Tom Barnes
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drtombarnes.bsky.social
Tom Barnes
@drtombarnes.bsky.social
780 followers 910 following 22 posts
Sociologist of work & economy, Australian Catholic University, researching warehouse logistics, auto manufacturing, precarity, labour regimes, India, Australia
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Reposted by Tom Barnes
labourrc44.bsky.social
🚨The latest issue of RC44's newsletter (July 2025) is out now, including announcements about the recent 5th ISA Forum of #Sociology in Rabat, Morocco, great new publications, and a major new job opportunity for #labour researchers in Hong Kong - check it out!!👀✊
August 2, 2025 at 5:24 AM
drtombarnes.bsky.social
Very happy to see this out & about in the real world - thanks to @laurenkatekelly.bsky.social & Chris O'Neill for co-editing... checkout all the articles from our special issue here: www.scienceopen.com/journal-issu...
July 9, 2025 at 4:05 AM
Reposted by Tom Barnes
laurenkatekelly.bsky.social
Very happy to see this one published with dream team collaborators @blueskychris.bsky.social @thaophan.bsky.social @jakegoldenfein.bsky.social and @jathansadowski.com
July 7, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Reposted by Tom Barnes
laurenkatekelly.bsky.social
A big shout out to @drtombarnes.bsky.social for leading this work and taking up the lion's share of labour required of a Special Issue. Thanks comrade.
July 7, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Reposted by Tom Barnes
laurenkatekelly.bsky.social
Our Special Issue of WOLG has been published--New Worlds of Logistical Labour: Space, places, technologies, workers

A big thank you to our incredible contributors and co-editors @drtombarnes.bsky.social and @blueskychris.bsky.social for making this happen 🎉

www.scienceopen.com/hosted-docum...
July 7, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Reposted by Tom Barnes
labourrc44.bsky.social
The June newsletter of RC44 is out now, including important news about the 5th ISA Forum of #Sociology which starts on Sunday in Rabat, Morocco, incl. one from Global Sociologists for Palestine (GS4P) regarding solidarity at the Forum with the Palestinian people #freePalestine
July 3, 2025 at 2:29 AM
Reposted by Tom Barnes
labourrc44.bsky.social
The May 2025 issue of RC44’s Monthly Newsletter is out now, including important calls about the forthcoming 5th ISA Forum of #Sociology in Morocco, as well as calls to support our flagship publication, Global #Labour Journal (including a call for junior editors to join the editorial board)🙂✊
June 2, 2025 at 1:48 AM
Reposted by Tom Barnes
alexandergallas.bsky.social
The Global Labour Journal, the official journal of @labourrc44.bsky.social and @glu-network.bsky.social, has launched a petition demaning its inclusion in the World of Science main catalogue.

Please spread the word and sign!

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Support the ranking of the Global Labour Journal!
Dear RC 44 and GLU members, we are asking for your support to advocate for the inclusion of the Global Labour Journal in the Web of Science (WOS Clarivate) main catalogue. GLJ is currently included in...
docs.google.com
May 19, 2025 at 10:33 AM
Reposted by Tom Barnes
ouranu.bsky.social
Open letter: The ANU executive is planning a new round of unnecessary and damaging cuts and forced redundancies. We are asking staff to sign this open letter calling on the executive to cancel planned CMPs and to be transparent about ANU’s finances.

