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PhD research

Review of ‘Apocalypse Never’ by Michael Shellenberger

January 24, 2021 / Leave a Comment

Over the summer I read a book I’ve been meaning to read but also kind of avoiding: Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All by Michael Shellenberger, an American environmental writer and nuclear power advocate who runs an organisation called Environmental Progress. This organisation “was founded to achieve two goals: lift all humans out … [Read more…]

Posted in: Environmental sociology, Knowledge practices, PhD research Tagged: Environmental alarmism, Environmentalism

Reconsidering Fred Guterl’s book The Fate of the Species

March 24, 2020 / Leave a Comment

Like many people I’m pondering the intensifying COVID-19 infectious disease crisis, with daily life here in Australia (I live in Melbourne) beginning to transform as governments implement policies which upend daily life and many industries. Initial forecasts suggest we’re likely to see the worst level of unemployment since the Great Depression. I have no idea … [Read more…]

Posted in: Anticipatory action, Knowledge practices, PhD research Tagged: Prospective knowledge practices, worst case scenarios

From scenarios of the future to ‘anticipatory knowledge’

March 31, 2019 / Leave a Comment

Reading Roger Pielke Jr’s review of David Wallace-Wells’ new book The Uninhabitable Earth: A Story of the Future got me thinking about a process described by Pielke Jr as the transformation of “carefully caveated scenarios of the future” produced by scientific communities into “most likely futures” (or related future-oriented claims). He writes: The scientific community … [Read more…]

Posted in: Climate change, Knowledge practices, PhD research Tagged: climate change, Prospective knowledge practices

Re-engaging with my work on prospective knowledge practices (and knowledge practice theory)

November 18, 2018 / Leave a Comment

Though my doctoral research began as a fairly straightforward impact evaluation of forward-looking interventions (which I call “prospective exercises”), it evolved into a more complex piece of research and theory-building. Two of the ideas that emerged from this broader inquiry are: To understand the use and impacts of a prospective exercise (or similar future-oriented research) … [Read more…]

Posted in: Knowledge practices, PhD research, Uncategorized Tagged: Knowledge practices, Prospective knowledge practices

My emerging philosophy of science (part 1)

February 26, 2018 / Leave a Comment

In his book The Invention of Science David Wootton argues that “the idea of discovery is … a precondition for the invention of science” (p.54) and, linked with this, that the idea of discovery itself had to be invented. He points to the works of Francis Bacon which “built a philosophy of science around the … [Read more…]

Posted in: PhD research, Uncategorized Tagged: Personal philosophy, philosophy of science

Reflections on completing my PhD: looking back and looking ahead

February 21, 2018 / 1 Comment

Last week I received a letter from University of Technology Sydney (UTS) stating that the Graduate Research School at UTS has recommended (to the Academic Board) that I be admitted to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (the degree will be conferred in March). This letter more formally marks the completion of what has been … [Read more…]

Posted in: PhD research, Uncategorized Tagged: PhD research

Introducing the concept of prospective knowledge practices

May 21, 2017 / Leave a Comment

One of the outputs of my PhD research is the concept of prospective knowledge practices. The purpose of this post is to outline this concept and some of its potential benefits versus other terms that are commonly used (e.g. “foresight practices”, “futures research”, etc.). My introduction to the concept of knowledge practices – which informs … [Read more…]

Posted in: PhD research, Uncategorized Tagged: PhD research

On diversity and the potential to leverage intercultural contact

April 17, 2017 / Leave a Comment

This post also began as a research “memo” (written to myself as part of my PhD journal) entitled “on the effects of diversity”. I was prompted to write it by Richard Crisp’s book The Social Brain: How Diversity Made the Modern Mind (Robinson Books, 2015) – also see an earlier blogpost. In contrast to the more … [Read more…]

Posted in: Futures practices, PhD research

On the psychological plausibility of prospective exercises (i.e. foresight/futures exercises etc.)

April 16, 2017 / 1 Comment

This post began as a research “memo” (written to myself as an entry in a reflective PhD journal) entitled “on psychological plausibility”. I was prompted to write it by a couple of pieces written by David Roberts on current debates about 100% renewable electricity and the feasibility of such goals (see link, link) and other … [Read more…]

Posted in: PhD research, Sustainability issues Tagged: energy transitions, PhD research, psychology, Social psychology

The knowledge illusion and its effects, good and bad

April 2, 2017 / Leave a Comment

A new book popularising and discussing cognitive science, The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone, recently got my attention. It focusses on recent research findings that people tend to radically overestimate how much they know and, linked with this, greatly overestimate their knowledge of how things work (e.g. fairly simple things like how modern … [Read more…]

Posted in: PhD research, Sustainability issues, Uncategorized Tagged: Cognitive science
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