Long-time case researcher Harry Wolcott wrote in his manual (1990). The critical task in qualitative research is not to accumulate all the data you can, but to “can” (i.e. get rid of) most of the data you accumulate. This requires constant winnowing. The trick is to discover essences and then to reveal those essences with... Continue Reading →
“Confer”ence – the clue is in the name; excellent #transitions event in Lausanne
A brilliant event - the "2nd PhDs in Transitions Conference: Theory and Practice" - took place in Switzerland, last week. Organised by four enterprising PhD students, it was a 48 hour space for students at different stages of the process (from touching naive enthusiasm all the way through to night-sweat panic) to exchange ideas and... Continue Reading →
Doomed, I tell you – 2014 video
Deliberately ranty (!) and necessarily short presentation to second year geography students at University of Manchester on Thurs 27th November 2014
RIP Machiavelli the allotment cat, 2004(?)- 31 March 2017
Mach the allotment cat has died. He was, we think, about 13 or 14, which is an astonishing knock for a stray with FIV. He came into our lives in about 2004 or 5, as a stray who would sneak in the cat flap and steal the food of Cassidy and Delilah. While Cassidy might... Continue Reading →
Laws and PhD theses are like sausages…
“Laws and PhD theses are like sausages - it does not pay to look too closely at how they are made…” Marc Hudson 21 December 2016. Buy me a beer. I'll tell you about it.
The absence of structure is hierarchy
I went to a meeting (won't say if it was activist or academic or whatever - that's not the point). There was explicitly 'no agenda'. And we were then, without warning, asked to introduce ourselves (say what we had done, were doing and what we wanted to do around this particular issue/topic). And did they give... Continue Reading →
Weil’s disease – or ‘the internet is eating my brain’
When I was in Australia, I ended up with a smartphone (the handset was as cheap as the cheapest non-smart model, so I thought 'why not?'). There were two consequences a) I met up with someone who I'd have otherwise missed because I was able to check email on the move b) I freaked the... Continue Reading →
Vale Erik Petersen – “Old time mem’ry”
Just found out that Erik Petersen, of Mischief Brew died earlier this year. I never saw him perform, and have only today been listening to his (excellent) work. Al Baker had covered one of his songs (co-written with Robert Blake), which he kindly played at my wedding. It's a corker; beautiful to listen to, the... Continue Reading →
Why argue with #climate denialists? It’s comforting is why
"Never wrestle with a pig, you both get muddy, but the pig enjoys it" as the old saying goes. But what if we, secretly, enjoy it too? Or if wrestling with the pig is a safer and more fun option that wrestling with the angry rabid hippo who is next in line? WTAF am I... Continue Reading →
Bragging: Published in a Routledge collection #activism #climate
Whoop. Whoop. WHOOP!!! I am published!! Emergent Possibilities for Global Sustainability: intersections of race, class and gender, edited by Phoebe Godfrey and Denise Torres, Routledge 2016. Chapter 22 is "Pathological and ineffective activism - what is to be done?" by Marc Hudson and Arwa Aburawa. Whoop!! A physical copy just arrived. It looks fantastic, and... Continue Reading →