Siggie Freud would have a field day with this Those benefitting from the status quo will act to resist socio-technical change, obvs. One of the "derailing risks" we don't talk about enough... Barles, S. (2014). History of waste management and the social and cultural representations of waste. In The basic environmental history (pp. 199-226). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
While I wait to receive "no, not shortlisted" and "thanks for doing interview, but no thanks" emails, I am going through piles of printed off articles and putting in three piles - a) for (re)reading and blogging about soon b) for "one day" and c) can go in the recycling (once blank A4 and A5... Continue Reading →
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has reshuffled his cabinet and split the business energy and industrial strategy department in two. What does all this mean? Is it window dressing and intra-government manoeuvring or a necessary reset? Marc Hudson investigates. BEIS is dead! Long live the EsNZ! In an announcement on Tuesday, Rishi Sunak, currently the... Continue Reading →
Cher is on the CD in the lovely Arcadian café I am sitting in. “Do you believe?”, she is asking me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZXRV4MezEw And then she sings the magic words “I really don’t think you’re strong enough.” Too right, Ms Cher. Strength is the issue. Last night I had a zoom call with an academic who... Continue Reading →
I've spent bits of the last two days sat in neo-Gothic wood-panelled halls listening to sages on the stage. Some of the sages have been great. Others, well, that's why I took a book, innit? This is not, after all, my first go at this rodeo. It's the "Adelaide Festival of Ideas" again, that under-funded... Continue Reading →
Marc Hudson reflects on two academic events, and wonders if the right questions are being asked, or if "we" are pootling along happily in our comfort zones, slouching towards tenure (well, he's not) and apocalypse (well, all of us are). Over the last 24 hours I've "been" to three online seminars. The one in the... Continue Reading →
This below, minus the hyperlinks, appeared on reneweconomy.com.au Engaging with climate and energy policy in Australia can be bad for your neck. Either your head is in your hands as the latest political idiocy unfolds, or you suffer whiplash as you encounter smart concerned people who are dealing with real world issues. It’s a long... Continue Reading →
How to minimise the growth in pressure for major/systemic change? If I were a technocratic boss, keen to insulate myself from calls for changes to the ways we do things - changes which would upset my cognitive equilibrium, changes which might upset people who provide me with party donations and a job once the voters... Continue Reading →
Super-useful on DECC (RIP) and the "Community Energy" strategy - the costs of getting it. Should be read alongside that paper by Phil Johnstone Andy Stirling and Ben Sovacool about Policy Mixes for Incumbency Honest about risk of academic blindness from using one theory (SNM) and not paying close enough attention to interviewees, and what... Continue Reading →
The title: Building a middle-range theory of Transformative Social Innovation; theoretical pitfalls and methodological responses. The authors: Haxeltine, A., Pel, B., Wittmayer, J., Dumitru, A., Kemp, R., & Avelino, F. The journal: European Public & Social Innovation Review, 2(1), 59-77. The DOI: https://doi.org/10.31637/epsir.17-1.5 The abstract: This paper argues that there is currently a need for... Continue Reading →
marchudson.net 