In the latest instalment from my LSE activism students, Lachlan Hill took my course to help formulate the strategy for his Go25degrees campaign in Indonesia. This asks Air Con manufacturers – not governments – to take responsibility for their indirect emissions and make one simple change to their factory settings. One simple nudge to prevent the construction of >100 power

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Sometimes I wish the earth was flat – then at least, we wouldn’t have time zones. Last week I blearily zoomed in for three 7am starts to discuss the strategy of the Myanmar-based Centre for Good Governance (full disclosure, I’m an adviser). Luckily, it was really interesting. CGG prides itself on its ability to adapt to a shifting context, which

Tomorrow (Wednesday) I’ll be speaking on a panel on drugs and development to launch a series: ‘A World with Drugs: Legal Regulation through a Development lens’. As Helen Clark is kicking it off, I’ll mainly be doing ‘what she said’. Q to readers tho – the ‘drugs and development’ lobby has been pushing major organizations to mainstream the issue for

And below is the graphic I promised

I thought I’d post some of the top blog posts from this year’s students in my LSE class on ‘Advocacy, Campaigning and Grassroots activism‘. Their individual assignment was to design a campaign strategy for a cause close to their hearts, and write a blog about it. Here’s Lucy Shearer presenting her campaign to clean up London’s underground. If like me,

Another great piece/links round-up from Graham Teskey – an internal briefing at his workplace (Abt) that he’s happy for me to share  Political economy analysis (PEA) refers to a body of theory and practice that was first identified by the great economists of the 18th and 19th centuries. Indeed, economics was originally termed ‘political economy’. It was only when mathematics

Data, Knowledge, Wisdom and other stuff. ht Peter Baker ‘Research in conflict settings is like living with a constant risk of getting burned. As researchers, we grow accustomed to the burns; we even begin to trivialise them. Until the day we realise that our skin no longer heals.’ An Ansoms on the LSE Africa blog What Have We Learned from

On the off chance that someone is looking for an interesting research topic, here are 3 case studies related to norm change that I would love to read about, but don’t currently have time to research myself. If you are interested in picking up any of them, I’d love to discuss (and read the result). 1. The canonization of Oscar

Pickings are a bit thin this week, but that’s probs because so many people are pretending to be on holiday. Including me – Scottish rain and cuisine, what’s not to like? Back in two weeks. Thankyou Darren Dutton for the inspired conflation of Donald Trump’s Axios interview (the one with the charts) and the Monty Python parrot sketch. What’s changed?

Best selling toy this summer – ht The New Yorker Been having fun browsing on what Matthew Spencer calls ‘the best simple guide to some of the principles of campaign strategy’. Example: ‘Do you really need to campaign? Campaigning can be fun but it’s often hard, dull, frustrating and unsuccessful. Even when it’s exciting, it’s a bit like Charlie Watt’s description of

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