ALSP 08

Returning from the Sherwood Forest and a conference which left me with a frustrating mix of academic fulfilment and communication breakdown. Had the chance of talking to Stephen Gardiner, Tim Hayward and several others whose work I have been following closely over the last years. Conferences are good in the sense that you get to meet the person behind the theoretical ideas. The risk is of course that it will be that brutal over-a-beer version which stays with you afterwards.

And that risk goes both ways. Presenting my paper yesterday I once again felt how difficult it is to challenge the dominating discourse in green political theory without being reduced to a strawman. Despite the official veneration of critical thought, it sometimes seems as if some people only have two mental boxes, one for those in favour of the neo-liberal paradigm (whatever that now is) and one for those who, like themselves, are against it.