Colin Lorne
LightNews LightNews
banner
colinlorne.bsky.social
Colin Lorne
@colinlorne.bsky.social
790 followers 740 following 12 posts
Senior Lecturer in Geography & Director of OpenSpace Research Centre at the Open University | Usually talking crises and conjunctures | Jazz, soul, rocksteady | All views my own, etc.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Colin Lorne
ronaldlabonte.bsky.social
The open access 'Journal of Critical Public Health' just releases it's third issue is now out: Competing Narratives in Decentred Health Systems -
journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jc.... It is the only journal dedicated to 'critical public heath', community-owned (not corporate). Check it out!
Vol. 3 No. 1 (2026) | Journal of Critical Public Health
journalhosting.ucalgary.ca
January 24, 2026 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Colin Lorne
cphjournal.bsky.social
Now out! Special Issue 'Competing Narratives in Decentred Health Systems', guest edited by @profkatsmith.bsky.social, Justin Waring & Mark Bevir, and PACKED with great papers from leading authors applying decentred theory to key issues in #publichealth
journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jc...
Vol. 3 No. 1 (2026) | Journal of Critical Public Health
journalhosting.ucalgary.ca
January 23, 2026 at 5:51 PM
colinlorne.bsky.social
Great to be part of this. Michael Lambert and I contributed a paper called “Articulating place: towards a conjunctural analysis of public health” on renewed interest in ‘place’ as a ‘common sense’ policy solution to improve health, wealth and wellbeing. Read for free here: miniurl.com/k85lq8iu
profkatsmith.bsky.social Kat Smith @profkatsmith.bsky.social · 18d
New @cphjournal.bsky.social special issue on decentring health systems out: journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jcph featuring articles exploring how competing narratives, agency & resistance shape health policy & practice. Includes papers examining economic restructuring... 1/4
Journal of Critical Public Health
journalhosting.ucalgary.ca
January 23, 2026 at 6:50 PM
Reposted by Colin Lorne
daniellalock.bsky.social
Palestine Action-linked Qesser Zuhrah taken to hospital after a 46 day hunger strike - Qesser will have spent over a year in jail with no trial despite the pre-trial custody limit being 6 months www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Palestine Action-linked hunger striker Qesser Zuhrah taken to hospital
Protesters had gathered outside prison to demand 20-year-old, who is on day 46, receive urgent medical attention
www.theguardian.com
December 17, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Reposted by Colin Lorne
lucynoakes1.bsky.social
Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252:

Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.

Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk
December 11, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Reposted by Colin Lorne
charliejgardner.bsky.social
'Repairing epistemic injustice and loss in the era of climate coloniality'

Important new paper from Farhana Sultana

rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
November 14, 2025 at 3:31 PM
colinlorne.bsky.social
This Friday lunchtime, we're giving a talk on the 'Stories-so-far: Doreen Massey archive project'. We'll say a little about what we're doing, why, before opening up a conversation around how we might keep thinking with Massey in this conjuncture. Open to all, just sign up below:
November 12, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by Colin Lorne
geoopenaccess.bsky.social
Sultana draws on documentary video content from the 'Voices from the Global South' project, produced by the Open University, @rgsibg.bsky.social & @igu-ugi.bsky.social, to illustrate the arguments in her paper.

rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Repairing epistemic injustice and loss in the era of climate coloniality
The material dimensions of loss and damage from climate change are compounded by systemic knowledge-based loss and epistemic injustice from the marginalisation and exclusion of critical voices and kn...
rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
October 31, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Reposted by Colin Lorne
ou-gcsj.bsky.social
📣 Next GCSJ Seminar
🗓️ Fri 14 Nov 2025 | 12–1PM | online
🔎Rearticulating archives: still thinking with Doreen Massey — exploring how Doreen Massey’s archive invites new questions about our troubled present.