ANU colleagues please sign and share widely.
Open letter: Staff call on the ANU executive to stop these unnecessary cuts
Fact sheet on 'Renew ANU so far': https://shorturl.at/iYVjc Open Letter PDF for print with QR codes to sign: https://shorturl.at/5KYs3 __________________________________________________ Letter to AN...
forms.gle
May 26, 2025 at 12:42 AM
drtombarnes.bsky.social
Useful by @1RossGittins on #productivity and real #wages… & of course the problem is that the latter has completely collapsed over the past 3 years #Economics www.smh.com.au/business/the...
Want greater productivity? Set wages to rise by 3.5 per cent a year
Rather than telling workers real wages can’t rise until we get more productivity, we should try reversing the process and make the cost of labour grow.
www.smh.com.au
May 18, 2025 at 10:05 PM
drtombarnes.bsky.social
Following the Aus election, all this talk about civility is such bollocks; severely underplays how much of Labor’s win was luck. Living standards having sunk, voters are scared that Trump will wreck world economy & make things worse again. That fear’s what smashed Dutton not Labor being ‘kind’ FFS🤦‍♂️
May 5, 2025 at 3:28 AM
Reposted by Tom Barnes
labourrc44.bsky.social
🚨 🚨 Check out and share the new RC44 newsletter (March 2025 issue)!!✊😀 #labor #ISAforum25
April 1, 2025 at 12:19 AM
drtombarnes.bsky.social
Remember reading Ian Lowe’s Living in the Hothouse almost 20 years ago; among key predictions was that #globalwarming would shift the tropical cycle zone south to northern NSW within a few decades. Hope folks up there & in Qld will be okay🙏 #CycloneAlfred #ClimateCrisis
March 4, 2025 at 1:05 AM
Reposted by Tom Barnes
labourrc44.bsky.social
Please read & share the February 2025 issue of RC44's February newsletter, including our call for action regarding the exclusion of RC44’s flagship publication, Global Labour Journal, from journal rankings by the multinational corporation, Clarivate #labour #workers
March 2, 2025 at 4:17 AM
drtombarnes.bsky.social
Australia’s #RBA living in an alternative universe… which means more, completely unnecessary pain & uncertainty for workers & households www.smh.com.au/business/the... #reservebank #interestrates #auspol
RBA is lost in the frightening territory of full employment
The central bank’s bizarre behaviour last week is a sign that it has lost its bearings and isn’t sure what’s happening in the economy or where it’s headed.
www.smh.com.au
February 23, 2025 at 11:00 PM
drtombarnes.bsky.social
😔😢
julietschor.bsky.social Juliet Schor @julietschor.bsky.social · Feb 5
Michael Burawoy is one of the reasons I came to love sociology. I admired him so much, both for his scholarship and activism, but also his deep humanity. It was a privilege to know him and the many brilliant students he produced. What a profound loss to the world we have suffered today. RIP Michael.
February 5, 2025 at 4:27 AM
Reposted by Tom Barnes
esmeterry.bsky.social
📣 Call for papers!
✨DISRUPTING TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE
📅 Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th June, 2025
📍 University of Leeds, UK
‼️ Abstract submission deadline: 7th March 2025
📧 Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be submitted via email to: ceric@leeds.ac.uk

www.linkedin.com/posts/esme-t...
Esme Terry on LinkedIn: CfP: Disrupting Technology Conference 2025, Leeds
📣🌟 Call for Papers! Disrupting Technology Conference 2025 🌟 📣 📅 When? Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th June, 2025 📍 Where? University of Leeds, UK ‼️…
www.linkedin.com
January 17, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Reposted by Tom Barnes
labourrc44.bsky.social
Are you going to the 5th ISA Forum of Sociology in Rabat, Morocco (6-11 July)? Did you know you can apply for a grant towards registration costs? If you're a labour researcher, you need to apply with RC44 before 31 January!! For more info, contact tom.barnes@acu.edu.au #labour #unions #ISAForum25
January 10, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Reposted by Tom Barnes
jathansadowski.com
Thrilled to announce the official publication of my new book — The Mechanic and the Luddite: A Ruthless Criticism of Technology and Capitalism

