Barbora Cernusakova
@bcernusa.bsky.social
Labour disciplining & racialised debt | Digital rights of workers | Written: 'Surplused Lives. Roma under Czech racial capitalism.' MUP | Hallsworth Fellow, University of Manchester. past: researcher @amnesty
https://vimeo.com/842892762/c58992
https://vimeo.com/842892762/c58992
Pinned
Barbora Cernusakova
@bcernusa.bsky.social
· Jun 16
Disciplining of Roma workers through predatory debt in Czechia
Looking at the entrapment of Roma workers in unpayable debts in Czechia, this article discusses the relationship between racialisation, predatory debt and labour disciplining. Drawing on long-term ...
www.tandfonline.com
In this article in the New Political Economy, I discuss the extractive & disciplinary power of household debt over Roma workers in Czechia. Drawing on ethnography, I show how the unpayable debt becomes a mechanism to discipline labour as a whole.
shorturl.at/VOQrB
@uomsociology.bsky.social
shorturl.at/VOQrB
@uomsociology.bsky.social
January 2026 special issue of South Atlantic Quarterly (Duke UP) edited by Sarah Bufkin & Ida Danewid theorises racial capitalism in (post)imperial Europe.
My contribution discusses the relationship between racialisation of Roma through workfare & debtfare, and high industrial employment in Czechia
My contribution discusses the relationship between racialisation of Roma through workfare & debtfare, and high industrial employment in Czechia
November 10, 2025 at 7:23 AM
January 2026 special issue of South Atlantic Quarterly (Duke UP) edited by Sarah Bufkin & Ida Danewid theorises racial capitalism in (post)imperial Europe.
My contribution discusses the relationship between racialisation of Roma through workfare & debtfare, and high industrial employment in Czechia
My contribution discusses the relationship between racialisation of Roma through workfare & debtfare, and high industrial employment in Czechia
It's heartwarming to be in Ostrava for fieldwork again & to start a day with Cate Le Bon's 'Home to you' from a Roma neighbourhood (in another city):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2Xs...
www.npr.org/sections/all...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2Xs...
www.npr.org/sections/all...
Cate Le Bon - Home to You (Official Video)
YouTube video by Cate Le Bon
www.youtube.com
November 1, 2025 at 9:58 AM
It's heartwarming to be in Ostrava for fieldwork again & to start a day with Cate Le Bon's 'Home to you' from a Roma neighbourhood (in another city):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2Xs...
www.npr.org/sections/all...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2Xs...
www.npr.org/sections/all...
Reposted by Barbora Cernusakova
We need our countries to get serious about abandoning US tech and putting serious resources behind developing more public-oriented alternatives their citizens can use instead.
Always great to get @ceciliarikap.bsky.social’s insights on these topics. Don’t miss our chat!
Always great to get @ceciliarikap.bsky.social’s insights on these topics. Don’t miss our chat!
For years, countries accepted their dependence on US tech companies. That needs to change.
This week @ceciliarikap.bsky.social joins @parismarx.com to discuss why it’s so important for governments to champion digital sovereignty that puts people first.
Full ep: techwontsave.us/episode/290_...
This week @ceciliarikap.bsky.social joins @parismarx.com to discuss why it’s so important for governments to champion digital sovereignty that puts people first.
Full ep: techwontsave.us/episode/290_...
August 21, 2025 at 8:03 PM
We need our countries to get serious about abandoning US tech and putting serious resources behind developing more public-oriented alternatives their citizens can use instead.
Always great to get @ceciliarikap.bsky.social’s insights on these topics. Don’t miss our chat!
Always great to get @ceciliarikap.bsky.social’s insights on these topics. Don’t miss our chat!
Reposted by Barbora Cernusakova
“We knew the Irish would stand with us,” - Max Levitas (102)
www.irishtimes.com/culture/heri... #CableStreet
www.irishtimes.com/culture/heri... #CableStreet
October 4, 2025 at 10:02 AM
“We knew the Irish would stand with us,” - Max Levitas (102)
www.irishtimes.com/culture/heri... #CableStreet
www.irishtimes.com/culture/heri... #CableStreet
"Both Argentina and Turkey show how class coalitions can briefly expand policy space, but without structural transformation these tactical gains evaporate. In both cases, dependency on volatile capital flows... has forced governments back into orthodoxy and deeper external subordination."
Last week at the EAEPE conference, I presented a co-authored paper on Argentina’s and Turkey’s responses to the 2018 currency crises and their class dynamics. The timing coincided with Milei’s U.S. visit and new support package. Here’s a short blogpost on this:
open.substack.com/pub/umitak/p...
open.substack.com/pub/umitak/p...
