So, went to an activist meeting that was dominated by a small core of people. Afterwards they were heard agreeing that it was an excellent meeting. And you have to wonder, what were their criteria. I think these. "I got to speak a lot/display my virtue and or intelligence/be the centre of attention" (see also... Continue Reading →
1973-5 warnings on #climate change #auspol
We were warned a very long time ago about climate change. I don't mean by the IPCC. I don't even mean by James Hansen (bless him). The warnings were there by the mid-1970s about what might be on the way. In 1973, in the very first issue of Habitat carried an article by W. Strauss... Continue Reading →
Social skill (which I clearly lack!)
Social skill is defined as “the capacity for inter-subjective thought and action that shapes the provision of meaning, interests and identity in the service of collective ends” [Fligstein & McAdam, 2012 p.4] Fligstein, N. & McAdam, D. 2012, A Theory of Fields, Oxford University Press, New York, New York. Hat-tip to Stephen McGrail
Retching wretchedly in the datasmog
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 →
2019: How the #climate activists blew it, again #debacle #doomed
Imagine it's 2019. Imagine that "climate activists" get the perfect conditions handed to them on a plate. What would happen? Sometimes Mother Nature gives climate change activists a boost. She tried in the summer of 1988. She tried again in August 2005, when Hurricane Katrina bulls-eyed New Orleans. She tried again in the long... Continue Reading →
Neoliberalisms: Combative, Normative and Punitive
Neoliberalism, eh? That handy catch-all insult that helps mainstream liberals not say "capitalism", that helps radicals not have to think very hard about how to think or communicate. Nota bene, I am not saying it is not real, that it does not matter, that there is not a usefulness to the term. Just that we tend... Continue Reading →
The tyranny of small decisions…
A transformational change in Australia’s assessment of cumulative impacts is required, including the comprehensive assessment of the direct and indirect impacts of coal mining, if the Reef is not to suffer from the “tyranny of small decisions.” As described by Odum (1982), this phenomenon involves a big decision arising post hoc from an accretion of... 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
Thinking institutionally, dialectically, iteratively, recursively #noteasy
Our wetware has missed quite a few upgrades, hasn't it? It left the factory all buggy and in beta, shaped by encounters - over millennia - with sabre-tooth tigers etc that saw us as easy meat. We have cognitive biases up the wazoo, and often lack even the awareness of that [Dunning-Kruger etc etc]. It's... Continue Reading →
“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 →
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