Register to join the critical and creative dialogue: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rearticula...
October 30, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Reposted by Colin Lorne
ctemenos.bsky.social
As an alumni of Syracuse University, it's appalling that they are capitulating against a right-wing campaign against Professor Farhana Sultana for exercising her first amendment rights. Do consider signing this letter calling on Syracuse University to reinstate her docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Letter of Support for Professor Farhana Sultana
As scholars within and beyond academia, we write in solidarity with academic freedom of expression with our colleague, Dr. Farhana Sultana, an internationally recognized scholar and tenured Full Profe...
docs.google.com
October 29, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Reposted by Colin Lorne
ctemenos.bsky.social
At RGS tomorrow? Come along to our session on Urban Politics, Crises and Conjunctures with @colinlorne.bsky.social @markushesse60.bsky.social @derek-ruez.bsky.social
August 28, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Reposted by Colin Lorne
areajournal.bsky.social
🌍Are you attending the RGS-IBG Annual Conference in Birmingham later this month?🌏

🚌You can request free bus travel around Birmingham during the week of the conference - just complete the form below by Sunday 17th August.

Geographers please share!

forms.office.com/pages/respon...
Microsoft Forms
forms.office.com
August 14, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Reposted by Colin Lorne
qasimrashid.com
The only reason you assassinate every Al Jazeera journalist left in Gaza is because you don’t want anyone to document the genocide you are about to accelerate.

Any politician and any journalist who cannot call this genocide for what it is, is complicit, and I hope history remembers you as such.
August 11, 2025 at 5:11 AM
colinlorne.bsky.social
Two days left 👇
mattthompson.bsky.social Matt Thompson @mattthompson.bsky.social · Aug 4
Still a few weeks left to submit something to this exciting (!) call for a special issue on conjunctural analysis

if you're thinking about the conjuncture, what to do about it politically, and how to write about it strategically and conceptually, we'd love to hear from you!
@colinlorne.bsky.social
From climate breakdown and settler-colonial genocide to economic turmoil and the culture wars, all kinds of crises are reshaping the political terrain as we know it. As contradictions sharpen and antagonisms intensify, there has been a remarkable resurgence in conjunctural analysis across geography, urban studies and well beyond. With multiple crises intersecting, the potential—and the challenge—of thinking conjuncturally lies in articulating precisely how diverse forces, relations, tensions, and contradictions condense in the present and condition the terrain of the politically possible. This presents a profoundly spatial as well as historical challenge. In this special issue, we invite researchers, theorists, critics, practitioners, activists and others engaged with different modes of conjunctural thinking to ask: what’s at stake in this conjuncture? How might we interpret everything that’s going on? Where, exactly, should we be looking? And what might be done about it? Informed by quite different intellectual traditions, political currents and social movements, our hope is to make space for critical dialogue attempting to get to grips with this conjuncture, thinking with and across particular places, scales, moments, and movements wherever that might lead us—whether that be critical insights into shifting socio-spatial configurations, promising new methodological avenues, or emerging political possibilities energising the kinds of social change so urgently needed. Amidst deepening neoliberal assault on academia, the continuing commodification and fragmentation of knowledge production under capitalism, and rising revanchist populisms threatening intellectual autonomy and political freedoms, this conjuncture demands collective strategic responses that can bridge such divides. As a growing body of diverse approaches to critique that share a relational, expansive, reflexive, synthetic and action orientation, conjunctural analysis presents a promising avenue for critical thinking in times of crisis. Yet how to translate the emergence of all these different conjunctural approaches and methods into political praxis? How might we narrate this formation and consolidate such diverse energies into practical strategies for tackling the divisions and dangers that define the present conjuncture? The special issue therefore aims to take stock of the recent resurgence in conjunctural thinking. What’s new or distinctive about this conjuncture compared to previous historical peaks of interest in conjunctural thinking—from Gramsci’s analysis of the crisis of liberalism and the rise of fascism in Italy in the 1920s and 1930s, and Stuart Hall’s reading of ascendant authoritarian populism and neoliberalism in Britain of the 1970s and 1980s, to rising nationalist revanchisms the world over today? What can be translated from those moments and places to make sense of our present troubles? What lessons might be learnt from elsewhere (and other times) in search of new political openings? How might (historical and spatial) comparison – and the comparative imagination – dovetail with conjunctural thinking? And how might we rethink the spaces and scales of conjunctural analysis to better interpret the multiple geographies of crisis now taking hold? Grappling with this conjuncture is not something that could ever be undertaken alone. There really is no one vantage point onto the troubles of the present that will reveal all the necessary answers. And yet to talk about how ‘we’ might respond—politically, analytically, methodologically—demands rejecting prevailing, and deeply uneven, tendencies within the worlds of criticism and academia which undermine generous, comradely and collective scholarship. Our hope is to resist pressures to fight it out for a ‘definitive’ mode of conjunctural analysis by instead encouraging a space, however modest, for critical dialogue that grapples with complexity and contradiction in attempts to articulate urgent alternatives. Contributions might take different forms or formats. It is anticipated that a geography/urban studies journal will be approached for the Special Issue, but of course this will depend on the expressions of interest we receive. Rather than providing a list of potential themes or issues, we instead encourage getting in touch if this sounds like the kind of conversation you want to be part of. In which case, please contact Colin Lorne (colin.lorne@open.ac.uk) and Matt Thompson (matt.thompson@ucl.ac.uk) before August 15th 2025 with a brief abstract/summary that offers a sense of what you are seeking to write about. Any questions, thoughts or suggestions, please do get in touch with us both.
August 13, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Reposted by Colin Lorne
mattthompson.bsky.social
Still a few weeks left to submit something to this exciting (!) call for a special issue on conjunctural analysis