Argentina in Crisis Mode Again
U.S. bailout buys Milei time, but shock therapy deepens poverty. Like Turkey, dependent financialization offers no exit, only a pause before the next crash.
open.substack.com
October 2, 2025 at 2:34 PM
"Both Argentina and Turkey show how class coalitions can briefly expand policy space, but without structural transformation these tactical gains evaporate. In both cases, dependency on volatile capital flows... has forced governments back into orthodoxy and deeper external subordination."
Marco Omizzolo: “The government & the mainstream media have framed Satnam’s death as a scandal, when it is in fact the horrific expression of a daily reality experienced by hundreds of thousands of agricultural workers, most of them migrants, who are not only exploited but whose lives are at risk."
ITALY: “How many more Satnams have to die” before the deadly and systemic exploitation of migrant farmworkers in Italy is dismantled? www.equaltimes.org/how-many-mor...
“How many more Satnams have to die” before the deadly and systemic exploitation of migrant farmworkers in Italy is dismantled?
In the early morning hours, the roads of Latina province, south of Rome, are already crowded with commuters – not in cars, but on bicycles. Migrant agricultural workers cycle up to 30 kilometres to re...
www.equaltimes.org
October 2, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Marco Omizzolo: “The government & the mainstream media have framed Satnam’s death as a scandal, when it is in fact the horrific expression of a daily reality experienced by hundreds of thousands of agricultural workers, most of them migrants, who are not only exploited but whose lives are at risk."
Reposted by Barbora Cernusakova
Brillaint article “Fail better”: Utopia, Rosa Luxemburg, and learning from failure by @mmrovlje.bsky.social is also part of the Special Issue on Utopia and Failure
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
September 29, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Brillaint article “Fail better”: Utopia, Rosa Luxemburg, and learning from failure by @mmrovlje.bsky.social is also part of the Special Issue on Utopia and Failure
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Barbora Cernusakova
“Every film is political. Most political of all are those that pretend not to
be: entertainment movies. They are the most political films because they dismiss the possibility of change. In every frame they tell you everything's fine… a continual advertisement for things as they are.”
- Wim Wenders
be: entertainment movies. They are the most political films because they dismiss the possibility of change. In every frame they tell you everything's fine… a continual advertisement for things as they are.”
- Wim Wenders
a black and white photo of two men standing in front of a wall with graffiti on it
ALT: a black and white photo of two men standing in front of a wall with graffiti on it
media.tenor.com
September 29, 2025 at 5:54 AM
“Every film is political. Most political of all are those that pretend not to
be: entertainment movies. They are the most political films because they dismiss the possibility of change. In every frame they tell you everything's fine… a continual advertisement for things as they are.”
- Wim Wenders
be: entertainment movies. They are the most political films because they dismiss the possibility of change. In every frame they tell you everything's fine… a continual advertisement for things as they are.”
- Wim Wenders
"The U.S. is planning to push chipmakers to match the volume of semiconductors that their customers currently import from overseas providers through domestic production, or pay a tariff, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday."
finance.yahoo.com/news/us-plan...
finance.yahoo.com/news/us-plan...
US plans 1:1 chip production rule to curb overseas reliance, WSJ reports
President Donald Trump has doubled down on his efforts to reshore semiconductor manufacturing, offering exemptions from tariffs of roughly 100% on chips to firms that produce domestically. Companies ...
finance.yahoo.com
September 26, 2025 at 2:09 PM
"The U.S. is planning to push chipmakers to match the volume of semiconductors that their customers currently import from overseas providers through domestic production, or pay a tariff, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday."
finance.yahoo.com/news/us-plan...
finance.yahoo.com/news/us-plan...
Reposted by Barbora Cernusakova
My book ms "The Inattention Economy: Seeing the Digital Labor of Women of Color” is in production at the University of Minnesota Press. So grateful to Anne Carter and Leah Pennywark at UMP. It's a book about how the work of digital infrastructure became women of colors' work and thus invisible
May 2, 2025 at 4:16 PM
My book ms "The Inattention Economy: Seeing the Digital Labor of Women of Color” is in production at the University of Minnesota Press. So grateful to Anne Carter and Leah Pennywark at UMP. It's a book about how the work of digital infrastructure became women of colors' work and thus invisible
"The inherent exclusivity and parochialism of the modern nation-state is not a marginal phenomenon but constitutes a central feature of our political system, which is likely
to spread unless contained, and, as such, we are all likely to be forced to confront it one way or the other."
to spread unless contained, and, as such, we are all likely to be forced to confront it one way or the other."
