What will incumbents do? According to Max Wakefield, the lead campaigner for British climate charity 10:10, “they’re there to protect their market share.” Wakefield, who has been running 10:10’ s Blown Away campaign – which seeks to overcome government hostility to onshore wind – said that incumbents can be expected to fight dirty, to buy... Continue Reading →
Chairing academic sessions for fun and… diversity #IST2018 #manels #academia
So, the International Sustainability Transitions conference has come and gone. A fine event, with a huge number of scholars delivering papers, speed talks, with plenty of time for schmoozing and boozing. I wrote already about the problem of manels and 'What is to be Done', but that was before I had a) delivered my own... Continue Reading →
Of manels, transitions and Ottawa. #IST2018 and #IST2019
The organisers of #IST2018 have worked extremely hard, and pulled together what has already been an interesting and thought-provoking programme (with a day and a half still to come). Barring a few things in the conference programme (the floor 1 and 4 switcheroo), it's been a well-oiled machine - in part thanks to the affable... Continue Reading →
Of interesting questions and interesting times
How do you create collegiality? How do you ensure that the emotional tone of an ongoing event is 'right', and that people aren't intimidated from the outset? How do you get peer-to-peer learning and interacting going at a higher-than-normal level? How do you do those things and other important things? How do you make sure... Continue Reading →
Field mobilization and how little we know… #PhD
Really really wish I'd gotten better hold of the institutional theory leg of this stool (chair?) that is my thesis earlier in the process. Am good enough on the policy stuff (MSA, PE, ACF etc etc), and the empirics, and even the sociotech transitions stuff. But I wasn't deep, wide and overview-y enough on institutional... Continue Reading →
Mundane epiphany #94 on the thesis
I am walking around the park pretty much every morning now, with my backpack (weights, books) and journal articles in hand. And things are coming together on this (though they probably could have earlier. So it goes). And two mundane epiphanies that will mean nothing to anyone except me and my supervisors (who I assume... Continue Reading →
Boxer’s disease
"Boxer could not get beyond the letter D. He would trace out A, B, C, D in the dust with his great hoof, and then would stand staring at the letters with his ears back, sometimes shaking his forelock, trying with all his might to remember what came next and never succeeding. On several occasions,... Continue Reading →
Fear and the capture of new markets #transitions #energy
Oh I want a post-doc. Not just for the paying of the bills: I actually know what I want to study too. I want to study the mobilisation of emotions (fear, greed, hope etc) by entrepreneurs and contrapreneurs to create new markets capture existing/emerging ones prevent new ones forming because it offends your a) worldview... Continue Reading →
Rabbit Holes, Mole Hills and living life forward… #PhDburblings
The fairly horrible (emotionally) but exhilarating (intellectually) process of The Thesis is coming to an end, overdue and incomplete as they mostly are. While yomping around the park this morning articles with title like "Institutional Logics and Institutional Work: Should they be agreed?" and "How are Management fashions institutionalized? The role of institutional work", I... Continue Reading →