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Category: Publications

New Article: The Intimate and Everyday Geopolitics of the Russian War Against Ukraine

New Article: The Intimate and Everyday Geopolitics of the Russian War Against Ukraine

It’s out in the world. This piece is the final product of the collaboration I wrote about a little while back, co-written with Olena Denysenko, Dina Krichker, Olga Rebro, and Maria Gunko. In contrast to the abstractions of global headlines, we focus on the micro perspectives of everyday lived experience. One theme running through all of the contributions is a variety of bordering processes that fracture territories, families, and lives. I don’t like being too self-promotional, but I think this…

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New article: Building a better host city? Reforming and contesting the Olympics in Paris 2024

New article: Building a better host city? Reforming and contesting the Olympics in Paris 2024

I’m very happy with this article. It came out a while ago but I haven’t written about it until now, except for this Twitter thread. The general idea is to explore the implications of the New Norm Olympic reforms as played out on the ground in Paris. This is one of the publications I promised as part of my postdoc project at the University of Lausanne. That project is now very nearly concluded, so it’s time to take stock of…

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Blurry Microgeographies of the New Normal

Blurry Microgeographies of the New Normal

I seem to have developed a bit of a side gig writing about covid. Back in April 2020, I wrote a small blog about the Great Pause. It feels funny to read it now, of course, because we now know what the ruptures to the status quo did and did not accomplish. But at the same time it’s interesting to look back at the early days of the pandemic, if for no other reason than to satisfy a sort of…

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An extremely happy new year to you and yours

An extremely happy new year to you and yours

So I published a book! It looks like this: And I know it’s not perfect by any means, and I’d love to have a go at bringing some of the chapters more in line with my current thinking. But that’s the way this game is played, and I have to admit that I am overjoyed at holding an actual copy in my actual hands. You can get a copy here, at the fine and wonderful publisher. Or, if you’d like,…

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Book review: Global Finance, Local Control – by Igor Logvinenko

Book review: Global Finance, Local Control – by Igor Logvinenko

I love book reviews. I love reading them and I love writing them. Reading them is great – in a world where so much amazing research is published every day, it seems impossible to keep up. But book reviews help make that work easier. Frankly I wish ordinary academic articles would have a digest like this as well. Sure, it’s depressing that our world is so rapid that we aren’t given the time to sit back and enjoy reading articles….

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Between the minor and the intimate. New publication in Geopolitics!

Between the minor and the intimate. New publication in Geopolitics!

I’m extremely happy with this article. It was a tough road but a valuable one. The seed was planted by the excellent Michele Lancione, who I was lucky enough to meet at a workshop in Neuchâtel in 2019. Michele introduced me to his approach to micropolitics and minor ethics, which he’d written about back in 2017. I’d missed that article, unfortunately, but was deeply moved and inspired by his talk and by our later conversations. After our meeting, I returned…

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Russia, Marseille, and the Geopolitics of Sport at Many Scales

Russia, Marseille, and the Geopolitics of Sport at Many Scales

Note: this is the second time (!) something like this has happened. As before, I was approached to write a commentary for a non peer-reviewed expert journal – a different one this time. As before, and I still have no idea why, the editor never wrote back after commissioning and receiving the piece. Did I write to check in? Of course. Has there been any response? Not the slightest. Rather bad form. I don’t let it ruin my day, but…

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Cancel the summer of super-spreader mega-events

Cancel the summer of super-spreader mega-events

This being a personal academic blog, obviously I tend to share more of my successes rather than setbacks or failures. That said, I think it’s important to share some of the more challenging moments too, so that’s what this one will be about. Back in 2015, I was fortunate enough to have a commentary on mega-events and public health published in The Lancet – certainly a highlight for any early career academic. With a number of high profile mega-events back…

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New special issue out now: The urban and economic impacts of mega-events

New special issue out now: The urban and economic impacts of mega-events

It’s been a long road, but finally our special issue is complete and out in the (virtual) world at last. Some lessons learned about special issues and collaborative publishing projects: It’s going to take longer than you want or expect. Everyone is busy, overwhelmed, working on a last-minute project. Budget in more time than you think you need. A clear project plan is your best friend. I made an excel file that had every contributor and every contribution, along with…

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The powerful innovation of video abstracts

The powerful innovation of video abstracts

I know I’m not the only one a bit overwhelmed at times by the amount of good, interesting, and important academic work there is coming out. Just about every day I get another content alert from a journal I like, and there’s usually at least one or three that I really want and need to read. This means that I often have to read selectively. I don’t like this, actually. It’s much nicer to sit and be with a paper…

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