"I'm really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell. In America we've taken bold action to swiftly shut down uncontrolled migration."
–Trump to the UN
Suddenly feel the need to share my article "Beyond the Nation State: Rereading Hannah Arendt's 'We Refugees' Eighty Years Later" again
–Trump to the UN
Suddenly feel the need to share my article "Beyond the Nation State: Rereading Hannah Arendt's 'We Refugees' Eighty Years Later" again
September 25, 2025 at 7:04 AM
"The inherent exclusivity and parochialism of the modern nation-state is not a marginal phenomenon but constitutes a central feature of our political system, which is likely
to spread unless contained, and, as such, we are all likely to be forced to confront it one way or the other."
to spread unless contained, and, as such, we are all likely to be forced to confront it one way or the other."
"AI" and outsourced labour:
"Huang has said that for every 1 gigawatt of AI infrastructure deployed, as much as $50bn is spent on the computing hardware... as well as the server racks that are produced by the likes of Foxconn, HP, Dell and Super Micro"
www.ft.com/content/7cee...
"Huang has said that for every 1 gigawatt of AI infrastructure deployed, as much as $50bn is spent on the computing hardware... as well as the server racks that are produced by the likes of Foxconn, HP, Dell and Super Micro"
www.ft.com/content/7cee...
Nvidia’s $100bn bet on ‘gigantic AI factories’ to power ChatGPT
Jensen Huang seeks to ensure US chipmaker stays at the heart of new tech
www.ft.com
September 24, 2025 at 9:16 AM
"AI" and outsourced labour:
"Huang has said that for every 1 gigawatt of AI infrastructure deployed, as much as $50bn is spent on the computing hardware... as well as the server racks that are produced by the likes of Foxconn, HP, Dell and Super Micro"
www.ft.com/content/7cee...
"Huang has said that for every 1 gigawatt of AI infrastructure deployed, as much as $50bn is spent on the computing hardware... as well as the server racks that are produced by the likes of Foxconn, HP, Dell and Super Micro"
www.ft.com/content/7cee...
"In contrast to futurist predictions of the proliferation of labour-replacing technologies, the analysis shows how food retailers continued to prioritise short-term solutions contingent on human labour rather than investments in longer-term automation programme."
Many congratulations to @abbiewinton.bsky.social for this outstanding new paper in @ntwejournal.bsky.social! Essential reading for understanding technological adoption in retail workplaces, with a lot of additional insight into the implications of covid 🚨🚨👇👇 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
September 22, 2025 at 7:46 AM
"In contrast to futurist predictions of the proliferation of labour-replacing technologies, the analysis shows how food retailers continued to prioritise short-term solutions contingent on human labour rather than investments in longer-term automation programme."
Reposted by Barbora Cernusakova
In «Konterrevolution und Revolte» beschreibt Herbert Marcuse, wie die westlichen Staaten nach den 68er-Protesten mit einer Konterrevolution reagierten, um das kapitalistische System zu restabilisieren. 👉 Hört jetzt die neue Folge «tl;dr» – überall dort, wo es Podcasts gibt.
![Schwarz-weiß Foto von Herbert Marcuse, der lächelnd eine Zigarre in der Hand hält. Darüber liegt ein Zitat von ihm: „Dass [die Arbeiterklasse] mehr zu verlieren hat als ihre Ketten, mag trivial sein, ist aber gleichwohl richtig.“ – Herbert Marcuse in „Konterrevolution und Revolte“. Oben links das Logo des Podcasts „tl;dr“. Unten Text: „Neue Folge ‹TL;DR› – Folge 53 des Theoriepodcasts ‹tl;dr› der Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung ist jetzt online – Host Alex Demirović spricht mit Peter-Erwin Jansen“.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:xosa3d3zldcd5l2vk2zx2dyy/bafkreifbvev4rmqbsx3dt3csprwva7ogz6zjsv3qhdo77qvv4y7w2ckoia@jpeg)
September 18, 2025 at 6:15 AM
In «Konterrevolution und Revolte» beschreibt Herbert Marcuse, wie die westlichen Staaten nach den 68er-Protesten mit einer Konterrevolution reagierten, um das kapitalistische System zu restabilisieren. 👉 Hört jetzt die neue Folge «tl;dr» – überall dort, wo es Podcasts gibt.
"Amidst lax regulatory guidelines, payment and lending platforms mushroomed in India to such an extent that they created unease and anxiety among consumers and regulators, as some predatory loan apps... started harassing customers who could not repay on time."
