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 →
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 →
Of codes of silence, workshops and egos
And you can't talk about it And isn't that a kind of madness To be living by a code of silence When you've really got a lot to say Billy Joel, Code of Silence A while back I went to a “workshop” that I thought would be not very good. Why go then? Purely and... Continue Reading →
Beginnings of an “undercovers” fiction list
So, recently I reviewed two books "about" infiltration/undercovers, and asked for suggestions. I got loads of really helpful pointers. Here is the first very rough list of additions (there were some others, mentioned in the blog post. I've kept track of the various people I have to thank for these tips too, but decided not... Continue Reading →
Event report: PIECES of advice about (energy) policy engagement #EnergyPIECES
On Monday 10th December about 60 PhD students and ECRs (early career researchers) gathered in Cambridge for an interesting event, with the does-what-it-says-on-the-tin title "Engaging with energy policy: a masterclass for Social Sciences & Humanities PhD and early-career researchers." Hosted by the Centre for Science and Policy (Cambridge University) and the Global Sustainability Institute at... Continue Reading →
Ehre heads. On the (f)utility of theory
Short post but hopefully not a shitpost. Went to a thing recently. There was a good 'sweeping overview' history of the twentieth century around Keynesianism/neoliberalism (though it undersold the importance of ICT and containerisation for my taste). Halfway through I scrawled to a colleague "Five quid says he says nothing/has nothing to say about 'what... Continue Reading →
Spiders, trouble, students, decentering…
I am the TA (teaching assistant) on a rather excellent course called 'Wildlife in the Age of Humans'. It's a delight to be a) engaging with cool ideas b) helping smart students engage with cool ideas. The latest seminar was on 'conviviality'. The lecture had dealt with scorpions coming up through shower grates and what... Continue Reading →
Book Proposal – “Anthropocenism, or the Ecological Logic of it’s-later-than-you-think Capitalism”
Went to a reading group. The article under discussion was Jason “Capitalism in the Web of Life” Moore's 2014 article on the End of Cheap Nature.. It got a bit of a kicking from a couple of people (me, I thought it was okay). The convenor of the group introduced the paper and pointed out... Continue Reading →
Is Capitalism unsustainable? The jury’s out-ish. Is ego-fodderfication unsustainable? Sadly not/hell yes.
I don’t know how much rethinking economics is actually going on (I have my suspicions, but no hard data). I do have a good idea of how much rethinking politics/academia/civilsocietying is going on, and it’s not much at all/zero. The latest piece of hard data came tonight, at the University of Manchester. The debate/discussion was... Continue Reading →
Brilliant students in and out of a goldfish bowl….
Last semester, I had the good fortune to be the Teaching Assistant on fascinating third year/Masters course called Wildlife in the Age of Humans. Taught by Dr Aurora Fredriksen and Prof Noel Castree, it's a thorough exploration of issues of conservation (of what, by who, for what?), (de)-extinction and so much more. This semester, same... Continue Reading →
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