There have been several distinct waves of action calling for #climate action in the UK over the last 30 years, each bigger than the last. But these waves only last 2-3 years, and seem to leave little behind. [image courtesy of the wonderful Marc Roberts] This is a problem because momentum is lost, credibility is... Continue Reading →
Extinction Rebellion today announced that it was teaming up with Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace to try to make what has looked like it would be the Humiliatingly Small One into the Tolerably Medium-Sized One. This is the same Extinction Rebellion which denounced FoE and Greenpeace (aka "the FoGgers") as complicit, sclerotic and useless.... Continue Reading →
https://twitter.com/marcsrhudson/status/1637791469476954112 If you don't understand protest waves and movement cycles and ABEYANCE, you are a risk not just to yourself, but to those around you.
Upcoming event - Living with the climate crisis which provides group support and routes to action for those struggling with the climate crisis. Do take a look at the materials on the new Living with the climate crisis website, join us for the launch, and circulate to your networks. Join us for the online launch of Living with... Continue Reading →
I made a video about what I call "Activist Credibility Tokens" - how people try to get them, how there's an "easy" way and how that sets up perverse incentives, unhelpful patterns. Tell me what you think... https://twitter.com/marcsrhudson/status/1637048946613706754
https://twitter.com/marcsrhudson/status/1636318881311588353 From here - McAdam, D. (1986) “Recruitment to High-Risk Activism: The Case of Freedom Summer.” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 92, No. 1, pp. 64-90
Thirty years ago I had a Tetris addiction. For those who have come late, Tetris was a very simple (but addictive - did I mention that)) game where you had to move and re-orient different shaped blocks so that they would fall "into place". If a whole row of blocks existed, it would wink out... Continue Reading →
There's a very good paper (with a click-bait headline - "Fuck Nuance") about theory building, abstraction etc. Here's a link to a pdf. And there's a section in it (lots of it is eminently quotable) about Emile Durkheim, the French guy who can claim to be the father of sociology. "Indifferent to fairly representing his... Continue Reading →
I remember reading this in Denmark in 1994 or so. I remember being blown away by it. We knew the shape of the problem(s) inside out by January 1970. And here we are, fifty three years later... Will read this alongside a couple of others and do a group review... #BetchaCan'tWait
From Alison Lurie's magnificent 1984 novel "Foreign Affairs" How much nicer and less boring it would be if we were all still children, Vinnie thinks. Then, as she often does on boring public occasions, she relieves her restlessness by imagining the weight of years lifted suddenly from everyone in the room. The older members of... Continue Reading →