💥
How is the fungibility of money<->data in #credit relations intermediated? Writing about #India, in a recent paper Rahul Mukherjee traces the #platform #intermediation processes in the loan app ecosystem. Read more here journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
September 15, 2025 at 5:41 PM
"Amidst lax regulatory guidelines, payment and lending platforms mushroomed in India to such an extent that they created unease and anxiety among consumers and regulators, as some predatory loan apps... started harassing customers who could not repay on time."
Reposted by Barbora Cernusakova
Hey You'll 🙂✊🏾
"No Release" - a film based on my recent BA project on immigration GPS ankle monitors, directed by amazing Sînziana Cojocărescu, is going to be screened at the BLOC cinema QMUL, on 22nd September. More details and registration link below.
dandelion.events/e/no-release...
"No Release" - a film based on my recent BA project on immigration GPS ankle monitors, directed by amazing Sînziana Cojocărescu, is going to be screened at the BLOC cinema QMUL, on 22nd September. More details and registration link below.
dandelion.events/e/no-release...
September 8, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Hey You'll 🙂✊🏾
"No Release" - a film based on my recent BA project on immigration GPS ankle monitors, directed by amazing Sînziana Cojocărescu, is going to be screened at the BLOC cinema QMUL, on 22nd September. More details and registration link below.
dandelion.events/e/no-release...
"No Release" - a film based on my recent BA project on immigration GPS ankle monitors, directed by amazing Sînziana Cojocărescu, is going to be screened at the BLOC cinema QMUL, on 22nd September. More details and registration link below.
dandelion.events/e/no-release...
Sectoral variations in the use of algorithmic management across Europe. Most prevalent in financial services:
- 35% workers report that it's used to monitor their work performance:
- 34 % report AM used to *allocate* their work tasks.
European Working Conditions Survey 2024
tinyurl.com/4rhbfh4n
- 35% workers report that it's used to monitor their work performance:
- 34 % report AM used to *allocate* their work tasks.
European Working Conditions Survey 2024
tinyurl.com/4rhbfh4n
September 10, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Sectoral variations in the use of algorithmic management across Europe. Most prevalent in financial services:
- 35% workers report that it's used to monitor their work performance:
- 34 % report AM used to *allocate* their work tasks.
European Working Conditions Survey 2024
tinyurl.com/4rhbfh4n
- 35% workers report that it's used to monitor their work performance:
- 34 % report AM used to *allocate* their work tasks.
European Working Conditions Survey 2024
tinyurl.com/4rhbfh4n
"Debt redistributes wealth from the working poor to the rentiers, but under the auspices of necessity."
The AGAINST THE DAY section of this issue is titled "Making Debt Visible." The entire section is freely available. buff.ly/bmvNKUo
Volume 124 Issue 3 | South Atlantic Quarterly | Duke University Press
South Atlantic Quarterly | 124 | 3 | July 2025
buff.ly
September 8, 2025 at 12:23 PM
"Debt redistributes wealth from the working poor to the rentiers, but under the auspices of necessity."
Hannes Langguth's research of a new EV battery gigafactory in Thuringia (Germany) challenges the view that transnational investments in strategic production necessarily benefits the 'left-behind' spaces. A complex explanation is offered:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
‘Left-behind’ amid the ‘boom’? Large-scale green technology projects and reinforced peripheralisation in Eastern Germany - Hannes Langguth, 2025
Driven by the recent investment surge in large-scale green technology projects, the European Union’s shift towards climate neutrality has sparked new developmen...
journals.sagepub.com
July 30, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Hannes Langguth's research of a new EV battery gigafactory in Thuringia (Germany) challenges the view that transnational investments in strategic production necessarily benefits the 'left-behind' spaces. A complex explanation is offered:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Reposted by Barbora Cernusakova
This new book on the theory and method of law and technology by the brilliant @rcalo.bsky.social is so important! Congrats Ryan!
I am so damn excited to share my new book, Law and Technology: A Methodical Approach. Full of stories and priced at $40, this book explains why law finds technology so difficult to regulate, and what to do about it. global.oup.com/academic/pro...
July 2, 2025 at 1:17 PM
This new book on the theory and method of law and technology by the brilliant @rcalo.bsky.social is so important! Congrats Ryan!
Reposted by Barbora Cernusakova
🚨New video!
Communities impacted by green hydrogen projects in South Africa finally had their voices heard by MEPs and the European Commission for the first time.
🤥 Incredibly disappointing: the Commission denied the EU was involved in any of the projects shown
corporateeurope.org/en/2025/07/h...
