On April 4th I will be speaking at the Electron Festival (Festival of Electronic Culture) in Geneva

More information here

I occasionally write with Jenny Pickerill and Stuart Hodkinson under the collective name of ‘the Autonomous geographies collective. We have just published an article form our recent project Autonomous Geographies. You can download the article below:

Beyond Scholar Activism: Making Strategic Interventions Inside and Outside the Neoliberal University,

ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies Volume 9, issue 2, 2010. page 245-275 

Just before Christmas, I appeared on the regional BBC Look North evening News in a series organised by BBC Look North weatherman, Paul Hudson.  The series was part of the countdown to the UN Climate change talks in Copenhagen last December. The BBC wanted to profile Drax powersation as it is one of the main reasons why the Yorkshire region has the largest carbon footprint in the UK.

You can watch the clip below. Scroll to about 5 mins in for the start of the Drax feature. In this clip, the production manager at Drax powerstation, Peter emery states that Drax will reduce its carbon emissions by 20% by 2011 based on 2006 figures. This seems a huge and promising decrease, and I am currently seeking clarification on these figures.

I also did a follow up interview on Look North two days later, in response to the launch of a new multimillion pound nuclear research facility in the Yorkshire region. Again i made a similar argument that we need to make a transition to a low carbon economy not through coal or nuclear, but through demand reductions, energy efficiency and a shift to renewables. Watch how well those arguments were received!

Here is an article I wrote in the run up to the UNFCC conference in Copenhagen happening right now. It has been published on the Red Pepper magazine’s website here.

ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies
Volume 8, Issue 3, 2009

http://www.acme-journal.org/Volume8-3.htm

Corporate Involvement in Geography
Guest edited by Paul Chatterton and Larch Maxey

Introduction: Whatever Happened to Ethics and Responsibility in Geography? Paul Chatterton and Larch Maxey, Pg. 429
http://www.acme-journal.org/vol8/ChattertonMaxey09.pdf

Dancing on a Double Edged Sword: Sustainability within University Corp. Larch Maxey, Pg. 440
http://www.acme-journal.org/vol8/Maxey09.pdf

Education and the Enclosure of Knowledge in the Global University. Silvia Federici, Pg. 454
http://www.acme-journal.org/vol8/Federici09.pdf

Teaching What We (Preach and) Practice: The MA in Activism and Social Change.  Stuart Hodkinson, Pg. 462
http://www.acme-journal.org/vol8/Hodkinson09.pdf

Corporate Social Responsibility in Higher Education. Ed Brown and Jonathan Cloke, Pg 474
http://www.acme-journal.org/vol8/BrownCloke09.pdf

Spies in the Information Economy: Academic Publishers and the Trade in Personal Information. David Murakami Wood, Pg. 484
http://www.acme-journal.org/vol8/Wood09.pdf

Lessons from the Campaign against Elsevier. “We won, but how did we win?” Tom Stafford, Pg. 494
http://www.acme-journal.org/vol8/Stafford09.pdf

In Arms’ Way: Arms Company and Military Involvement in Education in the UK. Anna Stavrianakis, Pg. 505
http://www.acme-journal.org/vol8/Stavrianakis09.pdf

Time to Shell Out? Reflections on the RGS and Corporate Sponsorship.  David Gilbert, Pg. 521
http://www.acme-journal.org/vol8/Gilbert09.pdf

Corporate Social Responsibility: Between Civil Society and the Oil Industry in the Developing World. Felix Tuodolo, Pg. 530
http://www.acme-journal.org/vol8/Tuodolo09.pdf

Everywhere You Go, Can You be Sure of Shell? Emily Johns, Pg 542
http://www.acme-journal.org/vol8/Johns09.pdf

Tools for Social Change

A Trapese Short Course at Ragman’s Lane Farm, Easter 2010

Sat 27th March- Sat 3rd April 2010

Drawing on the ‘Do It Yourself Handbook’ (handbookforchange.org) this week long
course will provide training in grassroots organising, including consensus decision
making, popular education and effective campaigning. It will also explore how these
tools can be used to set up long term projects e.g. land projects, social centres, community
gardens and how we can work together effectively to achieve social change.

Who: Trapese is a popular education collective who have been organising interactive workshops
which aim to inspire action since 2004.

To register please contact us before 27th

January 2010 at www.trapese.org

Cost: £175-350 pounds depending on income.

Location: Ragman’s Lane Farm Forest of Dean, a sixty acre farm in

Gloucestershire teaching people how to use land sustainably.
More info: www.ragmans.co.uk and www.trapese.org

There is a pretty amazing event on this Saturday organised by the New Economics Foundation amongst others. Its all at:

http://thebiggerpicture2009.org/

I am doing a couple of things there which include:

1. Speakers corner: Resistance is futile? Can protest save the planet in time? 14.00 – 15.15

Direct action from environmental campaigners is increasingly hitting the news, and there are victories to be claimed. Media coverage from high profile cases such as the Kingsnorth Six and the Drax coal train mean protest is rarely out of the news. With Ed Miliband claiming he wants a movement akin to a new suffragettes, is this wave of protest having an impact on policy makers- and can it make a difference in time?

With John Sauven, Executive Director of Greenpeace, Ann Pettifor, member of the Green New Deal Group and nef fellow and Dr Paul Chatterton, Leeds University.

