Charles Umney
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charlesumney.bsky.social
Charles Umney
@charlesumney.bsky.social
600 followers 690 following 32 posts
Industrial relations, technology, sociology of work. Currently focused on technological change in warehousing work among other things. Co-author "Marketization" (Bloomsbury, 2022). https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/marketization-9781913441463/
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Reposted by Charles Umney
michaelhobbes.bsky.social
The way all of these people convinced themselves that Mamdani is antisemitic is a subject far more worthy of media examination than any of the ‘groupthink on campuses!’ thinkpieces we’ve been subjected to
November 5, 2025 at 8:58 PM
charlesumney.bsky.social
Doing some proofreading on our forthcoming paper: "What is human augmentation and why does it matter for the sociology of work? A conceptualization of worker-centred augmentation". Forthcoming in Work in the Global Economy. Email me if interested and wanting to discuss.
What is human augmentation and why does it matter for the sociology of work? A conceptualization of worker-centred augmentation ‘Human augmentation’ commonly refers to ‘smart’ technologies that integrate with the human body, like exoskeletons, wearables, or modifications like retinal implants, increasing its cognitive or physical capacity. Many definitions of it are problematically broad or questionable. Nevertheless, the idea has gained traction in journalistic and policy debates. Evangelists for augmentation may posit a near-superhuman synthesis between humans and machines, supposedly resulting in upskilling and empowerment at work. These claims have attracted sceptical analysis from scholars of work and employment, yet there remains a need for further development of a critical research agenda around human augmentation. This article catalyzes this agenda by proposing a new conceptualization of ‘worker-centred’ human augmentation that can be usefully applied in the field. Such a conceptualization requires mediating between giving due weight to the intractable material characteristics of individual ‘augmenting’ technologies, and exploring the channels through which human agency shapes their design and use. We also argue that engaging with human augmentation necessitates critical reflection on ‘human-versus-machine’ framings that remain influential in sociological literature on technology and work.
October 17, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Charles Umney
mattcole.bsky.social
My first book, *Unpaid: the Past, Present and Future of Wage Theft*, will be published by @versobooks.bsky.social in May, 2026!

This book is born from experience. It is written for anyone who is dissatisfied with the capitalist wage system.

UK pre-order: www.waterstones.com/book/unpaid/...
October 13, 2025 at 1:01 PM
charlesumney.bsky.social
"How does the local state mediate the relationship between technological change and work?": Forthcoming in Work & Occupations. Offers a typology for how devolved govt can intervene to shape technology's impact on local workers, esp in low wage jobs. @digitcentre.bsky.social @ceric-lubs.bsky.social
How does the local state mediate the relationship between technological change and work? Evidence from warehousing in England Abbie Winton, Charles Umney, Gabriella Alberti Abstract The debate on technology and the future of work has so far engaged little with the local state. This is surprising, since the local state’s role as a potentially progressive actor in employment relations systems is attracting renewed interest in sociological scholarship. Through a study of warehousing in northern England, we examine how local state actors can mediate the relationship between technological change and work. We show that they often questioned the policy orthodoxy that private employer-led technological innovation always benefits local working populations, and we develop a typology of three strategies through which they sought to engage with technological trajectories in warehousing workplaces: engagement and advocacy, activation, and conditionality. Our study also shows how their regulatory capacity was limited by the opacity of technological innovation in warehousing, confining them to “soft” strategies which enshrined employer discretion and market imperatives. It concludes by reflecting on alternative visions whereby the local state may become more empowered to shape the future of work.
September 23, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Reposted by Charles Umney
adambienkov.bsky.social
It would be good if the only political pushback against Nigel Farage's plans to mass deport hundreds of thousands of our neighbours, friends, family and colleagues didn't just come from a handful of backbench MPs and one regional mayor
September 22, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Reposted by Charles Umney
abbiewinton.bsky.social
It's been a long time coming, but I'm delighted to announce that my PhD paper "Sociotechnical Change in British Supermarkets: Examining the Role of Labour" has finally been published in New Technology, Work and Employment 🎉

