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 →
New element – Administratum – discovered
from facebook - here, originally. "This bit of humor was written in April 1988 and appeared in the January 1989 issue of The Physics Teacher. William DeBuvitz was a physics professor at Middlesex County College in Edison, New Jersey (USA). He retired in June of 2000." 'The heaviest element known to science was recently discovered by... Continue Reading →
Technology as fetish? South Australia and the Social Economy.
A rather interesting event today, high above the mean streets of Adelaide. What place might “technology” (we will come back to the scare quotes) have in helping Adelaide (and South Australia more generally) cope with the slings and arrows of deindustrialisation and globalisation? The event was organised by the Dunstan Foundation (named for the last... Continue Reading →
“That was a good meeting “– what the heck are your criteria?
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 →
Constant craving- of liberty, independence and the State…
Researching my thesis/an article-I-want-to-submit somewhere, I got interested (i.e. briefly stuck my head down a rabbit hole) in the question on the use and abuse of metaphor in political theory. Via inter-library loan, got hold of this- Ankersmit, F. 1993. Metaphor in Political Theory. In Ankersmit F. and Mooij, J. Knowledge and Language Vol III.... 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 →
Mythical Mail Weight and Localness
For the benefit of those lucky enough not to know (living outside the UK), the Daily Mail is a particularly horrific tabloid newspaper. One of its many vile repertoires is to police the bodies of celebrities (mostly, but not entirely) the female ones. If a celebrity under the gaze of the Mail gains a couple... Continue Reading →
Me love you laing time… The work of forgetting and suppression
Somewhere in the pile of things-read-awaiting-bookmarking-on-t'website is a recent article on the what the authors called "memory work" - (corporate) work of suppressing past mis-behaviour. It does not use R.D. Laing, but it could. This below is the epigram from Joanna Russ's amazing book 'The Female Man' [my review here] If Jack succeeds in forgetting... Continue Reading →
The upper crust is just a bunch of crumbs sticking together #Kulturkampf
High culture? "In his cultural studies, DiMaggio's historical research documented the self-conscious creation of "high culture" in the late 19th-century America. DiMaggio argues that, unsettled by the weak class distinctions in growing industrial cities, local elites created a "sophisticated" culture (via the arts,universities, social clubs, and the like) that would separate commoners from those of high standing. DiMaggio says that "high culture" models... 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 →
marchudson.net 