So, as per my recent Conversation article, the climate scientists have been attacked for (more than) thirty years. The UNFCCC is a hopeless case (see slightly-less recent Conversation article). It is easy to talk about how everything is fubarred, and what am I against. This below expands on the theme of attacks on climate scientists,... Continue Reading →
"The struggle of man (sic) against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting." Milan Kundera On 26th August 2006 the first "Camp for Climate Action" began, in the shadow of Drax power station in Yorkshire, then the biggest single point source of carbon dioxide in Europe. The camp (and the shorter name, "Climate Camp",... Continue Reading →
People of Colour are gonna be shocked - SHOCKED - to learn that rich white people are sock-puppeting them in an effort to stay rich. Because, you know, it's so unusual for powerful interests to totally disregard the actual long-term health of everyone else, and to claim to be benevolent while continuing to despoil and... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
A superb novel about climate activism (and much more) was released earlier this year. It is by Rosemary Randall, a retired psychoanalyst who has written a great deal (of extremely useful) work on the psychodynamics of meetings, and on climate change. You can read a 2013 interview I conducted with her for Manchester Climate Monthly.... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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