Jacob works around the political economy of logistics. His PhD research looks at speculation and planning for future shipping routes as a result of climate breakdown. He is focusing on the Transpolar Sea Route: a speculative shipping lane cutting across the North Pole that may soon open up as a result of rapidly melting sea ice. This route would remap the world’s commodity flows, allowing cargo between China, Europe and the US to bypass key chokepoints like the Suez Canal.
Drawing on critical approaches to logistics, security and risk, he is studying the process by which versions of the future are produced through logistical planning and economic forecasting, and the role of these futures in materialising the nuts and bolts of the world economy and global division of labour.
Prior to joining LSE, Jacob was a researcher for an NGO working on labour exploitation, carrying out research into experiences of migrant farm workers in the UK. He used to teach at the Royal College of Art, and at the Critical Practice Studio in Dheisheh, Palestine. He holds an MA from the Centre for Research Architecture, where he also studied and worked with the investigative agency Forensic Architecture. He is also part of the research and arts duo Liquid Time, writing and making films around shipping, finance and the temporalities of the maritime world.
Publications
Bolton, J. (2024), Supply Nets: The Logistics of Seafarer Abandonment. Antipode, 56: 1172-1190. Read article.
Research Interests
Logistics and Shipping
Just Transition
Climate Finance
Critical Minerals
Climate Infrastructure
Media
Shipping Doesn’t Do What Everyone Says it Does, for Weird Economies
Britain’s seasonal worker scheme leaves many migrants in debt, research finds, Financial Times
Liquid Time interview Charmaine Chua, Sonic Acts
Affiliations
Future Matters Network
Grupo de Investigação Territorial
Positions Held
Associate Lecturer, Royal College of Art
Teaching Assistant, Critical Practice Studio (Al-Quds Bard College)
Conference papers
Dead Ends, Lost Means: The Supply Chain of Abandonment, Dimensions of Political Ecology Conference, 2022
Awards
LSE Studentship Award
Goldsmiths Masters Scholarship
Software
Nvivo, QGIS, Adobe Suite, Blender
Supervisors
Dr Kasia Paprocki
Dr Austin Zeiderman
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