The title: Energy democracy as the right to the city: Urban energy struggles in Berlin and London The authors: Soren Becker, James Angel, Matthias Naumann The journal: EPA: Economy and Space The DOI: DOI: 10.1177/0308518X19881164 The abstract: In this paper, we argue that it is generative to link struggles around access to, control over, and... Continue Reading →
Looting the Ivory Tower – “Unpacking the social #innovation ecosystem”
Some of my favourite words in the title of an academic article - ecosystem, constellations, typology - squee!! (yes, I know, I should get out more). And, thank goodness, it lived up to expectations. They take their big database of social innovation networks, with lots of specific projects, and they bash the database against some... Continue Reading →
Academic article on social tipping dynamics – or “Oh for cockpity’s sake…”
Ignore my snark later on - this is a good article, that you should take the time to read. Crucially though, understand that the authors - like most academics - are addicted to trying to play what Haraway calls "the God Trick" and has also been called "cockpitism". To be expected, I guess, since the... Continue Reading →
Building whose capacity to do what? How?
This is a direct follow on from an initial rant about "social innovation". At the end of that I went on a rant about how social change is a marathon not a sprint and that the 'load' has to be shared. There's an article, very astute, by a Development Aid specialist that I read as... Continue Reading →
“Social innovation” acceleration and the belling of cats
So, my intellectual energies have been mostly devoted to the Active Citizenship Toolkit, which is a project of the group I am part of - Climate Emergency Manchester. I've researched and written a couple of novice's guides - to Manchester City Council's budget process, and to the thorny question of allyship. Other two page guides... 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 →
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