The Buddhists are right, I think, about the ways in which longing and desire prevent us from learning, from seeing the world more as it is than as we would wish it to be. This is coming from a very revealing interaction this morning online, on a Twitter account I share the running of. The... Continue Reading →
#Community and 3 unspoken theories of change – Our mental models are Jeff Winger wrong…
““There's no such thing as "Single Malt Platinum Boobs and Billiards Club"? Aw, I guess I never said it out loud.”Jeff Winger in the Community episode “Remedial Chaos Theory” (1) We bumble through life like a blind drunk bull in a china shop. We have un-examined and under-examined assumptions about how the world actually is... Continue Reading →
“Welcome to the Smugosphere” – a two page bluffer’s guide/warning
What would you want to tell a new member of a social movement (organisation)? My two pager below - comments in the comments pls. A couple of years ago (god, it feels like a million years) I wrote a piece called "Dear New Climate Activist", which largely stands up, I think (genuinely interested in folks'... Continue Reading →
“Big Fish, Little Fish, Box”: Social movement organisations and their lifecycles.
What goes up must come down. Sooner or later, the laws of political/social movement (1) gravity re-assert themselves. Your movement organisation goes from big fish to little fish and then, unless it can institutionalise itself (i.e. get charitable status, and carve out a niche in the existing ecosystem that it came to overthrow) it simply... Continue Reading →
Which Deus? From which machina? Or ‘Can “the state” save us? From what? Under what circumstances?’ #climate #transitions #sustainability
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 →
Transrupting the Emotacycle, the Smugosphere and ego-foddering – more ideas
In which I spitball about the mechanics of how you transrupt ego-fodder, the emotacycle and, the Smugosphere in some detail, (but duck the question of what are the success metrics, how you would know you were succeeding in each of these.) And ultimately, in all of this, the most important thing is not to exhort,... Continue Reading →
Being transruptive for fun and non-profit, (aka for the shits and giggles).
Being transruptive for fun and non-profit, (aka for the shits and giggles). Somebody - I can’t remember who - said that philosophers had always interpreted the world, but the point was to change it. Well, I’ve been interpreting social movements’ stasis and sclerosis by coming up with three terms – the smugosphere, the emotacycle and... Continue Reading →
AITA? Or, “STFU while facilitating.”
Purpose of post- to nut out some ways of avoiding one of my facilitating blindspots/weaknesses. I just had a flash, to a truly appalling climate meeting I went to in Stirling (up in the Adelaide Hills) a couple of years ago. We were all sat in a circle – so, there’s no power or control... Continue Reading →
Online meetings about skills and knowledge- some suggestions….
Who has what skills and knowledge in your group? What would happen if one of the person who is in charge of the website, the social media, the dealing with Freedom of Information Act requests died/left town/turned out to have been a cop all along? What would it do to the ability of the group... Continue Reading →
Who has/wants what skills and knowledge? An online workshop.
Last week I was invited to do a workshop with the South Australian branch of Citizens Climate Lobby. This blog post goes into some of the detail (tmi, in fact). I wrote it so I'd have something to refer to if/when I get the opportunity to do more, and as a way of forcing myself... Continue Reading →
