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Monthly Archives: January 2014
Anticipatory learning. Great idea. Species don’t seem so good at it, y’know?
ABSTRACT: This paper is a methodological contribution to emerging debates on the role of learning, particularly forward-looking (anticipatory) learning, as a key element for adaptation and resilience in the context of climate change. First, we describe two major challenges: understanding … Continue reading
Posted in activism, apocalypse, climate, competence
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Dead people in the pond, remind me baby of you – Woyzeck and Woyzeck
“Every human being is an abyss. One grows dizzy looking down.” Georg Buchner’s Woyzeck. Sounds like a cheerful little number, as Mrs Towers occasionally says.
Posted in reading list
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Washing dirty laundry in public – on the left and the lies it tells itself
There’s knowing the procedures (the formal roles) and then there’s knowing the process (the social meanings)…. I saw a bit of a film, back when it came out, of Debra Winger as [what we now call] someone with educational special … Continue reading
Posted in a little self-knowledge, activism
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The hamster wheel of digital late modernity…
Unsustainable in just about every sense you can think of (nb Svensson is describing, not endorsing…) Sociologists often refer our time as late modern (Giddens, 1991; Bauman, 2001). Dahlgren (2006) characterises late modernity by identifying two interrelated cultural processes at … Continue reading
Posted in activism, framing, internet culture
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“Who dares wins”? Erm, who understands the importance of organisation and preparation wins…
Everyone wants to be a super-hero, everyone wants to be a Captain Kirk. But what wins the war (not a few of the battles) is good old fashioned logistics… A theme I keep coming back to. But we don’t want … Continue reading
Posted in a little self-knowledge, activism
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“Intellectuals versus theorists.” Bwahahahaha roflmao
“There has been no lack of intellectuals in the socialist party; there has been a lack of theorists.” Emilio Iamo de Espinosa, in Paul Heywood (1990) Marxism and the Future of Organised Socialism in Spain 1879-1936
Posted in academia, activism, competence
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Our outrage, our (self)-righteousness, is not enough
This isn’t Hollywood. There isn’t some deus ex machina or any rule that says that the good guys win (see what they did to the creepy Dutch film “The Vanishing” if you need an example.) “No flag ever stopped a … Continue reading
Posted in activism, competence
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Raymond Williams on “structures of feeling” – Hilary Wainwright explains
Hilary Wainwright writing in Red Pepper (Aug/Sept 2011) in an article called “Feeling our way forward” One of [Raymond] Williams‘ concerns was to overcome the way that ‘relationships, institutions and formations in which we are still actively involved are converted … Continue reading
Posted in a little self-knowledge, activism
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Article: “Learning in social action: The informal and social learning dimensions of circumstantial and lifelong activists”
It’s by someone called Tracey Ollis Australian Journal of Adult Learning Volume 51, Number 2, July 2011 here is a link to the pdf Here’s the abstract This paper explores the informal and social learning dimensions of activists as they … Continue reading
“Go green, everyone wins” said one home-made placard
Except they don’t. Companies that have built up enormous expertise and infrastructure in extracting fossil fuels from the ground will not win. There will (or rather, ‘would’) be a painful transition. It’s pointless to deny that there will be winners … Continue reading
Posted in activism, apocalypse
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