Chaired by Nick Deardon, Director of the Jubilee Debt Campaign.

2. Workshop Building Your Own community: a DIY Guide 15.30 – 16.30

START PRODUCING THE FUTURE
Experiments against Enclosure - Tools to reclaim the Commons

All round the world, there are thousands of projects and people working from the bottom up, creating and resisting the system that is causing climate change and building a more just and sustainable world, right here and now. As part of the 100 days run up to the Copenhagen Climate summit, The Trapese Collective invite YOU to three days of of practical workshops, trainings, discussions and inspiration on everything from crash technologies and local food to campaigning and building alternatives. Come to just one workshops or the whole three days. Check out our mid week film programme. Join the real green (grassroots) shoots.

When? Saturdays 17th October, 31st October, 14th November 2009, 10.30 - 6pm.

Where? Arnolfini, 16 Narrow Quay, Bristol BS1 4QA www.arnolfini.org.uk
How? Register via Arnolfini box office or phone, T: +44 (0)117 9172300 / 01 E: boxoffice@arnolfini.org.uk .

Please say which session(s) you plan to attend.Or simply turn up and register on the day. Some sessions are ‘closed’ once they start, others are drop in, (see programme)

How much? Participation is not dependent on paying but we suggest a donations from £5 to £15 per person, per day, depending on income. This will go to the workshop facilitators, who are offering these sessions for free, or to the projects of their choosing.
Food? Bring food to share or there are plenty of local eateries.

Who? Trapese are a popular education collective who among other projects edited the Do It Yourself -handbook for changing our world, in 2007. This project which draws on the themes from the book will be co-ordinated by Alice Cutler, Natasha Machin and Steve Stuffit, from Bristol with input from Paul Chatterton, and Kim Bryan and many
other Trapese friends. www.trapese.org

Click for leaflet

I am running a short course in November. We have a great line up of speakers. Spread the word.

EMERGENCY PLANET EARTH! Environmental crises, definitions and responses Tues 10 - Sun 15 Nov 2009

———————————

NEW SHORT COURSE in November 2009 led by the University of Leeds @ the Centre for Alternative Technology, Wales – the UK’s leading ecocentre

——————————–

• Want to learn more about the urgent environmental issues of our times?

• Want to engage with practitioners who are at the forefront of developing solutions?

• Want to tap into cutting edge, radical teaching and research with one of the UK’s most respected universities and the UK’s leading ecocentre?

Then this module is for you!

Teaching staff from the MA in ‘Activism and Social Change’ (www.activismsocialchange.org.uk) based in Geography at the University of Leeds are beginning an exciting new partnership with CAT to deliver this short course. CAT is one of Europe’s leading ecocentres, undertaking practical research and teaching into ecological issues. It is based in the town of Machynlleth on the edge of Snowdonia National Park. This collaboration is particularly timely as CAT is launching a major new educational initiative and resource this summer called WISE (the Wales Institute for Sustainable Education). WISE will provide a state-of-the-art environmental education centre, featuring 24 en suite study bedrooms, 200 seat rammed earth lecture theatre workshops, seminar rooms, laboratory, restaurant and bar.

++ Module Logistics and costs

This course will take place in mid November 2009 and will be taught over one week, from Tuesday evening to Sunday afternoon.

Registration for this course costs £300 unwaged, £475 waged and £650 company rate and includes full board accommodation, tuition and materials.

Accommodation will be on our main site, in small simply furnished rooms, which contain 2-5 bunk beds. We have a few single rooms available for an extra £10 per night. There are common rooms available for relaxation, with facilities for making drinks. Meals are served in our wholefood vegetarian restaurant.

++ Module Content

The module will be delivered by staff from the University of Leeds and CAT and will involve a mix of lectures, seminars, evening reading groups, debates and films, student led presentations, guest speakers and site tours and a social on Saturday evening.

++ Sessions include:

Issues

1. Introduction: understanding rapid change

2. Climate Change: emergency code red?

3. The Energy crisis and peak oil

4. Environmental Justice: living in a toxic society

5. Land matters: the industrialisation of food and agriculture

6. Mid point reflection and summary

Responses

7. Green capitalism and the corporate response

8. Government frameworks for change: from the local to the global

9. Grassroots civil society responses: localisation and transition towns

10. Social movements for change: radical ecological direct action

++ To register

Tel: 01654 705981 Email: course@cat.org.uk or www.cat.org.uk/courses for online booking.

To reserve a place, send a non-returnable deposit cheque to CAT Charity Ltd for £100 or ring or email with credit card details. Further details and invoices will be sent shortly before the course. The balance of the course fee is due before the start of the course. Residents of SY20 or SY23 should enquire about special non residential rates.

++ More information

For more information on the MA in Activism and Social Change see: www.activismsocialchange.org.uk or email the Programme Director: Dr Paul Chatterton p.chatterton@leeds.ac.uk

Alice Cutler and I, two members of the popular education collective Trapese, have just reprinted our booklet ‘THE ROCKY ROAD TO A REAL TRANSITION: THE TRANSITION TOWNS MOVEMENT AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE.’ It is our contribution to the evolving ideas within the excellent transition towns movement. You can download the booklet via my publications page and the new preface we wrote for the reprint appears below. Get in touch if you want some hard copies. They cost £1 each to cover production costs.

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