Here's something that can't go in my methodology chapter, cos it's too special-plea-dy. True nonetheless. “In actuality, the demands of a case study on a person’s intellect, ego, and emotions are far greater than those of any other research strategy. This is because the data collection procedures are not routinized.” (Yin, 1994:55)
My first actual academic article?! On hostility to renewable energy…
This one started life as a "Conversation" article (never published) and was expanded into a perspectives piece for the journal Energy Research & Social Science. Many thanks to the editor, the peer reviewer and to Sarah "The Wife" Irving and Joe Blakey for their careful proof-reading. Whoop!! "Wind beneath their contempt: Why Australian policymakers oppose... Continue Reading →
The Hot Mess – How we are failing the ‘greatest moral challenge’
Ha, I now have a column at The Conversation, called "Hot Mess: Unravelling the climate challenge paralysis" (I wanted "unravelling climate (,) policy paralysis" but knew that it would look too tricksy). Anyway, you can read it here. Ten years ago today, Kevin Rudd spoke at the National Climate Summit at Parliament House, in Canberra,... Continue Reading →
Motorcycle Emptiness and emotathons
Too tired (long story) to do any creative work on the Thesis, and having done enough grunt work on it too, for today, I am in the process of writing a paper for a conference here in Manchester about alternative futures and popular protest. It will not be a popular paper. It will slag off... Continue Reading →
The Institutional Void – or abyss?
Hajer, M. 2003. Policy without polity? Policy analysis and the institutional void. Policy Sciences, , Vol.36(2), pp.175-195. Abstract. How should policy analysis respond to the changing context of policy making? This article examines three aspects of policy analysis in this changing context: polity, knowledge and intervention. It argues that policy making now often takes place in an ‘institutional void’ where there are no... Continue Reading →
Babies, bathwater, innovation and Gramsci…
The Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (a mouthful, I know) runs internal seminars where academics get to test out new ideas/reboot old ones and generally reflect on the direction(lessness) of travel for innovation policy, science and technology policy and much else. It can be dreadful, but when it works – and it did yesterday –... Continue Reading →
Now THAT’s a life: Louis Herren
"When a politician tells you something in confidence, always ask yourself Why is this lying bastard lying to me?" Always good advice, I think. Louis Heren, the guy behind it, led an extra-ordinary life. And I'd never heard of him. Louis Philip Heren (6 February 1919 - 26 January 1995) was a foreign correspondent. He... Continue Reading →
Women talking>30% = dominating…
Is anyone actually surprised? Don't know where I grabbed this from, but Dale Spender (not Spencer) is way cool. I saw her on tellie in the late 80s or early 90s and thought 'you're smart, and you are dismantling the sexist idiot next to you on the panel.' Read one of her books, possibly Man... Continue Reading →
“Initiativitis” Love it.
Policy as palimpsest Pam Carter A palimpsest is a multi-layered text that is reinscribed over time. This article presents policy as analogous to a palimpsest to highlight implementation processes and the complexity of judging progress. Findings from an ethnographic study of the UK Sure Start Children’s Centres policy demonstrate how implementation is experienced locally. Here religious beliefs and traditional... Continue Reading →
Sentiments and Ressentiment
Nice quotes about it from Pankaj Mishra Certainly, the current conflagration has brought to the surface what Friedrich Nietzsche called “ressentiment” – “a whole tremulous realm of subterranean revenge, inexhaustible and insatiable in outbursts.” Ressentiment – caused by an intense mix of envy, humiliation and powerlessness – is not simply the French word for resentment.... Continue Reading →
marchudson.net 