if you're thinking about the conjuncture, what to do about it politically, and how to write about it strategically and conceptually, we'd love to hear from you!
@colinlorne.bsky.social
From climate breakdown and settler-colonial genocide to economic turmoil and the culture wars, all kinds of crises are reshaping the political terrain as we know it. As contradictions sharpen and antagonisms intensify, there has been a remarkable resurgence in conjunctural analysis across geography, urban studies and well beyond. With multiple crises intersecting, the potential—and the challenge—of thinking conjuncturally lies in articulating precisely how diverse forces, relations, tensions, and contradictions condense in the present and condition the terrain of the politically possible. This presents a profoundly spatial as well as historical challenge. In this special issue, we invite researchers, theorists, critics, practitioners, activists and others engaged with different modes of conjunctural thinking to ask: what’s at stake in this conjuncture? How might we interpret everything that’s going on? Where, exactly, should we be looking? And what might be done about it? Informed by quite different intellectual traditions, political currents and social movements, our hope is to make space for critical dialogue attempting to get to grips with this conjuncture, thinking with and across particular places, scales, moments, and movements wherever that might lead us—whether that be critical insights into shifting socio-spatial configurations, promising new methodological avenues, or emerging political possibilities energising the kinds of social change so urgently needed. Amidst deepening neoliberal assault on academia, the continuing commodification and fragmentation of knowledge production under capitalism, and rising revanchist populisms threatening intellectual autonomy and political freedoms, this conjuncture demands collective strategic responses that can bridge such divides. As a growing body of diverse approaches to critique that share a relational, expansive, reflexive, synthetic and action orientation, conjunctural analysis presents a promising avenue for critical thinking in times of crisis. Yet how to translate the emergence of all these different conjunctural approaches and methods into political praxis? How might we narrate this formation and consolidate such diverse energies into practical strategies for tackling the divisions and dangers that define the present conjuncture? The special issue therefore aims to take stock of the recent resurgence in conjunctural thinking. What’s new or distinctive about this conjuncture compared to previous historical peaks of interest in conjunctural thinking—from Gramsci’s analysis of the crisis of liberalism and the rise of fascism in Italy in the 1920s and 1930s, and Stuart Hall’s reading of ascendant authoritarian populism and neoliberalism in Britain of the 1970s and 1980s, to rising nationalist revanchisms the world over today? What can be translated from those moments and places to make sense of our present troubles? What lessons might be learnt from elsewhere (and other times) in search of new political openings? How might (historical and spatial) comparison – and the comparative imagination – dovetail with conjunctural thinking? And how might we rethink the spaces and scales of conjunctural analysis to better interpret the multiple geographies of crisis now taking hold? Grappling with this conjuncture is not something that could ever be undertaken alone. There really is no one vantage point onto the troubles of the present that will reveal all the necessary answers. And yet to talk about how ‘we’ might respond—politically, analytically, methodologically—demands rejecting prevailing, and deeply uneven, tendencies within the worlds of criticism and academia which undermine generous, comradely and collective scholarship. Our hope is to resist pressures to fight it out for a ‘definitive’ mode of conjunctural analysis by instead encouraging a space, however modest, for critical dialogue that grapples with complexity and contradiction in attempts to articulate urgent alternatives. Contributions might take different forms or formats. It is anticipated that a geography/urban studies journal will be approached for the Special Issue, but of course this will depend on the expressions of interest we receive. Rather than providing a list of potential themes or issues, we instead encourage getting in touch if this sounds like the kind of conversation you want to be part of. In which case, please contact Colin Lorne (colin.lorne@open.ac.uk) and Matt Thompson (matt.thompson@ucl.ac.uk) before August 15th 2025 with a brief abstract/summary that offers a sense of what you are seeking to write about. Any questions, thoughts or suggestions, please do get in touch with us both.
August 4, 2025 at 9:58 AM
colinlorne.bsky.social
We're delighted that you're delighted!
cphjournal.bsky.social Journal of Critical Public Health @cphjournal.bsky.social · Jul 19
We are delighted to publish @colinlorne.bsky.social & Michael Lambert's paper on place-based reform, Wigan, & rejecting the politics of responsibilisation for 'left-behind'places - now on online first:
journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jc...
Articulating place: Towards a conjunctural analysis of public health | Journal of Critical Public Health
journalhosting.ucalgary.ca
July 19, 2025 at 3:55 PM
colinlorne.bsky.social
"Articulating place: towards a conjunctural analysis of public health"—now published in the Journal of Critical Public Health

