May as well put cards on the table. I think we’re fubarred. I think that we’ve now left it “too late” and a grim meathook future is all we have to look forward too. There is probably still time to learn a bunch of new skills, use our technology specifically to soften the coming climate blows. ... Continue Reading →
Brilliant facilitation “patch” at #AFoI2018
Sometimes small tweaks can have big impacts, and can sidestep showdowns with the powerful and their (often) big brittle egos… At the Adelaide Festival of Ideas (of which more later) today, I saw a brilliant little facilitation trick/hack/patch/whatevs (1). It’s so simple, so elegant and – today at least – so effective that I’m a... Continue Reading →
Excellent environmental event on plastics and recycling #Adelaide #hope
Messages of practical action and causes for (cautious) hope abounded tonight at the Adelaide Sustainability, where a meeting on plastics and what to do about and with them was held. Around fifty people (overwhelmingly female) got to eat scrumptious (potlatch) food, and then heard from four expert panellists, all before watching an interesting American documentary... Continue Reading →
Film review; Bag It
How many innocents lose their lives, In the gloss of the packaging? Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay, by the great British punk singer TV Smith. Bag It is a good documentary, in the vein of Roger and Me (where Michael Moore tried to get a face-to-face interview with a General Motors chairman), Supersize Me (where a now-disgraced film-maker... Continue Reading →
#Brexit and #Climate Change – a painful epiphany #saddleworthmoorfire
Explaining why I haven't yet done the paperwork to get my Irish citizenship (to which I am entitled through my mum's mum), I found myself saying to a new colleague 'it's because I hope - and I know it won't happen - but I am still hoping for it - that the 'British Establishment' will... Continue Reading →
Community Energy conference in Manchester: Onshore wind competitive, but held back by regulatory resistance
What will incumbents do? According to Max Wakefield, the lead campaigner for British climate charity 10:10, “they’re there to protect their market share.” Wakefield, who has been running 10:10’ s Blown Away campaign – which seeks to overcome government hostility to onshore wind – said that incumbents can be expected to fight dirty, to buy... Continue Reading →
Chairing academic sessions for fun and… diversity #IST2018 #manels #academia
So, the International Sustainability Transitions conference has come and gone. A fine event, with a huge number of scholars delivering papers, speed talks, with plenty of time for schmoozing and boozing. I wrote already about the problem of manels and 'What is to be Done', but that was before I had a) delivered my own... Continue Reading →
Of manels, transitions and Ottawa. #IST2018 and #IST2019
The organisers of #IST2018 have worked extremely hard, and pulled together what has already been an interesting and thought-provoking programme (with a day and a half still to come). Barring a few things in the conference programme (the floor 1 and 4 switcheroo), it's been a well-oiled machine - in part thanks to the affable... Continue Reading →
Of interesting questions and interesting times
How do you create collegiality? How do you ensure that the emotional tone of an ongoing event is 'right', and that people aren't intimidated from the outset? How do you get peer-to-peer learning and interacting going at a higher-than-normal level? How do you do those things and other important things? How do you make sure... Continue Reading →
Field mobilization and how little we know… #PhD
Really really wish I'd gotten better hold of the institutional theory leg of this stool (chair?) that is my thesis earlier in the process. Am good enough on the policy stuff (MSA, PE, ACF etc etc), and the empirics, and even the sociotech transitions stuff. But I wasn't deep, wide and overview-y enough on institutional... Continue Reading →
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