I know a young Malaysian woman. We bumped into each other this evening, me three pints in. There was of course only one possible topic of conversation. As we parted, I said "stay safe". WTAF, that I have to say that? I have a hijabi friend who is going to be living in London, and... Continue Reading →
Here we go again. Can I sit this one out? Prob not.
Shit just gets realer and realer, doesn't it? Utter uncertainty about pretty much everything political (the environment stuff - especially carbon emissions and sea level rise - are locked in now). Who will lead the Tories? Who will lead Labour? Will they even exist a year from now? Will we actually leave the EU? Under... Continue Reading →
Brexit and climate – is the world too complex for our political institutions?
The British people have narrowly voted to leave the European Union. Britain's elites are in a state of bewilderment and fear not seen since the Global Financial Crisis hit in September 2008. Already the Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron has said he will step down, and the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is also being challenged. ... Continue Reading →
Civilising hypocrisies and fundamental questions: on “Emancipating Transformations
Manchester Tyndall Centre today hosted a provocative and highly interesting seminar. Professor Andy Stirling, who spent the 80s in the trenches for Greenpeace, had schlepped up to deliver a seminar on “Emancipating Transformations.” What they? Read on for an (almost) blow by blow account. [My multiple two centses are in square brackets like these.] Stirling... Continue Reading →
Failing to meet the Challenge(r) – “Organisational decay”
For reasons we don't particularly need to go into, failure fascinates me. Especially that of individuals and organisations that think they are 'all that.' When life is less "horrible (#firstworldproblems) I want to write about the differences between the 1977 Tenerife disaster and United Airlines 232 in 1989. But for now, this article I read while walking... Continue Reading →
Deliberate Learning and the Evolution of Dynamic Capabilities
Ooh yeah!!! Academia that is useful!! Zollo, M and Winter, S. 2002. Deliberate learning and the Evolution of Dynamic Capabilities. Organization Science, Vol. 13, (3), pp.339-351. This fantastic article talks about "the role of (1) experience accumulation, (2) knowledge articulation, and (3) knowledge codification processes in the evolution of dynamic, as well as operational, routines." (Zollo... Continue Reading →
Barriers to learning – good article
Just read this - Elliot, D., Smith. D. and McGuinness, M. 2000. Exploring the failure to learn: crises and the barriers to learning. Review of Business, 21, 3/4 pp.17-24. Dead useful for something I am investigating at the moment. There are lots of juicy bits. Though the authors don't use the term, they are basically... Continue Reading →
The Smugosphere – an academic citation
So, I have been writing cynically about the "smugosphere" - that place where normal rules of performance assessment to not apply because people are Doing Good For The Cause. And I just kind of stumbled on a very very interesting paper by one Wolfgang Seibel; Seibel, W. 1996. Successful Failure: An Alternative View on Organizational... Continue Reading →
Why we are toast: Aussie Corporate perspectives on #climate innovation
Mikler, J and Harrison, N. 2013. Climate Innovation: Australian Corporate Perspectives on the Role of Government. Australian Journal of Politics and History, Vol. 59, (3), pp.414-428. Nothing I have learnt in the last two years of reading a lot (no, even by my OCD*-ish standards) has so much as grazed - let alone dented -... Continue Reading →
Adventures in policy concepts…
Public policy for fun and ... profit? I've been on a major reading binge over the last month or so (Policy Studies Journal, I'm looking at you). Most of that has been around three theories/frameworks/models - Advocacy Coalitions Framework, Punctuated Equilibrium and Multiple Streams. Why? To try to test/extend the Dialectical Issue LifeCycle Model, especially... Continue Reading →