We examine interest in 'place' as a circulating policy solution to improve health, wealth and wellbeing in this conjuncture:

journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jc...
View of Articulating place: Towards a conjunctural analysis of public health
journalhosting.ucalgary.ca
July 15, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Reposted by Colin Lorne
micahh.bsky.social
Amazing news: Princeton & its prosecutors pressed charges against 13 students for a pro-Palestine protest, then offered to dismiss charges against 12 if one, @aditilrao.bsky.social, pled guilty.

Instead, everyone held firm, and today the case was DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE & arrest record expunged!!!
July 9, 2025 at 7:48 PM
colinlorne.bsky.social
Published version - with alternative introduction - to be published very soon!
July 8, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Reposted by Colin Lorne
mattthompson.bsky.social
*call for papers* for a special issue on 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘫𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦

Edited by me and @colinlorne.bsky.social in a geography or urban studies journal yet to be decided

If you're interested in writing about conjunctural thinking and the conjuncture, in any domain or discipline, we'd love to hear from you!
June 23, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Reposted by Colin Lorne
ctemenos.bsky.social
Last week I was pleased to host a workshop on Spatialising Urban Crisis. It highlighted the strategies and challenges of navigating the current conjecture. So great to see and be part of such vibrant conversations! #ukri_flf Thanks to @lorettaclees.bsky.social @colinlorne.bsky.social + all!
June 30, 2025 at 6:18 AM
colinlorne.bsky.social
We make the case for 'thinking conjuncturally' about place and public health: there is a need to locate the many crises, contradictions and antagonisms conditioning public health in this conjuncture in order to articulate political alternatives and identify possibilities for progressive policymaking
colinlorne.bsky.social Colin Lorne @colinlorne.bsky.social · Jun 20
*Articulating place: towards a conjunctural analysis of public health*

Looking at public health through the lens of Wigan, we examine the implications of renewed policy and political interest in 'place' as a solution to improve health, wealth and wellbeing

www.researchgate.net/publication/...
(PDF) Articulating place: towards a conjunctural analysis of public health
PDF | 'Place' is again circulating as a policy solution to improve health, wealth and wellbeing. But while place-based policymaking is quickly becoming... | Find, read and cite all the research you ne...
www.researchgate.net
June 20, 2025 at 2:22 PM
colinlorne.bsky.social
*Articulating place: towards a conjunctural analysis of public health*

Looking at public health through the lens of Wigan, we examine the implications of renewed policy and political interest in 'place' as a solution to improve health, wealth and wellbeing

www.researchgate.net/publication/...
(PDF) Articulating place: towards a conjunctural analysis of public health
PDF | 'Place' is again circulating as a policy solution to improve health, wealth and wellbeing. But while place-based policymaking is quickly becoming... | Find, read and cite all the research you ne...
www.researchgate.net
June 20, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Reposted by Colin Lorne
gypjh2000.bsky.social
Personal stress is not work related says theorist of neoliberal governmentality nation.cymru/news/most-st...
Most stress felt by academics after huge job cuts proposal was personal and not work-related, says Cardiff University Vice Chancellor
Martin Shipton Cardiff University’s embattled Vice Chancellor Wendy Larner has told a Senedd committee that most of the stress endured by the university’s academic staff since the announcement of a ma...
nation.cymru
June 13, 2025 at 4:08 AM