So, I was at the International Sustainability Transitions Network conference for 3 and a half days. (Here’s my take on days 1 and 2.) Because I am a mug, I volunteered to be one of the chairs of the “Shaping the future transitions research agenda” process, which ran on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. This... Continue Reading →
Environmental #IST2015 – of ‘sustainability transitions’ and (beyond) the ivory tower
There's nowt as practical as a good theory, as we sometimes say up north. If true, this would make the University of Sussex one of the most practical places in the world about now. The sixth International Sustainability Transitions' (IST) conference (the main event of this network) is taking place over 3 and a half... Continue Reading →
8 reasons not to use the term ‘neo-liberalism’
I went to a conference (see my critique here) that had some nuggets of gold. One of them was a short and engaging presentation by one Bill Dunn. There's a longer paper that I hope to link to, but for now, based on scribbled notes, here are those 8 reasons 1. The term is used... Continue Reading →
‘Resistance’ rituals: “Historical materialism” or the material of history
You'd think an academic conference - attended by people with the willingness to think and criticise, and a hunger for a transformed world – would be looking at the questions of what what went wrong, of how the 'revolutionary' fervour of “1968” gave us not the new Jerusalem, but the new Las Vegas. 'Neo-liberalism' (see... Continue Reading →
Renewable Energy and South Australia – 100 per cent event…
On Tuesday 16th June, Dr Mark Diesendorf was in the hot seat. In front of a capacity audience of about 120 people, he outlined the report [pdf] about achieving 100% renewable energy that he has just written for the Conservation Council of South Australia. He also fielded a very wide variety of questions from the... Continue Reading →
Explaining #climate in a pub – of duvets, sailing ships and coal…
Last night I got to do a ten minute "what is my research about" spiel at "PhD in the Pub." It was followed by a slightly-less-than-20-minute q and a session (because I 'donated' some time from that to having folks confer before we began asking questions). My spiel covered - "meet someone you don't know"... Continue Reading →
E equals NC squared – of Global Change Science and the Responsibility of Intellectuals
Who knows what about how the world works (on a geophysical level?) How do they find it out and what should “we” do with that knowledge? These were some of the questions that Professor Noel Castree grappled with (successfully!) yesterday afternoon at a seminar entitled “Changing while standing still? Global change scientists and the politics... Continue Reading →
Fairy tale endings or “best PhD distraction yet!!!”
What a brilliant afternoon/evening!! Cheap wine (monopolised), super-smart people who forgave (?) my failure to have read the Sleeping Beauty version and the Bettelheim exegesis. All lubricated with people's digressions on consent and cups of tea, Jack Halberstam and much more. This fun was at the second “Reading Folk” group meeting. Will I be at... Continue Reading →
Radical information literacy, “domestic “violence and absolute control
Went to something on “radical information literacy.” The questions are Who knows things, how to know things/find them out, how to critique sources and figure out when they are being manipulated by friend or foe? Et cetera. At least it flags up that a simple “information deficit” model is grotesquely inadequate for explaining why we... Continue Reading →
“Green Transformations,” Leonard Cohen and the Elephant
A lively debate about the near and long-term future of western civilisation took place yesterday in central London, at the launch of the book “The Politics of Green Transformations”. The edited volume based on work of the STEPS centre, was the centrepiece of an event at the National Liberal Club, and provoked a conversation about... Continue Reading →
marchudson.net 