Sometimes small tweaks can have big impacts, and can sidestep showdowns with the powerful and their (often) big brittle egos… At the Adelaide Festival of Ideas (of which more later) today, I saw a brilliant little facilitation trick/hack/patch/whatevs (1). It’s so simple, so elegant and – today at least – so effective that I’m a... Continue Reading →
Generosity and conviviality in the age of algorithmic oppression: #Manchester #odmnoble
This was a superb event. A diverse audience of somewhere between 80 and 90 attended a truly excellent event on 'algorithms of oppression' yesterday in Manchester. The event, hosted by Open Data Manchester with the support of The Federation and Manchester School of Art, was centred on a lecture and q and a with Dr Safiya... Continue Reading →
Canute in reverse: Macron’s climate summit
Today thousands of the great and the good will gather in Paris for the latest in a long line of climate summits. Initiated in July by French President Emmanuel Macron, it falls on the two year anniversary of the Paris Agreement. With three goals - "Take tangible and collective action, innovate, support one another" -... Continue Reading →
Lobbying, lies, prostitution, disruption #climate – extraordinary truth-telling
The problem with studying the rich (well, one of many) is that access is hard. So you end up relying on leaks and whisteblowers. Both can be deeply problematic. But every so often the curtain DOES get pulled back. With Australia and climate change two great examples are a) the leaking of the minutes of... Continue Reading →
What may Jay say? The alternative @JayWeatherill speech for #Openstate
The following document fell through a wormhole from an alternative universe, landing as a smoldering set of singed papers, with a comedy thump, on my desk. It purports to be an account of the speech given by South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill at the launch of the “2017 Open State Program.” Standing at the podium... Continue Reading →
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
From page 19 of this excellent report of an intriguing-sounding event.
“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 →
(Wind) Power to the People – Denmark, Tvind and bricolage
So, two years ago I read this Hendry, C. and Harborne, P. 2011. Changing the view of wind power development: More than “bricolage.” Research Policy 40,, pp. 778-789. and wrote this about it - This was mentioned in a reading group/symposium yesterday by one of my supervisors. It’s a response/elaboration to a paper by Garud and... Continue Reading →
Babies, bathwater, innovation and Gramsci…
The Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (a mouthful, I know) runs internal seminars where academics get to test out new ideas/reboot old ones and generally reflect on the direction(lessness) of travel for innovation policy, science and technology policy and much else. It can be dreadful, but when it works – and it did yesterday –... Continue Reading →
Suspicious minds and climate policy
Goering is alleged to have said that whenever he heard the word culture he reached for his revolver. For me, whendver I hear the word 'trap' I think of my Elvis. Specifically, 'We're caught in a trap. I can't walk out....' Meanwhile, this from an article Nair, S. and Howlett. 2015. From robustness to resilience:... Continue Reading →
marchudson.net 