The finish line was in sight. The fifth and final day of the International Sociological Association Forum climaxed with a very good party. But before that, there were four sessions and a closing plenary. The first session I went to was on “Inclusive Innovation for Inclusive Growth”. Before I say anything about that, this; you... Continue Reading →
Passive Revolution and the imperial way of living + digital repression etc, #isa47 #isaforum2016
After lunch on Tues 13th I ended up – after being approached by someone who had been at the last session who wanted to recommend “Bury the Chains: The British Struggle to Abolish Slavery,” - at the second half (i.e. 180 degrees) of a roundtable on “Emerging Research in Environmental Sociology (Part 2)." Of particular... Continue Reading →
Of thinktanks and social movement failure… #isaforum2016
The third day of the International Sociological Association Forum and another jam-packed programme. So jam-packed, in fact, that this blog post covers the morning sessions, with a sequel (the deaths are always more elaborate, the body count higher) to follow. The first session I went to, on Global Think Tanks, was strictly kept to time... Continue Reading →
Carboniferous capitalism, climate and colleagues – a good day #isaforum2016
Today was the official start of the International Sociological Association Forum. There were four slots for paper presentations before the official welcome and an opening plenary. This blog post gives a (very!) brief summary of some of the highlights that I saw in my travels. I went to the opening session of the Social Movements... Continue Reading →
Attack of the hipster tomatoes! Or “things to do in Vienna when not talking about social movements”
What happens when you get four and a half thousand academics (sociologists and sociologically-minded fellow travellers, to be precise) in one place (the University of Vienna, to be preciser) at one time (10th to 14th July – perciser still)? You get a lot to talk and think about, is what you get. The third “International... Continue Reading →
Ways to (D)Phil your brain – SPRU’s 22nd student conference
What follows is in no way an “official” (nor even necessarily entirely accurate) account of the two day event for PhD students at the Science and Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex. First off, thanks and congratulations to the 1st year cohort of students who organised it. The Monday started with brief opening... Continue Reading →
Fetish night at Bruntwood: sustainability gets VERY interesting. #Manchester #climate
Cross posted from here. Not that kind of fetish (sorry for the clickbaiting). I mean the original, anthropological meaning of “fetish” - a god that we create, then forget that we created as we come to worship it. That kind of fetish was being discussed tonight at the latest and best-I've-been-to meeting of the excellent... Continue Reading →
Digital porn debate – neither heat nor light
I don't quite know what I think about porn. I don't think about it much, don't watch it (What never? No, hardly ever). So what? What I do and don't do, what I like and don't like has no moral weighting when we are talking about societal harm. This is a basic point that I... Continue Reading →
When will we give up on “two degrees”? And what will that mean?
Climate change is going to be an unmitigated disaster. It already is, in fact. But for all the talk of solar panels from 3-D printers this, and Paris that, we miss the big picture. The big picture is that we are screwed, more and more people know that we are screwed, and that it won't... Continue Reading →
Seminar Report: On fields, entrepreneurs, Jaws and The Wire. No, really
A glorious late summer’s day. What better way to spend it than being a mouse in the maze that is Manchester Business School, and chancing upon the first “Manchester Institute of Innovation Research” seminar of the academic year? It was on “Institutionalisation of the Field of Entrepreneurship” The presenter, Prof Benson Honig, set about demolishing... Continue Reading →
marchudson.net 