Another hot take about what may be coming. The USP for this one is that It tries to use some academic theories but in plain English It admits up front - “who the hell knows?” It actually foregrounds the crucial question other posts (e.g. this otherwise interesting one) ignore - “who is going to bell... Continue Reading →
STRN announces partnership with Bilderberg Group
The Sustainability Transitions Research Network today proudly announces a Mutual Love Partnership (MLP) - with the influential Bilderberg Group. The STRN, which has been in operation for almost a decade, acts as a platform for the exchange of ideas and a forum for chest-beating and prestige battles. It will be subsumed within the Bilderberg Group,... Continue Reading →
What is “hope” anyway? A conjecture on collective emotions, reservoirs and replenishment
Hope gets on my tits. The need for hope censors. I am sick of the constant whining that if you tell people how serious things are they will "switch off". This is usually argued by people who basically believe in and are supported by the current system, who think the only problem is that our... Continue Reading →
Fear eats the soul – of COVID19, narking and Trump/Johnson approval ratings
Over the last few days I've seen some facebook posts/tweets/etc expressing anger/bewilderment that a) people are phoning up the cops to inform on neighbours who are going out more than the narks think they should b) the approval ratings for clearly failed "leaders" like Trump, Johnson and Morrison are going UP even though they are... Continue Reading →
What COVID-19 might also be threatening – “our” dream of absolute control….
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 →