Elisa Pannini

Net replacement rates in unemployment for a single homeowner on average wage without children (%, 2024) - pink dot is at month one of unemployment and blue dot at month 60. UK rates are low by international standards

Even if AI doesn’t hit jobs in a big way, unemployment is starting to re-emerge as a policy issue. So it’s good that @sarahoconnorft.ft.com reminds us how low our unemployment benefits are, and how this can lead to people taking jobs below their skill level
www.ft.com/content/771a...

A flyer promoting a University of Greenwich study on sexual wellness and workplace wellbeing, with illustrated diverse people in the background.

My colleague Ratnes Alahakone is looking for participants in her study on Sexual Wellness: A New Frontier in Employee Wellbeing at Work. You can sign up here: form.typeform.com/to/Vrfb7oXF

Can someone share this with Starmer?

British Academy response to the Department for Education's technical consultation on the Interational Student Levy 18 February 2026 Background The Department for Education is consulting on the proposed levy on international student income, due to be introduced in England in August 2028.

‘We remain deeply concerned that universities will be unable to absorb the cost of the levy’s
introduction. The loss of cross-subsidy for domestic teaching & research will harm
universities’ ability to deliver their core functions’
Our response to the levy
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/60...

How to battle the normalisation of neo-fascist populism | LSE Research YouTube video by LSE

How to battle the normalisation of populist neo-fascism

youtu.be/Z5J7J1mvYtc?...

Who decides when and where you work? The battle is raging in Whitehall, and the result may affect us all | Polly Toynbee The dispute over hybrid working at the Office for National Statistics is becoming a key test of worker power, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee

"Managers may prefer to see people at desks, but for many who take jobs while carefully calculating rents, house prices, commuting costs and childcare complexities, flexibility is not a nice-to-have feature but the difference between taking and leaving a job."
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

‘The most bitter news’: Iran reels as more than 100 children reportedly killed in school bombing The building appears to be among many devastated in Trump’s ‘major combat operations’ as long expected attacks arrive

'Collateral damage'

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...

The greatest risk of AI in higher education isn’t cheating – it’s the erosion of learning itself Automating knowledge production and teaching weakens the ecosystem of students and scholars that sustains universities, raising existential questions about their mission.

The greatest risk of AI in higher education isn’t cheating – it’s the erosion of learning itself

share.google/CjcdXejrMQyJ...

Come in person or join us online tomorrow:

This is good on where things are, but I’m not sure that in lots of cases higher ed has ever really been about the ‘transmission of knowledge’: how many humanities undergrads who go off into work really retain the subject-level knowledge? Thinking and writing have always been more important.

Sex and snacks, but no seat at the table: the role of women in Epstein’s sordid men’s club Files reveal a world of flattery and fratboy tones, where rich men are cultivated and women provide services

For women,these files offer an unprecedented chance to eavesdrop on conversations from which they are usually excluded [...] a salutary insights into what a set of distinguished global figures think and say about women when they assume the women aren’t listening.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

ADVICE: If universities want their journals to be sustainable, and to serve scholarship well, three practical implications follow.
First, treat journals as infrastructure.
Second, invest in metadata as a public good.
Third, recognise diversity as a feature, not a failure.

BUIRA Annual Conference 2026: Regulation in a Time of Disruption, 23-25 June, Essex University. Call for papers now open: www.buira.net/2026/01/22/c...

Futures of Work A space for radical critiques of the changing world of work

🔶New issue of Futures of Work.

This issue explores how borders shape workers’ lives, treating them not as neutral lines but as contested and ideological forces. The articles show how bordering practices structure labour mobility and inequality.

futuresofwork.co.uk

We stand in solidarity with EU countries.

Together, we are holding online platforms accountable.

Online platforms bring many benefits, but they also pose risks:

🔴 Harmful content
🔴 Addictive features
🔴 Threats to children, consumers, democracies, and elections

This is huge. Tenure was axed in the UK by Thatcher for political reasons in 1988, and since then UK academics have gradually completely lost control of their entire sector.

Tenure is the bedrock of what *real* academic freedom means, not the right-wing 'you must platform fascists version' /1

Real wages declined 0.3% for low-wage workers in 2025, a stark departure from the unusually strong wage gains they had experienced over the previous five years. This reversal was not inevitable—it was caused by policy decisions that weakened the labor market.

