So, I just read this. I haven't double-checked it yet, by the author is a damn fine journo/thinker/historian... It's from a story about an(other) attempt to reduce the damage caused by cars in Los Angeles. Last month the centre-right coalition Government of Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers came up with a comprehensive plan to keep the... Continue Reading →
#Keating and #climate – the longer Cabinet papers story
The 1992/3 Cabinet Papers have been released. The Conversation let me (I badgered them) do the article on what we learn from them about the environmental policy battles. It's posted here, and I think they did their usual excellent job editing me. Here is the full (much too long for their format) version, in case... Continue Reading →
Bateson, schismogenesis, etc and The Wire…
So, am reading about Institutional Work. And stumbled on an article that used the best television show that I ever saw ('The Wire') to talk about this and a LOT else. Not sure how I will be able to use it in The Thesis (concept of fields, relentless contestation that changes the actors - and... Continue Reading →
Books I definitely didn’t buy/get given
Chandler, A. 1977. The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business. Cambridge, Mass: The Belknap Press. [Chomsky rates this one highly. Definitely didn't buy this for 99p in Lancaster.] Fromm, E. 2003. Marx's concept of Mann. London: Continuum. [Definitely didn't buy this for 50p in Lancaster.] Lawson, N. 2008. An Appeal to Reason: A... Continue Reading →
Now THAT’s a life: Louis Herren
"When a politician tells you something in confidence, always ask yourself Why is this lying bastard lying to me?" Always good advice, I think. Louis Heren, the guy behind it, led an extra-ordinary life. And I'd never heard of him. Louis Philip Heren (6 February 1919 - 26 January 1995) was a foreign correspondent. He... Continue Reading →
All in the game, you feel me?! Academia and The Wire.
Come hell or high water, this is getting cited in The Thesis. Zundel, M., Holt, R., & Cornelissen, J. (2012). Institutional work in The Wire: An ethological investigation of flexibility in organizational adaptation. Journal of Management Inquiry, doi:10.1177/1056492612440045 Analysis of institutional work is habitually complicated by the need to combine agentic and structural features. Drawing... Continue Reading →
Balance schmalance- when the powerful do it is in the ‘national interest’
So, I am writing an article; a proper academic article. Got me a journal in mind and everything. It's on incumbent strategies versus challenge(r)s, and uses multiple streams approach and defensive institutional work. Gonna have the sucker done (first draft) by the close of play on the 27th December if it kills me. Reading some... Continue Reading →
Pigs might fly, (in comfort) – on sociotechnical transitions, streams and social movements
"This eventually led to the development of a new pigsty concept called Pigs in Comfort Class (PCC) with a term derived from the aviation sector. [Regular sties were basically designed according to economic criteria, thus housing pigs in ‘economy class’. In contrast, the new stables were called ‘comfort class’, because pigs were much better off.]" This above is from... Continue Reading →
Immune systems as two-way metaphors…
Donna Haraway is awesome. Has lots to say about metaphors and science, especially around immune systems. Immune systems are something I am interested in (For The Thesis). And so I came to read this - Anderson, W. 2014. Getting Ahead of One’s Self? The Common Culture of Immunology and Philosophy. Isis, 105, pp.606-616. Which is... Continue Reading →
All in this together… Corporate (and State) use of “family” rhetoric
It makes my flesh crawl. That 'one team' bollocks, where our lords and masters (be they corporate or state) make out as if 'we're all in this together' - to quote the words of some already forgotten Tory Prime Minister. Yeah, right. So, I really want to read 'The Good Soldier Schweik' (after my thesis.... Continue Reading →
marchudson.net 