You can look at the top of a fountain of water and think it is static. But it is only there because of a constant flow of water, versus gravity. (1) The perception is an illusion. In strange days like these, we can see this (whether it's always full supermarket shelves, or ICU beds, or... Continue Reading →
White Saviour Complex, COP26 and #climate activism – my two cents
I was sat recently in a room as white as Cumbria. It was full (80ish) of white people who sincerely believe that the revolution will only come when the last capitalist is strangled with the intestines of the last racist. There were three women of colour present. I was sat next to one, a friend,... Continue Reading →
30 mins at a meeting’s outset tell you EVERYTHING. Also, crap plenaries…
There are other blog posts I need to write. A review of an extraordinary book about Norfolk, the Stone Age, incumbency, patriarchy and sociotechnical transitions (no, seriously it's all that and more. Staggeringly good)) Something about the intellectual work behind the job I just was interviewed for (accelerating sociotechnical transitions. Or sociomaterial transitions - or... Continue Reading →
Asking the wrong people the wrong questions in the wrong way: WW2 bombers and social movements
Those who know me will put two and two together, but the rest of you can wonder why and what. This. There's a story about the beginnings of Operations Research, I think from De Landa's War in the Age of Intelligent Machines, which goes like this: trying to figure out what bits of bombers required... Continue Reading →
The Murray Andersen Syndrome – of #climate memory-holes, farces and doom (natch)
No, not that Murray Anderson. No, not that one either. Let me describe it to you, and see if you can figure it out for yourself. Stuff embeds better that way anyhow. In reverse order. (drum roll please) Everybody secretly knows that the game is rigged, the war is over, that the fine words and... Continue Reading →
Explaining *that* video #AustralianFires #ScottyfromMarketing #fear #patriarchy
Earlier today the Australian Prime Minister released an astonishingly tone-deaf advert – branded as Liberal Party – spruiking the role of “Our Defence Forces”. As the Guardian noted, it met with derision from the Australian Defence Association and Piers Morgan. In this short piece I want to explore what I think is going on, and... Continue Reading →
Looting the Ivory Tower “The work after ‘it’s too late’ to prevent dangerous #climate change
(Blog posts about academic articles and what value they might have for activists.) Article Moser SC. The work after “It's too late” (to prevent dangerous climate change). WIREs Climate Change. 2020;11:e606. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.606 The TL;DR If you have read much on social and psychological responses to climate change you will have come across the work of... Continue Reading →
TV Smith: Chomsky meets Cohen, but punk
Crikey I needed that. After Thursday's shitshow (albeit revealed in the company of friends, which momentarily softened the blow), what happened last night was just perfect. Given that TV Smith is a guy with a 40 year back catalogue of brilliant - perceptive, funny, lyrically astonishing - songs, and with a work ethic that would... Continue Reading →
A year from now… aka The Glasgow Shitshow #COP26 #socialmovements
Right now there's a lot of politicians flapping their meat in Madrid, at the 25th "Conference of the Parties" to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Late next year they will be flapping their meat in Glasgow. It will be the first COP to be held in the UK (though there was 1994's... Continue Reading →
Excruciatingly obvious advice following excruciating event. Innovate4GodsSake
Tell your attendees what it is that they are going to be asked to solve. Tell them that in a preliminary email Or two. Tell them that when they arrive In writing. In big letters. Maybe with some cartoons/graphics. (Perhaps not in rubbish videos with awful sound quality. #justsaying) Respect their intelligence and their time... Continue Reading →
