Climate change is bad, but for now I can cope (no kids, no expectations, no flooding where I am). Fascism is bad, but for now I can cope, because it is at least another six months until Starmer and Cooper extend the proscription to include the words "genocide" and "Palestine." Technofeudalsim is bad, but for... Continue Reading →
“Transition theory” as (failed) transitional object as we transition from the Enlightenment to the Endarkenment
This year I am going to write something short, mostly daily, about what is going on – “2 cents on the Arrived Ecological Debacle” (2cotAED). I have to write it; you don’t have to read it. If you DO read it, feel free to tell me how wrong I am (and hopefully why). Re: the debacle aspect:... Continue Reading →
Battles between technologies, defensive efforts go wrong, are irrelevant. – Twitter vs Bluesky et al.
Twitter is going to change the blocking function So people you blocked can see what you are posting. Then they can set up new accounts and spam you/troll you whatever. Musk-ovites will defend it blah bah. Other people will set up accounts on other platforms (Threads, Mastodon, Blue Sky) and for a while do ‘double... Continue Reading →
Seeing things that aren’t there (yet): “The promise and peril of sociotechnical visions of the future”
A Looting the Ivory Tower on Sovacool, B. 2024. The promise and peril of sociotechnical visions of the future. Nature Reviews Physics. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-024-00774-5 Not all academic work is self-serving word-spinning helpfully quarantined behind paywalls and verbiage walls. I wouldn’t want to hazard a percentage, and it varies from a) field to field and b) taste to... Continue Reading →
We don’t wanna talk about it, how we broke our hearts: climate, failure, “democracy” and all that jizz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwTP9AJObSY Ever get the feeling nobody wants to talk about what you want to talk about? (1) Ever get the feeling that there are herds of elephants in the room, and everyone is studiously ignoring their trumpetting, as you would if your boss/king/Prime Minister had just let rip with with a loud and evil-smelling fart?... Continue Reading →
Niche to meet you, to meet you niche… (watch out for the (w)anchors.)
So, reading more about the latest terminology in sustainability transitions (I know, I know, I should get a real job/life/whatever). And today's phrase to be thrown around confidently in some seminar, somewhere ages and ages hence, is (drum roll please).... "niche anchoring" See this good paper - "Does time matter? A multi-level assessment of delayed... Continue Reading →
We need to wake up from “wake up” rhetoric
Quickly, because looong day (but good one) and my guilty pleasure Michael Connelly awaits. THIS SORT OF THING PISSES ME OFF. It implies that "world leaders" are asleep, not aware what is going on. a) that is horseshit b) if it were true, what would it say about the efficacy of 30+ years of academic,... Continue Reading →
Shooting from the lip on hopium and “social tipping points”
So, a friend tagged me in a Twitter (RIP?) thread which mentioned a rare (1) new article by Benjamin Sovacool, who is my boss and also - sorry, I know this is excruciatingly sycophantic and would get me a Private Eye OBN - a thoughtful and kind person, whose work is really useful (full disclosure... Continue Reading →
“Assume the position”! Of Gramsci, “transitions” and how someday our modern prince may come (but too late)
tl:dr - Two academics have written a good "here's how Tony Gramsci can fill in some of the major gaps in the MLP and maybe make it useful" article. On the downside, it's probably only particularly accessible to folks who know their Gramscia and their sustainability transitions stuff. The article is called "Regime resistance and... 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 →
marchudson.net 