A friend of mine just shared this blog post by Duncan Green which begins Tomorrow night I am doing an ‘ask me anything’ session on skype with some students from Guelph University in Canada, who have been reading How Change Happens. They have sent an advance list of questions, which are really sharp. I’d appreciate your views... Continue Reading →
Infiltration and environmental movements – what is to be done? #ExtinctionRebellion #climatebreakdown #spycops
The future is not written, but there are several excruciatingly safe bets about the years ahead. atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane will continue to rise poor people will suffer the resultant impacts of #climatebreakdown hard and first the state will try to suppress social movements which seek to do anything about rendering these... Continue Reading →
Hope, false hope, stupid hope and #climatechange: From Paris to Extinction (Rebellion)
Here's the tl:dr - The Paris Agreement and Extinction Rebellion are two sides (or symptoms) of the same coin, i.e. the suspension of critical faculties by people who know better but are in desperate search of reasons to be hopeful about our grim meathook future.... Back in 2015 I wrote a piece about the Paris... Continue Reading →
What might have been, but wasn’t
How it could have been (Starting on time instead of fifteen minutes late) Having someone clearly identified as welcome/way of making sure people who don’t know anyone know where to come to etc. Having a note taker Introductions Pairwise. "Sit with someone you don’t know. You are going to find out their name and what,... Continue Reading →
12 years a slave to the rhetoric
[Update 13 Jan 2019: hmm, this blog has been put somewhere on facebook and had some click throughs. Could someone share the link in the comments? Curious to see what/if any comments. ALSO, this latest post on this site may be of interest- "Infiltration and environmental movements - what is to be done?"] It's... Continue Reading →
Event report: PIECES of advice about (energy) policy engagement #EnergyPIECES
On Monday 10th December about 60 PhD students and ECRs (early career researchers) gathered in Cambridge for an interesting event, with the does-what-it-says-on-the-tin title "Engaging with energy policy: a masterclass for Social Sciences & Humanities PhD and early-career researchers." Hosted by the Centre for Science and Policy (Cambridge University) and the Global Sustainability Institute at... Continue Reading →
Sorry to Bother You, but you should defo see Sorry to Bother You
This is a film where, with some reservations, you should believe the hype. From the bravura opening scene, where we see the desperate hero's job interview lies get ruthlessly exposed, through to the deeply weird and unsettling climax, this socialist parable is a scabrous and strange attack on, well, almost everything. Your jaw will be... Continue Reading →
Ehre heads. On the (f)utility of theory
Short post but hopefully not a shitpost. Went to a thing recently. There was a good 'sweeping overview' history of the twentieth century around Keynesianism/neoliberalism (though it undersold the importance of ICT and containerisation for my taste). Halfway through I scrawled to a colleague "Five quid says he says nothing/has nothing to say about 'what... Continue Reading →
#Climate delay and consequences in a simple metaphor
So recently I was having to explain the delay in doing anything about climate change since 1988, when it became a public policy issue, to a bunch of young women. One of my go-to metaphors is if you're dieting to get into a wedding dress, then if start six months before the wedding, losing a... Continue Reading →
Spiders, trouble, students, decentering…
I am the TA (teaching assistant) on a rather excellent course called 'Wildlife in the Age of Humans'. It's a delight to be a) engaging with cool ideas b) helping smart students engage with cool ideas. The latest seminar was on 'conviviality'. The lecture had dealt with scorpions coming up through shower grates and what... Continue Reading →
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