Well, the moment has come to return home. At the airport in Washington DC. Arriving in Johannesburg tomorrow night after a stop over in Newark. Weekend in Pretoria and home to Stellies and the mountains – that’s what I missed most – that amazing view of the Helderberg from my couch. It’s been three months at Georgetown University in D.C., based at the newly established Environmental Justice Programme (EJP) headed up by my good friend Prof Gäel Giraud. He and I crafted the original ideas and with an amazingl young interdisciplinary team of modellers and social scientists, we have crafted the vision and 5 year strategy over the past three months. Gäel and I also spent many many hours in Georgetown’s coffee shops and restaurants sharing and building ideas for a new book that should in my view simply be called ‘HOW?’ – Lenin’s famous pamphlet was ‘What is to be done?’ … that is no longer the question: now it’s ‘How should it be done?’ What amazes us both is how little is said about the HOW of change. We want to fuse together thermodynamics, heterodox economics, relational governance, institutional work, transition thinking and the commons. We want to answer the question: Why does so little change when we know so much about why we have no future if nothing fundamental changes? We want to thread together long histories of material resource flows, economic development and the commons. If neoliberalism was an economic paradigm that was coupled to a particular theory of goverrnance, what theory of governance is appropriate for a heterodox economics of the global dynamics of the just transition? Gäel brings his superb non-equilibrium integrated economy-climate modeling skills and I bring the institutional knowledge about governance, process and space. It’s a rare privilege to find an intellectual soul mate – we have the same values and world view, but very different knowledge sets and writing traditions. On economic matters there is so much I can sense, but it would take a decade to master the relevant literature! Gäel has it all at his fingertips, including a technical grasp of the maths involved. And vice versa, he tells me. And so when we talk, there are almost no limits to the landscapes we traverse. Long lists of readings to be done emerge, as well as notes, diagrams and doodles that capture an ever-evolving and expanding intellectual landscape. Truly exciting. Can’t wait until we start getting into the real writing!! But for now, it’s back to African soil and my mountains.Well, the moment has come to return home. At the airport in Washington DC. Arriving in Johannesburg tomorrow night after a stop over in Newark. Weekend in Pretoria and home to Stellies and the mountains – that’s what I missed most – that amazing view of the Helderberg from my couch. It’s been three months at Georgetown University in D.C., based at the newly established Environmental Justice Programme (EJP) headed up by my good friend Prof Gäel Giraud. He and I crafted the original ideas and with an amazingl young interdisciplinary team of modellers and social scientists, we have crafted the vision and 5 year strategy over the past three months. Gäel and I also spent many many hours in Georgetown’s coffee shops and restaurants sharing and building ideas for a new book that should in my view simply be called ‘HOW?’ – Lenin’s famous pamphlet was ‘What is to be done?’ … that is no longer the question: now it’s ‘How should it be done?’ What amazes us both is how little is said about the HOW of change. We want to fuse together thermodynamics, heterodox economics, relational governance, institutional work, transition thinking and the commons. We want to answer the question: Why does so little change when we know so much about why we have no future if nothing fundamental changes? We want to thread together long histories of material resource flows, economic development and the commons. If neoliberalism was an economic paradigm that was coupled to a particular theory of goverrnance, what theory of governance is appropriate for a heterodox economics of the global dynamics of the just transition? Gäel brings his superb non-equilibrium integrated economy-climate modeling skills and I bring the institutional knowledge about governance, process and space. It’s a rare privilege to find an intellectual soul mate – we have the same values and world view, but very different knowledge sets and writing traditions. On economic matters there is so much I can sense, but it would take a decade to master the relevant literature! Gäel has it all at his fingertips, including a technical grasp of the maths involved. And vice versa, he tells me. And so when we talk, there are almost no limits to the landscapes we traverse. Long lists of readings to be done emerge, as well as notes, diagrams and doodles that capture an ever-evolving and expanding intellectual landscape. Truly exciting. Can’t wait until we start getting into the real writing!! But for now, it’s back to African soil and my mountains.
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