#EconSky @epi.org @joe-fast.bsky.social

Organisational Misbehaviour - Free Seminar University of Greenwich – Management Inquiry Group (MIG) and Centre for Research in Employment and Work (CREW) Seminar

Seminar on Organisational Misbehaviour
Online and in person:

⏰Tue 17th Feb 10am - 1pm

Prof Wim Vanderckhove, EDHEC Business School
Dr Athol Williams, University of Oxford
Dr Guodong Cheng, University of Greenwich
Chair: Dr Sterling Rauseo

Register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/organisati...

🚨 Wide gaps in waiting times for a SEND diagnosis by socio-economic background 🚨

Our research shows how middle-class (ABC1) parents have shorter waiting times for formal SEND diagnoses than working-class (C2DE) parents.

Are you interested in pursuing a funded PhD at the ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work, at the University of Leeds, supervised by Mark Stuart & Charles Umney? You will contribute to a study titled, ‘Building employment inclusion within the West Yorkshire regional digital skills ecosystem.'

‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university? When Essex University’s Southend campus opened, it was a message of hope for a ‘left behind’ UK seaside town. Its closure will be felt far beyond its 800 students, some of whom will not get their degrees

‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university?

Abstract Al assistance produces significant productivity gains across professional domains, particularly for novice workers. Yet how this assistance affects the development of skills required to effectively supervise AI remains unclear. Novice workers who rely heavily on AI to complete unfamiliar tasks may compromise their own skill acquisition in the process. We conduct randomized experiments to study how developers gained mastery of a new asynchronous programming library with and without the assistance of Al. We find that AI use impairs conceptual understanding, code reading, and debugging abilities, without delivering significant efficiency gains on average. Participants who fully delegated coding tasks showed some productivity improvements, but at the cost of learning the library. We identify six distinct AI interaction patterns, three of which involve cognitive engagement and preserve learning outcomes even when participants receive AI assistance. Our findings suggest that Al-enhanced productivity is not a shortcut to competence and AI assistance should be carefully adopted into workflows to preserve skill formation - particularly in safety-critical domains.

‘Novice workers who rely heavily on AI to complete unfamiliar tasks may compromise their own skill acquisition… We find that AI use impairs conceptual understanding, code reading, and debugging abilities, without delivering significant efficiency gains on average.’
arxiv.org/pdf/2601.20245

AI Skills for Life and Work: summary report

A lot to digest here in this government summary report on AI Skills for Life and Work. www.gov.uk/government/p...

Jane Lethbridge examines how the meat production industry functions as a global industry, contributing to increased health risks for consumers and workers and as a major emitter of greenhouse gases.

bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journal...

Open letter from Ian Chapman to research and innovation community UKRI Chief Executive outlines changes to UKRI investment approach, addressing concerns about research funding and the financial position of STFC.

Hot off the press - a letter from the Exec Chair of @ukri.org explaining his plans and in particular the financial position of STFC. It notes curiosity driven research is protected and will make up around half of UKRI spend over the coming period
www.ukri.org/news/open-le...

One in seven food delivery businesses in England are ‘dark kitchens’, study shows University researchers say growth of the hidden fast food industry may pose risks to public health

One in seven food businesses on major delivery platforms, including Deliveroo and Just Eat, is now a “dark kitchen”

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

12 Dec 2025 OSH in the age of artificial intelligence YouTube video by ETUI

First was the second day of the @etui.bsky.social occupational safety and health conference. I particularly liked the talks by Juan Sebastian Carbonell (limits to algorithmic management) and @aloisi.bsky.social 👋 (AI at work: product or people safety?) www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqL9... (2/4)

Imagine having your 5-year old child taken away by an armed man in a baklava.

Watch PM Carney's address and Q&A at the 2026 World Economic Forum YouTube video by The Canadian Press

Spare 15 minutes and listen to Carney's speech at Davos:

"You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination."

youtu.be/hZCGD3ZTlZw?...

I was recently wondering also if he had contacts with Epstein. He surely must have known, and it seems he might have had an interest in that business...