Ian Bruff

See my Google Scholar page for publications.

I am a critical political economist who has worked in the Politics department since 2013. I was the Managing Editor, for the whole of its existence from 2014-23, of the cross-disciplinary Transforming Capitalism book series published by Rowman & Littlefield International (now under the Bloomsbury umbrella), and I am on the Editorial Board for the journal Art & the Public Sphere. Also, I was the Chair of the Critical Political Economy Research Network of the European Sociological Association from 2009-13, and am now on CPERN's International Advisory Board.

From 2010-15 I was on the Governing Board of the European International Studies Association, in the process acting as one of the two programme chairs for both the 2013 and 2015 EISA conferences. From 2012-14 I was the Chair of the Book Prize panel of judges for the International Political Economy Group of the British International Studies Association, and from 2011-15 I was part of the editorial team for the Routledge/RIPE Series in Global Political Economy.

My 2014 article 'The Rise of Authoritarian Neoliberalism' was the subject of a day-long workshop in June 2024. Entitled 'The Rise of Authoritarian Neoliberalism: Ten Years On', see here for the workshop Call and here for the programme.

My research is founded upon a core interest in the materialities and experiences of living in capitalism. From this I focus on a number of theoretical and empirical issues, such as:

- Neoliberal thought, especially the absence of free markets from it

- The rise of authoritarian neoliberalism, its variegated manifestations, and its contestation by various resistance movements

- Critical methodologies regarding comparison and phenomenologies of knowledge production

- Critical social theory, especially Antonio Gramsci/Stuart Hall and feminism

- European political economy, at a range of scales (EU, national, regional, etc.) 

- Literary theories regarding authoring, normative grammars, and techniques of production

- Politicising practices and art/culture/the body/pedagogy 

Doctoral supervision/Postdoctoral mentoring

Each year, I receive numerous speculative emails regarding PhD/Postdoctoral/Visiting Researcher applications; often, these emails discuss projects that transparently have little to do with my research interests/expertise or show no knowledge of my work. Therefore, emails must include a paragraph which engages with my work and explains why they have contacted me. I will not reply to emails which do not do this. 

I currently co-supervise 3 PhD students. Their projects cover: Shadow care infrastructures in migrant communities in Greater Manchester; Depletion and social reproduction crises in UK healthcare; Contestations of urban spaces in Greater Manchester. I have co-supervised to completion 10 PhD projects, on: The politics of labour reforms in neoliberalising Italy; Utilities-based indebtedness in Greece; Corbynism, democracy and neoliberalism; The role of economic forums in promoting neoliberal development in India and Turkey; Everyday life and questions of recognition and distinction in Turkey; The politics of labour in the Euro Area's strategies of competitiveness; The revival of financialised securitisation in the EU; The relationship between art and politics in the work of Alfredo Jaar; Political education and civil society in Egypt; Power hierarchies and struggles within the WTO. Several of these have been co-supervised with a colleague from outside Politics; I welcome opportunities to be part of a cross-disciplinary supervisory team.

I have mentored 7 doctoral students and 1 postdoctoral researcher as Visiting Researchers, whose projects concerned: Authoritarian neoliberalism in Chile and Colombia; Class inequalities and South African development strategies; Struggles over water privatisation in Ireland and Australia; The politics of organising labour at chokepoints in Brazil and Portugal; Women's experiences of household indebtedness in Greece and Turkey; Debates about neo-Gramscian theory; Struggles over social reproduction and crisis in Spain; Neoliberalisation processes in Italy since the 1970s.

I currently convene two MA modules - Comparing Capitalisms in the Global Political Economy, and European Capitalisms: Crises, Transformations and Contestations. I also help teach the Year 1 UG module Politics of the Global Economy, and I convene the professional development module for all PhD students but especially those in year 2 of their project (Politics PhD Seminar).

Finally, each year I supervise plenty of dissertations, especially at UG level, where I particularly enjoy taking on cross-disciplinary projects which adhere to a broad definition of the term 'politics'. Examples of recent outstanding projects include: Acid house and resistance to Thatcherism; Political subjectivities of foodbank volunteers; Romani resistance within Eastern European cinema; Constructions of gender in loyalist murals in Belfast; Drill and coloniality; Understanding Islamist 'radicalisation'; Labour organising in the gig economy.