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
September 22, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Reposted by Charles Umney
bcernusa.bsky.social
"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."
charlesumney.bsky.social Charles Umney @charlesumney.bsky.social · Sep 22
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/...
Sociotechnical Change in British Supermarkets: Examining the Role of Labour Lead author Abbie Winton When predicting the future of retail work, commentators tend to focus on automation and labour replacement and neglect the continued role played by labour, particularly in food retail. To understand this role, this article draws on both interview and newspaper data to show how change unfolded in the sector from before to just after the Coronavirus pandemic. Specifically, it shows how increased technology adoption and use in food retail occurred alongside an increased reliance on labour. The availability of a flexible labour pool that was easy to scale and later disband enabled employers to respond to increased consumer demand rapidly. 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 programmes, reflecting historical patterns of sociotechnical change within the sector.
September 22, 2025 at 7:46 AM
charlesumney.bsky.social
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/...
Sociotechnical Change in British Supermarkets: Examining the Role of Labour Lead author Abbie Winton When predicting the future of retail work, commentators tend to focus on automation and labour replacement and neglect the continued role played by labour, particularly in food retail. To understand this role, this article draws on both interview and newspaper data to show how change unfolded in the sector from before to just after the Coronavirus pandemic. Specifically, it shows how increased technology adoption and use in food retail occurred alongside an increased reliance on labour. The availability of a flexible labour pool that was easy to scale and later disband enabled employers to respond to increased consumer demand rapidly. 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 programmes, reflecting historical patterns of sociotechnical change within the sector.
September 22, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Reposted by Charles Umney
stephenshapiro.bsky.social
thetab.com/2025/09/18/g...
Greenwich University suspends senior staff after restructure of architecture department
Sources say the suspensions are thought to be related to opposition from staff against the restructure
thetab.com
September 19, 2025 at 5:43 AM
Reposted by Charles Umney
goingmedieval.bsky.social
The destruction of the Gaza city mosque is a devastating loss to humanity as a whole. A part of our global medieval heritage destroyed in furtherance to a genocide. I despair.
andykhouri.bsky.social Andy Khouri @andykhouri.bsky.social · Sep 17
Built in the 13th century. So that mosque stood for 800 years with every sort of person from every place and every religion in the world passing through Gaza century after century, only for it to be blown up by some shithead loser sitting behind a computer that we probably paid for.
josie.zone 🏳️‍⚧️ Josephine Riesman @josie.zone · Sep 17
My rage knows no bounds
September 17, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Reposted by Charles Umney
turnbulldugarte.com
Radical right accommodation really does not work.

New paper out with this exceptionally talented team
@katharinalawall.bsky.social @robjohns75.bsky.social @drjennings.bsky.social @sarahobolt.bsky.social @zachdickson.bsky.social @danjdevine.bsky.social & @jack-bailey.co.uk

doi.org/10.31235/osf...
September 5, 2025 at 6:50 AM
charlesumney.bsky.social
The BBC is not going to allow us to not elect reform, they have decided.
patrickdunleavy.bsky.social Patrick Dunleavy @patrickdunleavy.bsky.social · Sep 12
James Chapman
“Reform featuring in a quarter of all BBC News at Ten bulletins - far more than the Lib Dems, who have 18 times as many MPs, and far too often policy is unscrutinised, according to an authoritative new study. Something’s gone badly wrong at the BBC” www.theguardian.com/media/2025/s...
BBC under fresh pressure over extent of Reform UK coverage
Nigel Farage’s party featured in considerably more News at Ten bulletins than Lib Dems over six months, study finds
www.theguardian.com
September 13, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Reposted by Charles Umney
eicathomefinn.bsky.social
'"You can’t have hobbyist research that’s unfunded going on in institutions. We can’t afford it.”'

Such a badly formulated phrasing of the issues, so open to so many misinterpretations. If this is the level of thinking about research among sector leaders and policy-makers, be very afraid.
September 12, 2025 at 6:57 AM
Reposted by Charles Umney
charlesumney.bsky.social
"Understanding international waves of platform labour unrest"- our new piece in @britsoci.bsky.social's Everyday Society. es.britsoc.co.uk/understandin... Discusses our recent @wesjnl.bsky.social paper "Platform labour unrest in a global perspective: How, where and why do platform workers protest?"
Understanding international waves of platform labour unrest - Everyday Society - The British Sociological Association
How, where and why do platform workers protest? Platform work, exemplified by firms like Uber and Deliveroo, attracts seemingly endless discussion; journalistic, political, and sociological. Policy de...
es.britsoc.co.uk
May 28, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Charles Umney
charliechar.bsky.social
Don’t ignore that the bbc asked a racist question here
adambienkov.bsky.social Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · Sep 1
Asked by the BBC how he would feel if "your daughter was having to walk past one of these [asylum] hotels every day?" Keir Starmer replies that "I completely get it".

