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18 Feb 2013

“To me it’s almost like magic”: The NE Seattle Tool Library opens for business

Susan Gregory (NE Seattle Tool Library), Pastor Lorraine Watson (North Seattle Friends Church), Signe Gilson (Cleanscapes), Dai Gorman (Lease Crutcher Lewis), Richard Conlin (Seattle City Council), and Tim Croll (Seattle Public Utilities)

Susan Gregory (NE Seattle Tool Library), Pastor Lorraine Watson (North Seattle Friends Church), Signe Gilson (Cleanscapes), Dai Gorman (Lease Crutcher Lewis), Richard Conlin (Seattle City Council), and Tim Croll (Seattle Public Utilities) at the opening day for the Library.

Here is a wonderful story from Seattle.  I am indebted to Susan Gregory and Leo Brodie for their time in telling me about it.  In North Ravenna, NE Seattle, a rather exciting project has emerged from Sustainable NE Seattle, the local Transition initiative.  Inspired by a similar project in West Seattle, the NE Seattle Tool Library opened to the public last month, and already has over 1,100 tools available for local people to hire.  Members pay an annual membership and can then borrow tools for a week at a time.  The Tool Library is housed in a building belonging to a local church which was renovated using a grant from a local recycling company.  I asked Susan to tell me about the Library, how it came about and how it works:

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12 Feb 2013

How tough is your skin? Monbiot, Mann, McKibben, various Transitioners and others on what to do if your Transition initiative comes under attack

216_London-Is-Under-Attack

As Transition groups deepen their work and begin to have a tangible impact, it is, perhaps, inevitable that those who disagree may express their opinions with vigour.  Over the last few months it has been my own personal experience to be on the receiving end of this in Totnes, and I have to say it has not been especially pleasant.  It appears, finally, to be calming down, and so what I would like to do in this post, with the help of a few names you might recognise who have had a lot more experience of this kind of thing than I have, is to try and draw out some learnings from it.

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7 Feb 2013

What Transition looks like in Brazil

Here is a beautiful short film, which will brighten any Thursday morning, about Transition in Brazil.  It looks at what Transition looks like in 2 different communities there, Brasilandia in Sao Paolo, and Granja Viana.  Made by the Permacyclists, it is an uplifting glimpse of how Transition is taking root there.  I love the quote at the end: “A movement which brings sadness and suffering isn’t sustainable”.

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25 Jan 2013

‘Social Change 2.0′: an interview with David Gershon. Part One

Gershon

David Gershon‘s book ‘Social Change 2.0′ has been one that quite a few people involved in Transition have found useful and insightful, so I was delighted to be able to have a conversation with him recently.  My discussion with him will be spread over 2 posts, one today and the second part on Monday.

David, thank you very much for joining us.  I wondered if we could start by you just introducing yourself and saying a bit  about who you are and what you do?

I have been a change agent, I guess you would say, for at least 30 years.  My work has been around an idea called empowerment, in particular, ‘second order change’, which is another way of describing transformative social change.  I have engaged in a number of initiatives of different sizes and scales from the household and block level up to the global level, and I’ve also applied this to working with organisations that want to engage.

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21 Jan 2013

Transition, Permaculture and Peoplecare: an interview with Looby Macnamara

looby4

Looby Macnamara is a permaculture teacher and author of ‘People and Permaculture: caring and designing for ourselves, each other, and the planet‘.  According to the publishers, it is “the first book to explore how to use permaculture design and principles for people – to restore personal, social and planetary well-being. People & Permaculture widens the definition of permaculture from being mainly about land-based systems to taking it right into the heart of our own lives, relationships and society”.  I caught up with Looby via. Skype, and started by asking her how she came to the work that led to her writing the book (you can either listen to this podcast, or the transcript is below):

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