Gonna see if insta-commenting helps me retain factoids post-reading-on-the-stepper... Finished off "Emerging challenges for science, technology and innovation policy research: a reflexive overview" (Research Policy 38,: 571-582. Brain stretching stuff – this, among others, was gold - "For example, Weick (1995) recounts a story told by the Hungarian Nobel Laureate, Albert Szent-Gyorti, about a small... Continue Reading →
Cracking over the papers: on academia and the fear of missing out.
Human, all too human: I fell into the simple trap of attending things that Looked Interesting because they were on campus, I was on campus, they were free, I was free. And so I have sat through hours of stuff where academics dressed up pretty straight-forward/simple ideas and observations in all the rhetoric and citations... Continue Reading →
Another word is possible
Winston could not intermittently remember why the pain was happening. Behind his screwed-up eyelids a forest of fingers seemed to be moving in a sort of dance, weaving in and out, disappearing behind one another and reappearing again. He was trying to count them, he could not remember why. He knew only that it was... Continue Reading →
Dead Ricouerning: A few notes on individual and collective memory
Memory, whether you want to slice and dice it as "individual" or "collective" is about power and belonging. If you want to belong, you’ll remember it (where “it” is something that “we did to the tribe over the hill”/”they did to us”) the way WE want you to, ‘kay? If you want to be a... Continue Reading →
Should every day be shut up and write day? Probably yes…
“Shut up and write.” It’s a good exhortation, though the non-violent communication crowd will probably wince a bit at the tone. On Friday (November 28th) about 15 of us shut up and wrote. It worked like this; We gathered in a room with our laptops and plenty of power sockets. Off with the mobiles (not... Continue Reading →
Publish? Perish the thought!
There was a rather good advice session on Monday. It was on getting books and articles published. The book bit was amusing – we were given a (made-up) example of how NOT to do it and then some solid advice and warnings. Don't, when approaching a publisher (and do some research and personalising of any... Continue Reading →
Outa tuna with the natural world: On corporate concentration and environmental governance
A rather intriguing and canny seminar at Manchester Business School… Ever stand in the aisle, lost in the supermarket, and wonder what went into getting the products on the shelves? The tin mined for the cans, the oil drilled for the plastic packaging, the lives lost and the futures mortgaged for our present convenience? I... Continue Reading →
Event report: “Enhancing Interdisciplinarity”
One of the joys of being a PhD student (asides being paid to read, “think”, write, hang out with very very smart people (and you too, Miles? 😛 ) is that you can go to day-long seminars on things called “Enhancing Interdisciplinarity.” I couldn’t stay to the end because I had a symposium on neo-institutional... Continue Reading →
“Smart” homes and what they mean – energy, consumption, #funwashing…
Last week Dr Tom Hargreaves came to Manchester and delivered an interesting seminar (for the Sustainable Consumption Institute) on "Smart homes, energy use and every day life." The idea of "fun washing" (as akin to greenwashing etc) popped up. My understanding is that it a rhetorical/advertising ploy to get people past the anxiety of their... Continue Reading →
My PhD – a poster
On Wednesday there's a "Methods Fair" at University of Manchester. If you can come, vote for meeeeeeeeeeeee!!! PS This is already out of date, in that I've got some fancier methods to play with than I knew about when I threw this poster together. The cartoons, to emphasise, are from the amazing Marc Roberts. PS... Continue Reading →
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