"I understand why people want the hotels closed. I want them closed".
September 1, 2025 at 2:38 PM
charlesumney.bsky.social
Recently accepted at @wesjnl.bsky.social: "What does it mean to be passionate about your job? Three meanings of 'collectively oriented passion' in UK pubs". Pre-print OA here: eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/22...
Picture is of the paper abstract which reads: This article examines how understandings of passion shape people’s agency at work, through interviews with UK publicans. It addresses calls to rethink how “passion” is conceptualised in the sociology of work. While discourses around passion are often thought to legitimise individualised working practices, the article explores more collective interpretations. It analyses how publicans exercised agency in negotiating externally-imposed problems including the pandemic and exploitative relationships with leading industry actors. It identifies a collective understanding of passion centralising notions of community, which shaped participants’ agency in responding to these problems in three ways: providing motivation to persist in the industry; a frame for critiquing perceived injustice and (occasionally) mobilising against it; and a resource for reinvention in pursuing business sustainability. The main contribution is thus new concepts for analysing how “collectively-oriented passion” shapes individuals’ agency at work.
July 31, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Reposted by Charles Umney
lastpositivist.bsky.social
What's astonishing about this is that "violence against a military force currently shelling civilians at food distribution points in the occupied territory they have been starving out" becomes equivalent to "calling for a genocide". It's just an insane moral reversal of the actual situation.
flyingrodent.bsky.social flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · Jun 29
This looks completely deranged - and it is - but it’s a product of 2018-19, the late Brexit/Corbyn Labour era. Short version: it finally dawned on the lads that they are holding the microphones, so *they decide what the story is*, and how intense it should get. It’s worked very well for them so far.
June 30, 2025 at 7:10 AM
Reposted by Charles Umney
jeremycorbyn.bsky.social
We are witnessing the first livestreamed genocide in history.

Those who facilitate these crimes against humanity should face accountability — not those who have the humanity to oppose them.

End all arms sales to Israel, now.
June 20, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Reposted by Charles Umney
roxanegay.bsky.social
Yes. I am right. I am seeing how Chat GPT is ruining students critical thinking and writing skills in real time. It is not the future. It is a tool designed to render the populace helpless, to make people doubt their innate intelligence, and to foster overreliance on technology.
davidpham5.bsky.social davidpham5 @davidpham5.bsky.social · Jun 19
@roxanegay.bsky.social maybe you’re right.
kottke.org kottke.org @kottke.org · Jun 19
A new study from MIT’s Media Lab (not yet peer-reviewed & small sample size): ChatGPT May Be Eroding Critical Thinking Skills. [time.com]
June 19, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Reposted by Charles Umney
ucugreenwich.bsky.social
www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/2516781... Up to 319 members of staff are at risk, but the university claims most of them are hourly paid so they don't count. We represent ALL members, whatever your contract type. Your job's precarity does NOT make you less valid in our eyes. We see you.
www.newsshopper.co.uk
May 29, 2025 at 1:08 PM
charlesumney.bsky.social
"Understanding international waves of platform labour unrest"- our new piece in @britsoci.bsky.social's Everyday Society. es.britsoc.co.uk/understandin... Discusses our recent @wesjnl.bsky.social paper "Platform labour unrest in a global perspective: How, where and why do platform workers protest?"
Understanding international waves of platform labour unrest - Everyday Society - The British Sociological Association
How, where and why do platform workers protest? Platform work, exemplified by firms like Uber and Deliveroo, attracts seemingly endless discussion; journalistic, political, and sociological. Policy de...
es.britsoc.co.uk
May 28, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Charles Umney
nkalamb.bsky.social
Israel’s finance minister touts genocide:

"The approach is entirely different from anything in the past… now we conquer, cleanse, and stay… what remains of the Strip is also being wiped out…. The population will reach the south of the Strip – and from there move to third countries.”
"the approach is entirely different from anything in the past. No more raids or in-and-out operations – now we conquer, cleanse, and stay. Until Hamas is destroyed. Along the way, what remains of the Strip is also being wiped out, simply because everything there has become one big terror city." "This is a dramatic shift from what was done before, and with God's help, it will lead to victory, the destruction of Hamas and the return of the hostages," he added. "As part of the war, the IDF is moving the population out of combat zones and leaving no stone unturned. The population will reach the south of the Strip – and from there, with God's help, move to third countries under President Trump's plan. This is a change in the course of history.
May 19, 2025 at 11:10 AM
charlesumney.bsky.social
Awful news-solidarity to friends at Greenwich and I hope its management sees sense.
May 15, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Charles Umney
chrishavergal.bsky.social
University of Greenwich facing backlash over claims it is planning to cut more than 300 jobs, equivalent to a quarter of total workforce www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ucu-cal... via @julietterowsell.bsky.social
UCU calls Greenwich a ‘rogue employer’ as 300 job cuts revealed
All of university’s hourly paid lecturers in social sciences set to go under plans that will affect a quarter of workforce
www.timeshighereducation.com
May 15, 2025 at 3:32 PM