Communities impacted by green hydrogen projects in South Africa finally had their voices heard by MEPs and the European Commission for the first time.
🤥 Incredibly disappointing: the Commission denied the EU was involved in any of the projects shown
corporateeurope.org/en/2025/07/h...
July 16, 2025 at 7:07 AM
🚨New video!
Communities impacted by green hydrogen projects in South Africa finally had their voices heard by MEPs and the European Commission for the first time.
🤥 Incredibly disappointing: the Commission denied the EU was involved in any of the projects shown
corporateeurope.org/en/2025/07/h...
Communities impacted by green hydrogen projects in South Africa finally had their voices heard by MEPs and the European Commission for the first time.
🤥 Incredibly disappointing: the Commission denied the EU was involved in any of the projects shown
corporateeurope.org/en/2025/07/h...
Reposted by Barbora Cernusakova
Do you know anyone who would like to review my book for an excellent methods journals? If so please tag them or DM me. It would be perfrct for a PhD student. Info on the book here: www.routledge.com/Doing-Good-S....
Doing Good Social Science: Lessons from Immersion, Understanding Social Life and Exploring the In-between
Doing Good Social Science takes readers on a personal and thought-provoking journey and empowers readers to become unshakeable, free-thinking scholars.
Drawing from nearly two decades of experience in...
www.routledge.com
July 4, 2025 at 7:06 AM
Do you know anyone who would like to review my book for an excellent methods journals? If so please tag them or DM me. It would be perfrct for a PhD student. Info on the book here: www.routledge.com/Doing-Good-S....
Reposted by Barbora Cernusakova
Steel maker ArcelorMittal has pulled the plug on its green steel plans, despite the offer of €1.3bn in subsidies. It claims it didn't make business sense.
It begs the question: can the market deliver on the green transition - and if not, what other model do we need?
www.dw.com/en/arcelormi...
It begs the question: can the market deliver on the green transition - and if not, what other model do we need?
www.dw.com/en/arcelormi...
ArcelorMittal withdraws from green steel transformation – DW – 07/01/2025
ArcelorMittal has withdrawn from its green steel projects in Germany. The company says its former goals are no longer feasible in the current market environment. Meanwhile, workers fear for their jobs...
www.dw.com
July 3, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Steel maker ArcelorMittal has pulled the plug on its green steel plans, despite the offer of €1.3bn in subsidies. It claims it didn't make business sense.
It begs the question: can the market deliver on the green transition - and if not, what other model do we need?
www.dw.com/en/arcelormi...
It begs the question: can the market deliver on the green transition - and if not, what other model do we need?
www.dw.com/en/arcelormi...
Reposted by Barbora Cernusakova
"Of the 29 healthcare workers in our study, 14 say they could not make a living if on-demand nursing apps were their only source of income. Four workers earn so little that they qualify for Medicare or Medicaid. Two others, rather ironically given their profession, had no health insurance at all."
In 2013, @timmaughan.bsky.social published a short story of dystopian fiction about Nicki, a 19-year-old zero-hour contract worker. Today, it reads as a plausible description of the working world of American nurses. My latest for @lpeproject.bsky.social. lpeproject.org/blog/nursing...
Nursing on Demand: The Gig Economy Comes for Health Care
New Uber-style firms like CareRev and Clipboard Health use algorithmic scheduling, staffing, and management technologies to match understaffed medical facilities with nearby nurses and nursing…
lpeproject.org
July 1, 2025 at 12:26 AM
"Of the 29 healthcare workers in our study, 14 say they could not make a living if on-demand nursing apps were their only source of income. Four workers earn so little that they qualify for Medicare or Medicaid. Two others, rather ironically given their profession, had no health insurance at all."
Reposted by Barbora Cernusakova
“Including labour law in any 28th regime would allow rich tech-bros to completely ignore the rights to fair pay and decent conditions which workers have won at national level over the last century" ⚠️
#28thRegime #deregulation
#28thRegime #deregulation
🔴National leaders have given the go ahead to deregulation policies which risk undermining their own national labour law
The European Council 'welcomed' proposals which include a '28th regime' that would allow some companies to operate under lower EU-wide standards
www.etuc.org/en/pressrele...
The European Council 'welcomed' proposals which include a '28th regime' that would allow some companies to operate under lower EU-wide standards
www.etuc.org/en/pressrele...
www.etuc.org
June 27, 2025 at 11:58 AM
“Including labour law in any 28th regime would allow rich tech-bros to completely ignore the rights to fair pay and decent conditions which workers have won at national level over the last century" ⚠️
#28thRegime #deregulation
#28thRegime #deregulation