Bless the internet for enabling rapid free communication with clued-up people around the world (as someone just old enough to remember having to send letters to people and getting (with luck) a reply two or three weeks later, this is an under-noticed improvement in our lives. I contacted a very senior (and also interesting -... Continue Reading →
Adventures in policy concepts…
Public policy for fun and ... profit? I've been on a major reading binge over the last month or so (Policy Studies Journal, I'm looking at you). Most of that has been around three theories/frameworks/models - Advocacy Coalitions Framework, Punctuated Equilibrium and Multiple Streams. Why? To try to test/extend the Dialectical Issue LifeCycle Model, especially... Continue Reading →
Brilliant friend of mine, on #activism
I have brilliant friends. A couple of them are activists, and have turned their brilliant attention to the problem(s) of activism. I learn a lot from listening to these friends. In response to a chapter that I have in an upcoming Routledge book ("On Pathological and Ineffective Activism: What is to be Done?), one friend has... Continue Reading →
Things I learnt about presenting at SPRU DPhil conference
Apologies if this is banal! Thanks to the session chairs, who gave very good advice and support. What advice to other people have?? Before Be realistic about how much material you can get through (how many slides, how much theoretical ground you can cover) Black text on white background is good. White text on... Continue Reading →
Ways to (D)Phil your brain – SPRU’s 22nd student conference
What follows is in no way an “official” (nor even necessarily entirely accurate) account of the two day event for PhD students at the Science and Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex. First off, thanks and congratulations to the 1st year cohort of students who organised it. The Monday started with brief opening... Continue Reading →
Hookworm and the class struggle…
Wow. It's almost as if there is a long-running class war where the rich try to demoralise and demean the poor, kick them in the teeth and then blame them for not having a nice smile. I know, I know, crazy conspiracy theory... "Bringing a condition under human control often poses a challenge to old... Continue Reading →
Invisible women, slow violence and academic lacunae(?) #Manchester University lecture
The lecture - about the high cost of cheap clothes - was brilliant. It was frustrating, for a reason I could only put my finger on after the Q&A (l’esprit de l’escalier). The Global Development Institute of University of Manchester is putting on a two-day workshop. Tonight’s seminar, “Global Value Chains, Market-Making, and the Rise of... Continue Reading →
Collaborator!!
Based on very limited experience. What other tips do people have? A quick google finds these 21 Tips for creating a successful writing collaboration 5 tips (very little overlap) This looks good too Here's mine Big things Be very clear about what you are trying to write (which questions you are trying to answer, what... Continue Reading →
#Awalkinthepark – think tanks, discursive institutionalism institutional logic
Right, so here are four more things (a couple of them very short) Ladl, S. 2011. Think Tanks, Discursive Institutionalism and Policy Change. In Papanagnou, G. (ed) Social Science and Policy Challenges: Democracy, Values and Capacities. UNESCO Publishing. Pp. 205-220. Tolbert, P. and Zucker, P. 1999. The Institutionalization of Institutional Theory. In Clegg S. and... Continue Reading →
#Awalkinthepark – discursive institutionalism yet again
Four papers here, the fourth of which doesn’t quite ‘fit’, but never mind… The TL;DR is that Discursive Institutionalism is a pretty powerful (too powerful?) way of looking at policy change/lack of change. Schmidt, V. 2010. Taking ideas and discourse seriously: explaining change through discursive institutionalism as the fourth ‘new institutionalism’. European Political Science Review,... Continue Reading →
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