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Transdisciplinary and sociological musings on research, contemporary events and sustainability transitions (mainly)

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Month: April 2017

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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