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Universities up and down the country have been shutting down as lecturers have walked out, arguing that the changes to their pension schemes could leave them thousands of pounds a year worse off in retirement.

If you don’t know the difference between your defined benefits and your defined contributions, getting your head round the issues can feel like doing an economics PhD before you’ve done your 101. So this week we’re breaking down what the university strikes are all about, and what they tell us about everyone else’s pensions too.

Ayeisha Thomas-Smith speaks to two striking lecturers: Nadine El-Enany, co-director of the Centre for Research on Race and Law at Birkbeck, and SOAS Senate chair Meera Sabaratnam. They are joined by writer and researcher Christine Berry, who is also a postgraduate student at Sheffield University.

Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF!

Produced by James Shield and Huw Jordan.

Music: Podington Bear, licenced under Creative Commons.

The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

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Why are university lecturers on strike?

Radio Production Awards 2012 - Best Online Creator - winning entry

We're away this week recording our exciting live event with Maya Goodfellow for the podcast next week.

In the meantime we're listening back to a live episode we recorded in April.  Safiya Umoja Noble is an associate professor at UCLA and author of Algorithms of Oppression: How Algorithms Reinforce Racism.

She joined Kirsty Styles for a revealing look at how all kinds of negative biases are embedded in the algorithms that increasingly shape our world.

If you want to find out more about this topic, check out:

Safiya Umoja Noble, Algorithms of Oppression
nyupress.org/9781479837243/algo…hms-of-oppression/

Safiya Umoja Noble, Social Inequality Will not be Solved by an app
www.wired.com/story/social-inequ…-solved-by-an-app/

Sarah Roberts, Behind the Screen
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300235…3/behind-screen

Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/shos…1610395694/

Content warning: in this episode there is discussion of sexual content and pornography that some listeners might find offensive.

Enjoying the show? Tweet us your comments and questions @NEF!

The award-winning Weekly Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the UK's only people powered think tank. Find out more at www.neweconomics.org

Algorithms of Oppression

Award-winning podcast about the economic and political forces shaping our world, with Ayeisha Thomas-Smith and guests. Brought to you by the New Economics Foundation – the independent think tank and charity working to build a new economy that works for people and planet.

Please note, the views expressed on this podcast do not necessarily represent the views of the New Economics Foundation.

Algorithms of Oppression

New Economics Podcast

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