Let’s start with the joke. No, I don’t mean the last 10 years of non-dealing with climate change at a local authority level. That’s not funny. Let’s start with this: A physicist, a chemist and an economist are stranded on a desert island, with a large can of soup. The physicist says “We could drop... Continue Reading →
Interview with Rosemary Randall, psychoanalyst and author of brilliant #climate novel “Transgression”
A superb novel about climate activism (and much more) was released earlier this year. It is by Rosemary Randall, a retired psychoanalyst who has written a great deal (of extremely useful) work on the psychodynamics of meetings, and on climate change. You can read a 2013 interview I conducted with her for Manchester Climate Monthly.... Continue Reading →
Activism, patriarchy and still saying goodbye to all that 50-ish years on…
Dr Manuel Cervera-Marzal, the author of a book chapter - "Ordinary Resistance to Masculine Domination in a Civil Disobedience Movement" - very kindly sent me a copy of his work. It's ... really good, and everyone doing activist work should read it. It escapes that most common of academic-studying-activists traps, the uncritical puff-piece extolling the... Continue Reading →
6 articles in search of an author to write about them
The tl:dr - six more articles, each with something of use for scholars or activists (and sometimes, for both). You should know the drill by now (one, two, three). Edwards G (2008) ‘The Lifeworld’ as a resource for social movement participation and the consequences of its colonization. Sociology 42(2): 299–316. Horton, J., & Kraftl, P.... Continue Reading →
Who sticks around, who doesn’t? Maps, member-tracing and validity issues
When it comes to "successful" social movements the questions are usually "how big was the demo?"(1) or "how do we get more people along to our next meeting?" This is of course, wrong-headed. (Some of) the relevant questions are - "Who drops out?" "Why?" "Who sticks around?" "Why?" "What does "sticking around" even mean,... Continue Reading →
Activists and “narrative” – of academia, words and deeds. Oh, and Paul Kelly did it better
The TL:DR - Follow my "adventures" as I read a bunch of articles and only narrowly escape rabbitholitis. Conclusion - there ARE useful things to be had in reading about activism, useful for "movements." But you need to know a lot, have been through a lot, be able to theorise and act before you can... Continue Reading →
Whatever happens to the people who give a damn? Abeyance, activism, academia
First, listen to this very cool song by Gil Scott Heron With one exception (1), what goes up, must come down. The big (2) wave of climate concern was, I thought, gonna crest and break in November-December 2020. But COVID-19 has pushed the Glasgow climate meeting into the long-ish grass of next year, and XR's... Continue Reading →
Videos abt useful concepts: Biographical Availability
Gonna make videos about "useful" concepts - the ones that I seem to come back to time and again. Have downloaded Openshot, am gonna fire up my Paint skills (and maybe some Gimping). This one is as rough as a badger's arse, but so what? Biographical availability. Others to follow - emotacycles, legitimate peripheral... Continue Reading →
The four Cs- Coronavirus, Capitalism, Climate and Cats (“belling of”)
Another hot take about what may be coming. The USP for this one is that It tries to use some academic theories but in plain English It admits up front - “who the hell knows?” It actually foregrounds the crucial question other posts (e.g. this otherwise interesting one) ignore - “who is going to bell... Continue Reading →
STRN announces partnership with Bilderberg Group
The Sustainability Transitions Research Network today proudly announces a Mutual Love Partnership (MLP) - with the influential Bilderberg Group. The STRN, which has been in operation for almost a decade, acts as a platform for the exchange of ideas and a forum for chest-beating and prestige battles. It will be subsumed within the Bilderberg Group,... Continue Reading →
marchudson.net 