8 Dec 2010
We (Transition Training and Consulting) are looking for up to 10 Transition Initiatives (based in the UK) that would like to participate in this project, helping us to shape it and deliver it. Deadline for showing your interest is 17th December. The aim of this project is to help transition communities to grow social enterprises and influence existing local businesses such that they contribute to the wellbeing of that community, and society overall (including the most disadvantaged and marginalised), rather than pursuing economic growth at all costs. We have used the term ‘business’ here but include, as appropriate, all types of private, public and third-sector organisations.
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8 Dec 2010
One of the actions from the day held by Transition Network in Bristol in September to reflect on the Big Society was to produce a document on what was raised there. Peter Lipman and myself took on that task , and, based on the thoughts and ideas generated at the day, have produced the following, entitled “A Transition Take on the Big Society”. We would love your thoughts and input… please use the comments box below…
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6 Dec 2010
I read Michael Brownlee’s recent piece ‘The Evolution of Transition in the US‘, with a mixture of fascination and a sense of disquiet that increased the deeper I got into the piece. The concept of Transition has been regularly critiqued, a positive process which has helped to shape what it is today. Most critiques run along the lines of “Transition, nice idea, but it isn’t [ … ] enough”. So, for Alex Steffen, Transition isn’t technologically savvy or optimistic enough, for the Trapese Collective it isn’t politically savvy enough, for John Michael Greer it is guilty of ‘premature triumphalism’, for Ted Trainer it isn’t sufficiently rooted in alternative culture or focused enough, while for others it is too riven with New Age thinking and pseudoscience. Now, according to Brownlee, it is fatally flawed by not having the ‘Sacred’ at the heart of what it does.
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2 Dec 2010
Members of Transition Town Barcelona head off on their 'Caminata'
In Europe, exciting news from Ferney-Voltaire, which has decided to become a Transition Town and they’ve just started their awareness raising activities, so welcome to them. SQYenTransition in France have this great project with the lovely name of verger dans ma ville…an orchard in my city. And for an idea worth sharing, have a look at Transition Town Barcelona’s La Caminata, or Transition Walkabout…a nice idea that helps you get to know your town and community more, and helps them to get to know about you too.
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2 Dec 2010
In June 2008, David Fleming was in Totnes to teach on the ‘Life After Oil’ course at Schumacher College, along with Richard Heinberg, myself and others. One afternoon, David and I slipped away so I could interview him for this website. In memory of his passing away this week, I am reprinting it here. We discussed peak oil and Tradable Energy Quotas, among other things. It was a joy.
How do you see the unfolding events of the past few weeks? (ie. the runaway price and it starting to make the price of petrol/diesel rise, with the impacts being felt acutely by those on lower incomes and in rural areas)?
Well, this is the beginning of the breakdown of the energy market. High prices are a sign that some people are having to forgo some or all of the oil which they would have expected to buy. In some cases, those purchases are absolutely essential to their livelihoods, and if they are priced out of the market in the oil auction, they will not be able to do really fundamental things like buying the kerosene they need to power their irrigation pumps. So far, most of those who have been affected to this extent are the poor – third world farmers, for instance. But it is coming our way.
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