A few examples spring to mind. In 2007, while my eyes were opening wider and wider to the reality of Climate Camp, I was at an event in Manchester aimed at getting university students involved in the "non-hierarchical" organisation. And two self-described "non-hierarchical leaders designed the meeting that involved rather a lot of talking... by... Continue Reading →
“Nuclear electricity” – 1978 booklet by Australian Mining Industry Council
So, the Australian government has torn up a contract it made with the French for some submarines and is now going to buy some nuclear ones. Smarter people than me (Laura Tingle, Guy Rundle etc etc) have written about the geopolitics of all this. One point, made by various commentators, is that building/operating nuclear subs... Continue Reading →
Getting beyond handwavium, or “A systematic review of energy systems: The role of policymaking in sustainable transitions”
Even back before I was trying to be an academic (watch this space) I was reading academic articles for fun. That's not a boast (well, okay, maybe a little bit, but also just a statement of fact). I learned the hard way that much academic output is dross - concept mongering or torturing of so-called... Continue Reading →
Demography, death, decarbonisation. All this and not much more at the Adelaide Festival of Ideas (see also, technopolitical salvationism and China Crisis)
I've spent bits of the last two days sat in neo-Gothic wood-panelled halls listening to sages on the stage. Some of the sages have been great. Others, well, that's why I took a book, innit? This is not, after all, my first go at this rodeo. It's the "Adelaide Festival of Ideas" again, that under-funded... Continue Reading →
Converging what where? – Of helixes, quasi-industrial policy and incantations
There’s a story, surely apocryphal, of Shakespeare being locked in attic room and only given food in exchange for pages of an overdue play script. That tactic - “sliding pizza under the door in exchange for good ideas” is something that gets talked about in “strategic niche management.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrEYl9Kl4ZU Its cousin, pump-priming and state-agency-as-facilitator/networker was... Continue Reading →
Intro to Anthro #09 – it’s a wrap: Gillian Tett, nukes and other cool stuff.
And we're done. I read, and blogged, a 400 page text book while in quarantine. The plan is to keep that habit (if not tempo) up over the coming 67+ days that I am out in the unReal World that is the world's biggest country town (Adelaide). Section 5 - "Anthropology in the World" was... Continue Reading →
Intro to Anthro #08 – Practice makes adequate. Oh, and study the rich.
Penultimate chunk of reading the "Introductory Readings in Anthropology" book. It has definitely helped with the quarantine, and if - gaia forbid - I spend another two weeks coupled up somewhen and somewhere, then a big fat textbook about something I want to know about (systems ecology? social movements? critical race theory? surveillance and digital... Continue Reading →
Intro to Anthro #7 – clothes, pig bladders and resistance to genocide/ecocide. All human life is here…
Am seriously loving this book. It makes me wonder about all the gems I have back in Manchester and whether I have time to read them before The Shit Hits The Fan for me too (must never forget it has been and is hitting for many others, who tend not to be human, or white... Continue Reading →
Intro to Anthro #6 – from evolution, to Japanese hip-hop, via Soap Wars…
Damn this is the way to satiate my pathological curiosity. Find a recent introductory text book aimed at undergrads and just read from cover to cover over the course of a week or so. Already have my eye on a book on systems ecology... But, getting ahead of myself. So, today the first few articles... Continue Reading →
Introducing Anthro #5 – Victor Turner Overdrive!!
Am very much enjoying this "Introductory Readings to Anthropology" book, and it makes me think I could read similar on ecology and a bunch of other things. If I write enough each day, that can be my reward!? Today was all identity and rituals (of cleansing, boundary management, liminality - van Gennep etc). As they... Continue Reading →
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