship for History of the Modern World
gmw.ethz.ch

Reposted by Katherine Brickell

paulabarkermp.bsky.social
Paula Barker MP @paulabarkermp.bsky.social · 10d
Over 380,000 people in England will be spending the festive season homeless, including 175,000 children.

We need to be far bolder if we are going to tackle this crisis.

My piece for @bigissue.com on the cross-government strategy for ending homelessness.

www.bigissue.com/opinion/labo...
Labour must be bolder to turn around the state’s failures on homelessness
Labour's homelessness strategy is not enough to end homelessness for good in England, writes MP Paula Barker after Housing First snub,
www.bigissue.com

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 15d
💫 Campaigning win! 💫

The new homelessness strategy is out + it commits to addressing barriers faced by domestic abuse survivors with debt when applying for social housing, via updated statutory guidance.

This is a direct result of our ‘Debt Trap' research with
@sharedhealthgm.bsky.social

Reposted by Katherine Brickell

sjs1869.bsky.social
Susan J. Smith @sjs1869.bsky.social · 15d
Exactly. Which is why the @britishacademy.bsky.social is so concerned about the spread of ‘cold spots’ in the provision of courses in the humanities and social sciences www.timeshighereducation.com/news/more-ha...
More than half of disadvantaged students living at family home
Admissions chief fears rise of commuter students may limit access to courses for those from poorest backgrounds
www.timeshighereducation.com

Reposted by Katherine Brickell

urbanstudiesfoundation.org
Urban Studies Foundation @urbanstudiesfoundation.org · 16d
📢 New USF Funding: Urban Urgencies

The Urban Studies Foundation is launching a major new grant to support rapid-response collaborative research on the world’s most pressing urban challenges.

💷 Up to £35,000
🤝 Requires partnership with a non-academic organisation
🗓️ 23 Mar 2026

🔗 ow.ly/FUIn50XGtgz
Flyer with USF logo for the Call for Applications "Urban Urgencies" on a picture of a grafitti via flickr by Julia Tulke and the text "The Urban Studies Foundation is launching a major new grant to support rapid-response collaborative research on the world’s most pressing urban challenges. Up to £35,000 per project Open to researchers globally Requires partnership with at least one non-academic organisation 23 March 2026 at 23:59 UTC +0 Apply online" Flyer with USF logo for the Call for Applications "Urban Urgencies" on a picture of a grafitti via flickr by Julia Tulke and the text "The Urban Studies Foundation is launching a major new grant to support rapid-response collaborative research on the world’s most pressing urban challenges. Up to £35,000 per project Open to researchers globally Requires partnership with at least one non-academic organisation 23 March 2026 at 23:59 UTC +0 Apply online"

Reposted by Katherine Brickell

olimould.bsky.social
Oli Mould @olimould.bsky.social · 16d
This is one of the most depressing, but important papers I've read in recent times. It's focus is Awaab Ishak, the 2 year old who died because of squalid housing, but brilliantly links this wider necropolitics enacted by neoliberalism. Please read.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
A Licence to Kill: Necroeconomic Suffocation by Stealth and the Fight for Life
Three decades of austerity in the UK have seen the deterioration of the elemental infrastructures, those that provided a basic level of security for the population. In this article, we analyse the ca...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 17d
Just as our Debt Trap research found that rent arrears risks excluding those most in need of social housing, this new Crisis data further evidences how households are judged as financially risky tenants rather than vulnerable individuals needing housing.

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
People on lowest incomes being denied access to social housing, research finds
Benefit claimants having applications denied for being deemed too risky by housing associations, says Crisis
www.theguardian.com

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 18d
There are 172,420 reasons to come to this panel event at King's College London in the new year. In England alone 172,420 children are homeless + living in temporary accommodation.

With @kwajo.bsky.social @danielhewittitv.bsky.social as panellists

Register here: www.kcl.ac.uk/events/no-pl...

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 18d
RIP Martin Parr, British photographer who explored the relationship between people and places.

His work on 90s taste in the British home – "Signs of the Times" – was iconic and explored the emotions that lie behind our household decor.

Obituary: www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

#martinparr
Martin Parr obituary
Photographer whose unblinking eye documented the human subject as a birdwatcher might, via plumage, habitat and diet
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Katherine Brickell

resolutionfoundation.org
Resolution Foundation @resolutionfoundation.org · 21d
The Government's Child Poverty Strategy begins to turn the tide on child poverty.

As a result, child poverty rates will fall next year – the first time in nine years (outside the pandemic).

But other child poverty headwinds remain.

