In his fascinating book Forging Industry Policy Frank Dobbin critiques other social scientists for “taking too much of the social world at face value, when they should be asking how the world got to be the way that it is”. This is an interesting way of putting things and quite a serious charge to make regarding … [Read more…]
I’ve decided to write a series of posts reviewing and reflecting on my doctoral research and considering future directions such inquiry could be taken in. Such posts might be of interest to others thinking of conducting research on forms of forward-looking inquiry and engagement (in addition to a personal moment of reflection). This post begins … [Read more…]
On a couple of occasions I’ve discussed Emma Marris’s important book Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World (e.g. link). I highly recommend reading it: you may not agree with all her arguments, but you will find it challenges and informs your thinking in ways that any book of the type ought to do. … [Read more…]
This post briefly considers Chris Thomas’s new book Inheritors of the Earth: How Nature Is Thriving in an Age of Extinction. As the subtitle suggests, the book seeks to challenge the “pessimism-laden, loss-only view of the world” (p.9) that Thomas believes is currently dominant in conservation and ecology. In contrast, the book emphasises the “biological … [Read more…]
Whilst many people would argue that there aren’t unsolvable tensions between scholarship and activism I’ve sometimes found that there are tensions. It’s something that I’ve been thinking about regarding future career options and directions. I was also stimulated to revisit this line of thought by a fascinating talk given by the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt … [Read more…]
The International Sustainability Transitions conference (the annual conference of the Sustainability Transitions Research Network) was held earlier this month in Wuppertal, Germany. Wuppertal turned out to be an interesting place to hold this conference. This part of Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia) is an industrial region – one presenter claimed that the region produces 10% of the … [Read more…]
During my scanning of the news over recent weeks I noticed the diverse range of articles on recent coral bleaching events, related scientific research, and the future of the Great Barrier Reef, e.g.: ‘Great Barrier Reef could be dead within 20 years, Australia scientists have warned’ (link) ‘Great Barrier Reef and Other Corals May Survive … [Read more…]
As noted in other recent posts I’ve been familiarising myself with an emerging field of research called sustainability transitions research (e.g. here, here). ‘Transition management’ (TM) is one approach that has been explored and researched at the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (DRIFT). I’ve noted the concept of transition management in some of my papers … [Read more…]
I recently reread an important commentary/thought piece on the future of sustainability science which argues that the field needs to substantially change in order “to ensure that science is focused on facilitating sustainability outcomes” (Miller et al. 2014). In particular, these sustainability researchers believe that a stronger focus on contributing to real-world solutions is required … [Read more…]
It’s a bit too soon, arguably, to do a full postmortem on the book The Population Bomb and especially on related debates – given the global population continues to rapidly rise and is heading towards 9 or 9.5 billion by mid-century – but lately I spotted some interesting revisiting of the book, its impacts, and … [Read more…]