September 2009

The Archives

Jon Alexander
Future generations, rights for nature, and beyond GDP
09.30.09 | Permalink | 6 Comments

I swing, as I’m sure most of us do, between confidence and despair that things are going to change at the level that we need. Principally, my despair comes when I see the mainstream narrative stuck so firmly in the idea that small changes will add up to a big difference - even Rosemary’s Carbon [...]
Joe Brewer
How Can We Make Green An Identity?
09.22.09 | Permalink | Comments Off

The environmental movement can be reframed with positive stories that people want to identify with.
Tom Crompton
IPPR Consumer Power report
09.18.09 | Permalink | 3 Comments

The Institute of Public Policy Research has just published the results of deliberative workshop research on public responses to climate change. See the coverage in yesterday’s Guardian or download the IPPR report itself here. The work draws on the Values Modes analysis as championed by Pat Dade at Cultural Dynamics.
There’s much in this report that [...]
Joe Brewer
Identity, Values, and Community Engagement
09.10.09 | Permalink | Comments Off

I just wrote the following blog article for my website, and felt that it would make a worthwhile topic for discussion here. The article is called “Ethical Business in Your Town” and it explores moral principles that shape how people think about business in their communities. I see this as a core issue for any [...]
Tom Crompton
Identity campaigning in the US health sector
09.09.09 | Permalink | 2 Comments

Joe Brewer, a contributor to this site, has just publicised some work he’s done on ‘cognitive strategies’ in the health sector in the US. I think the ideas he develops are really import for identity campaigning, on several counts:
- they serve to draw a sharp distinction between a health campaign based on economic self-interest and [...]
Rosemary Randall
Madeleine Bunting: It’s not easy
09.08.09 | Permalink | 1 Comment

Madeleine Bunting is spot on (My battle to cut carbon: a baffling, frustrating path to a more honest life) in yesterday’s Guardian. Making the large (and urgent) cuts in personal carbon isn’t easy. We wouldn’t be human if we weren’t beset with anxiety, sadness, anger and a thousand other difficult emotions as we struggle to [...]
Tom Crompton
God, climate change and the limits of self-interest
09.08.09 | Permalink | 5 Comments

Yesterday, Lord May, the former UK Government chief scientific advisor, highlighted the limitations of appeals to self-interest in the course of tackling climate change.
Bemoaning the lack of international co-operation on climate change, he said that no country was prepared to take the lead and a “punisher” was needed to make sure the [...]