Read our full statement 👇
buff.ly/Tnqasir
Quote graphic Lindsay Judge, Research Director at the Resolution Foundation said: The Government deserve credit for beginning to turn the tide on child poverty and getting rates falling for first time in nine years (outside of the pandemic). This Strategy should be celebrated for setting out a plan to lift hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty over the course of the Parliament. We have long-called for the abolition of the two-child limit which unfairly penalises larger families, the vast majority of whom are in work, have very young children, or disabilities in the family. Repealing it is the right decision, and the Government should be praised for doing so despite fiscal constraints. But other child poverty headwinds remain, not least the continued freeze in Local Housing Allowance which risks further squeezing the living standards of poorer families living in the private rented sector.

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 22d
The child poverty strategy is out with child homelessness and damaging stays in temporary accommodation central to it.

Look forward to reading and digesting the full strategy in due course.

#childpovertystrategy

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Families to be offered help to leave temporary accommodation under UK child poverty strategy
Government says series of measures, including childcare support, will lift 500,000 out of poverty
www.theguardian.com

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 22d
📈 Latest gov quarterly statistics show in Lewisham that 47% of all homeless households in Temporary Accommodation are headed by single mothers!

🏋‍♀️ The weight of the housing crisis is being disproportionately carried on their shoulders.

#homelessness #childhomelessness #temporaryaccommodation

Reposted by Stephen D. Murphy, Katherine Brickell, Steven H. Seggie

hushuo.bsky.social
David Hull 胡大衛 @hushuo.bsky.social · 22d
I finally got around to reading this. You should read it too.

"We are exporting the very labor of teaching and learning—the slow work of wrestling with ideas, the enduring of discomfort, doubt and confusion, the struggle of finding one’s own voice."

www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself
Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education.
www.currentaffairs.org

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 24d
Shocking research from @seacharity.bsky.social finds that 'mothers are three times more likely to be the victims of economic abuse than women without children'.

Children are also victims of economic abuse, missing out on essentials + being stolen from directly.

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Almost 4 million children in UK affected by economic abuse, charity finds
Research shows perpetrators use methods such as stopping mothers accessing bank accounts and child benefits
www.theguardian.com

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 24d
📕 Back 'home' for final 2025 book talk @rgsibg.bsky.social!

🙏 Thanks to everyone who has invited + hosted us since the Debt Trap Nation was published in Oct.

🎁 The book would make a great gift this Christmas, with all royalties donated to Surviving Economic Abuse www.debt-trap-nation.org/book

Reposted by Patrick Präg, Katherine Brickell, Gayle Kaufman , and 1 more

jenchanfreau.bsky.social
Jenny Chanfreau @jenchanfreau.bsky.social · 25d
Our new paper: Austerity as reproductive injustice: did local government spending cuts unequally impact births? led by Laura Sochas is out now OA in @sfjournal.bsky.social
Austerity as reproductive injustice: did local government spending cuts unequally impact births?
Abstract. Large local government spending cuts in England, spanning over a decade of austerity policies, have severely restricted the universal services an
url.uk.m.mimecastprotect.com

Reposted by Katherine Brickell

gypjh2000.bsky.social
Phil Hubbard @gypjh2000.bsky.social · 25d
This highlights some of the obvious implications of densification and living small - no living room/lounge, no room for socialising, the end of the house party etc etc. @nospacelikehome.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...
The death of the living room: ‘It’s hard to invite people over – not everyone wants to sit on a bed’
The number of rental properties without a lounge is surging, and people are having to eat and socialise in kitchens, bedrooms and stairwells. How can you relax and build community without a communal a...
www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Katherine Brickell

alirizataskale.bsky.social
Ali Rıza Taşkale @alirizataskale.bsky.social · 25d
This is a must-read: Gen Z’s so-called "lazy" or "risk-taking" behavior is a rational response to structural economic barriers. With housing out of reach, many turn to crypto, risky bets & "financial nihilism". www.ft.com/content/c17a...
The housing crisis is pushing Gen Z into crypto and economic nihilism
Locked out of home ownership, young adults are turning to risky financial behaviour
www.ft.com

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 25d
At the start of #16daysofactivism against gender-based violence I had the real pleasure of giving a book talk at Furnishing Futures' beautiful new venue, The Atrium, in London.

Their mission is to create healing homes for women and children escaping domestic abuse. www.furnishingfutures.org

kbrickell.bsky.social
Prof Katherine Brickell @kbrickell.bsky.social · 29d
A special moment.

Thank you Baroness Burt of Solihull for addressing links we identify in our research and book between domestic abuse (DA), debt, and homelessness – and for calling on government to ensure that DA survivors are not disqualified from social housing by debt accrued through DA.

Reposted by Katherine Brickell

olliecrookwood.bsky.social
Ollie Crookwood @olliecrookwood.bsky.social · Nov 26
“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 · Nov 26
'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 · Nov 26
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 · Nov 26
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 · Nov 26
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