Marc Hudson has been to one too many event that describes itself as “open space”. The fightback starts here.[Update: here's how he'd have done it] The Evil Corporations and their Evil State lackeys are trying to defeat us!! They constantly steal our ideas, water them down, and then use them to sell their own very... Continue Reading →
Newsflash: Fossil Fuel Lobby using blonde moppets as human shields in war on planet
Personally I am not a big fan of fascism. Call me squeamish. Nor am I a big fan of the whole ubermensch “Aryan blonde-blued eyed” thing . Something to do with understanding who was on the land before whitey arrived and what whitey did to get that land. I am not saying that the people... Continue Reading →
Event report: “Enhancing Interdisciplinarity”
One of the joys of being a PhD student (asides being paid to read, “think”, write, hang out with very very smart people (and you too, Miles? 😛 ) is that you can go to day-long seminars on things called “Enhancing Interdisciplinarity.” I couldn’t stay to the end because I had a symposium on neo-institutional... Continue Reading →
“Smart” homes and what they mean – energy, consumption, #funwashing…
Last week Dr Tom Hargreaves came to Manchester and delivered an interesting seminar (for the Sustainable Consumption Institute) on "Smart homes, energy use and every day life." The idea of "fun washing" (as akin to greenwashing etc) popped up. My understanding is that it a rhetorical/advertising ploy to get people past the anxiety of their... Continue Reading →
My PhD – a poster
On Wednesday there's a "Methods Fair" at University of Manchester. If you can come, vote for meeeeeeeeeeeee!!! PS This is already out of date, in that I've got some fancier methods to play with than I knew about when I threw this poster together. The cartoons, to emphasise, are from the amazing Marc Roberts. PS... Continue Reading →
Professor Cynthia Enloe gives #Manchester Annual Peace Lecture
Professor Cynthia Enloe [wikipedia] is the author of ground-breaking works such as "Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics" and The Morning After: Sexual Politics at the End of the Cold War. She is also Research Professor at Clark University. Yesterday she gave a clear and compelling lecture at the University of Manchester, followed by... Continue Reading →
Activist Fictions…
The article below appeared in the latest issue of the essential-reading “Peace News.” (subscribe here.) Activist Fictions The absurdly handsome activist bit his lip. The Peace News crew were threatening mil-itary action if the final extended deadline for a 2000 word essay on “Activism and Fiction” was missed. The clock was most definitely two minutes... Continue Reading →
Re-watching “The Wire”
The game's the game. (I would add "truedat" but then my wife would be forced to buy a train ticket, travel for 3 and a half hours to raise the eyebrow of death/slap me/kill me (depending on whether there was functioning wifi in first class).
Three rules of the internet – one fascinating night in Manchester
Cory Doctorow, author and activist, was in Manchester tonight at Waterstone’s on Deansgate. The highly enjoyable – even inspiring - event was organised by the digital campaigners at manchester.openrightsgroup.org The bulk of his talk centred on three rules (of the Internet. The first of many useful aphorisms was this – "everything we do today involves the... Continue Reading →
Video: Dr Maurie Cohen on “the Empty Promise of the Sharing Economy”
This is a video of a seminar at the University of Manchester in September 2014 and the Question and Answer session Lessons learnt- wonkycam - should probably invest in a table-top tripod make sure you spell the name of the person correctly!