Grab my book to go beyond the vaporous hype and get the real material analysis of technological capitalism that we all need! www.ucpress.edu/books/the-me...
Photo of a white man's hand holding a book titled THE MECHANIC AND THE LUDDITE. subtitled A RUTHLESS CRITICISM of TECHNOLOGY and CAPITALISM. author JATHAN SADOWSKI. The cover is a mottled red and orange with an image of a circular toothed gear with a crossed wrench and hammer inside. The title is rockered over the top of the gear and the subtitle is rockered below the gear. Back cover of THE MECHANIC AND THE LUDDITE book. DEMYSTIFIES HOW TWO SYSTEMS — TECHNOLOGY AND CAPITALISM — WORK TOGETHER AND EQUIPS US WITH TOOLS TO BUILD A BETTER WORLD Our society is constantly serving the needs of technology and capitalism. Neither system exists outside humans, but both are treated as above and beyond us. The Mechanic and the Luddite provides the critical tools we need to deconstruct these systems-how they work and what work they do in our lives. But It's not enough to know how the machinery of capitalism and technology operate; we also need to know whom the machines serve in order to decide whether they should be taken apart, rebuilt, or destroyed for good. With signature style, Jathan Sadowski gives readers a provocative and handy manual for understand- ing the power of technology and capitalism and, crucially, the power we must take back. "Jathan Sadowski is one of the most incisive and important thinkers on technology and capitalism today. This urgent book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the deeper political economy that shapes the digital domain and, by extension, every facet of modern life -ASTRA TAYLOR, author of The Age of Security: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart "Smart, urgent, and bluntly powerful, this book is required reading for anyone who seeks to understand how technology gets made — and whom it's made to serve. The time for a thunderous new Luddite politics is now and Sadowski's accessible manifesto delivers" -BRIAN MERCHANT, author of flood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech Sadowski's crisp and active prose generously illuminates technology's relationship to flows of money and power and the whims of those who wield them." MEREDITH WHITTAKER, Chief Advisor and Cofounder, Al Now Institute JATHAN SADOWSKI is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University. He is author of Too Smart and host of the podcast This Machine Kills
January 5, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Reposted by Tom Barnes
keanbirch.bsky.social
We're recruiting Postdoctoral Visitor in AI & Governance, York University, Canada. Deadline 20 Dec 2024. More about role contained in the job ad: www.yorku.ca/research/wp-...

Working with myself, @tdagne.bsky.social & Rob Gehl

#AIethics #AIgovernance #STS #techlaw

www.yorku.ca/research/wp-...
www.yorku.ca
December 12, 2024 at 2:04 PM
Reposted by Tom Barnes
davidpeetz.bsky.social
Good work by @drtombarnes.bsky.social explaining what's behind the huge Woolies dispute.

Includes AI's role & how a large warehouse was closed and replaced by one with fewer staff, lower (!) wages, greater work intensity and larger capacity.

theconversation.com/the-dispute-...
The dispute causing empty shelves at Woolies is a test case for companies using AI and automation on workers
The use of AI and wearable technologies to speed up work and monitor employees is becoming more widespread in businesses around the world.
theconversation.com
December 7, 2024 at 4:26 AM
Reposted by Tom Barnes
grogsgamut.bsky.social
The latest Labour Account figures show almost all of the increase in hours worked in the past year came from health, social assistance, education and public admin
Chart showing annual growth of hours worked by non-market and market sectors. 97% comes from the non-market sector
December 6, 2024 at 3:39 AM
Reposted by Tom Barnes
jphillll.bsky.social
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions has announced that it will begin an indefinite general strike tomorrow, demanding the immediate resignation of President Yoon Suk-yeol.
December 3, 2024 at 7:34 PM
drtombarnes.bsky.social
Behind the empty shelves at #Woolworths is a conflict with implications for the #futureofwork, #technology & workers’ rights - my latest for The Conversation on the ongoing #strikes around Australia - theconversation.com/the-dispute-...
The dispute causing empty shelves at Woolies is a test case for companies using AI and automation on workers
The use of AI and wearable technologies to speed up work and monitor employees is becoming more widespread in businesses around the world.
theconversation.com
December 4, 2024 at 4:45 AM
drtombarnes.bsky.social
Stopping a return to #autocracy in #SouthKorea is important to all who support #democracy, but esp. to #labour activists… #Unions were indispensable in smashing autocracy in the 1980s (reshaping global unionism in the process)… & they are front & centre again in fighting its unwelcome return
nytimes.com The New York Times @nytimes.com · Dec 3
President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea declared martial law on Tuesday night, accusing the opposition of “trying to overthrow the free democracy.” But about five hours later, he said he would lift the declaration. Here's what to know.
Martial Law Declared in South Korea: What to Know
President Yoon Suk Yeol has been locked in a bitter fight with the opposition, which controls Parliament
www.nytimes.com
December 3, 2024 at 10:45 PM