The problem with studying the rich (well, one of many) is that access is hard. So you end up relying on leaks and whisteblowers. Both can be deeply problematic. But every so often the curtain DOES get pulled back. With Australia and climate change two great examples are a) the leaking of the minutes of... Continue Reading →
Sociotechnical transitions for beginners; of speed, stability and mixing it up
What’s a sociotechnical transition? Why should you care? What does history teach us? Why might it be a false teacher? All good questions and they received good (though sometimes, by necessity provisional) answers yesterday as Dr Florian Kern of University of Sussex spoke on ‘Governing Low Carbon Transitions’ (see foot of this post for the... Continue Reading →
Gender Slash Infrastructure, or “sewage thick as toothpaste”
What a great event. What an unexpected delight. At the sharp end of a PhD you find yourself going to very few ‘recreational’ seminars. And so often they’re the standard mix of chest-beating, data dumps from those too close to their “facts”, or conceptual hair-splitting from those too far from them. And those are the... Continue Reading →
Oil (and) slick: Of corporate citizens and the great energy transition.
Whose ego needs are being met? That, imho, is the key question, in almost any gathering, whether it dresses itself up as academic (aka 'intellectual'), activist, capitalist, whatever. If you ask that question (at least to yourself – it's a CLM to say what you think, after all), then a whole lot probably becomes clearer.... Continue Reading →
A PhD thesis explained via Woody Allen’s “Sleeper”
So, you slave through archives and papers and interviews and more papers and hard hard work. And you come up with a 20 thousand word chapter, full of the very hard-won anecdotes and quotes and... You have ten thousand words, TOPS. Which means you have to kill your darlings, doing away with stuff that cost... Continue Reading →
Max Weber nails it on politics, natch #stupidity
"Only he has the calling for politics who is sure that he will not crumble when the world from his point of view is too stupid or base for what he wants to offer." Reminds me of "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." Albert... Continue Reading →
Weatherill lets fly at right wing attack against renewables
WHOOP! My second stand-alone article on the excellent reneweconomy site... South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill was in a pugnacious mood at the launch of Climate Wars, the new book by Labor’s shadow climate minister Mark Butler, and let fly at the ‘rightwing f***wits’ (his words) that were keen to use any event to attack renewables. Butler’s book... Continue Reading →
Blog- Thurs 6 to Sun 9 July
Thursday 6 Around the park five times Two hours at microfiche tracking down crucial newspaper articles for the carbon tax 1994/1995 story. Dead useful, developed a couple of new tricks of how to get the info v. quickly Good meeting with a research librarian, who was super helpful, and put me onto an academic I... Continue Reading →
Blogging the days away. Day 1-3…
Friday/Saturday Right, so – flight. Not much to say I guess. It was 5 tonnes of carbon into t’atmosphere… Flew in an A380 the first leg, read a bunch of stuff from the Palgrave Handbook of International Political Economy and energy. Very very good stuff it was. Also read a lit review on transitions and... Continue Reading →
When you think climate change, think “dam”…. #3MT
Here's me giving my spiel in the "Three Minute Thesis" heat at University of Manchester Here's the slide I used. And... I'm through to the Three Minute Thesis Final to be held on Wednesday June 7, between 2pm and 3:30pm in University Place Lecture Theatre A. You can register for a (free!) ticket https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/university-of-manchester-three-minute-thesis-final-2017-tickets-34791162303. ... Continue Reading →
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