On anxiety, social class and who feels comfortable at "top-down" meetings Published on 15 Dec 2013 Some not quite fully thought through speculations. As well as social class, of course, there's gender, ethnicity, age, ideology to put into the mix. But as an initial stab at answering the question "why are people content to continue... Continue Reading →
“Entrench warfare” or “why I don’t bother with one-off trainings” #smugosphere #inertia
A few years ago I organised a one-off training session on research for activists. It went well and had ... no discernible impact on how anyone did anything. So it goes. I reflected on this - and other training I have been part of as a punter. And I came to the conclusion that unless... Continue Reading →
Whirlwind – “This is an Uprising” – #afterthethesis
So, public policy theories talk about tipping points/sudden eruptions. I'm thinking of Baumgartner and Jones 'Punctuated Equilibrium Theory' (the clue is in the name) and also Multiple Streams Approach and 'policy windows'. And then there's Bill Moyer and the "Movement Action Plan" (abused and mis-used by some so-called activists, but that's not his fault.) Then,... Continue Reading →
Activists, Bernardi, Refugees + much else – January in #Climate History
The All Our Yesterdays project is doing (at least) a blog post a day to show that the climate policy battles of today are repeats/mash-ups of the last thirty years. We have always been ignoring the scientists, blowing hot and cold on carbon pricing, blowing hot and cold on support for renewables, pretending mother nature... Continue Reading →
Sokal so good; on targets, reports, fantasies…
The "keeping anthropogenic global warming (global average) to less than 1.5 degrees above pre-Industrial levels" at COP21 was never a serious proposal, surely? I mean, you'd have to be totally fricking scientifically illiterate to... oh, wait. But look, even if the policy-makers put it in there to keep the AOSIS (fn1) crowd from vetoing... Continue Reading →
Bloody compassion and the bloody smugosphere
We talk about “carbon capital”, “fossil fuel historical bloc”, ‘technological lock-in’. Yep, them corporations and states sure are sclerotic, ain't they? But, aside from talking about foundations and how NGOs take their money and sell a fake rebellion, we don’t talk about social movement hegemonies and blocks or ‘social lock-in’. This bores me. Descriptions of how... Continue Reading →
Crash test dummies and movement building
Do you ever feel you're strapped into a car that almost deliberately, wilfully, crashes into a wall? Sort of a Groundhog Day/Source Code mash-up, with Camus ruefully driving a Facel Vega and getting hit by a boulder that some clown had let roll down a hill? I do. It's like we in the 'social movement... Continue Reading →
The costs of collusion with activist bullshit and hype cycles
When a Shiny New Technology is being hyped, it's in order to pump the stock up, or get venture capital. That's how the hype cycle game is played, and it happens among mostly consenting adults. Fair enough you might say. No hype and nothing gets done (maybe). But when it comes to social movement hype... Continue Reading →
BRILLIANT paper on sustainability transitions and political ecology. #holycrap #jealous
And the Best Paper I Have Read This Month Award goes to... drum-roll please... Lawhon, M. and Murphy, J. 2011. Socio-technical regimes and sustainability transitions: Insights from political ecology. Progress in Human Geography. Vol. 36 (3), pp.354-378. Here is the abstract Sustainability is increasingly becoming a core focus of geography, linking subfields such as urban,... Continue Reading →
Me and your research
I don't get many requests to take part in research, but the rate seems to be increasing, and the to-and-fro takes up everyone's bandwidth. Therefore this; Dear Xx/Xy/prefer not to say, I am flattered by your request to take part in your research. My decision always leans to 'no' because of a) time constraints and... Continue Reading →
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