An Evolving Exploration into the Head, Heart and Hands of Energy Descent
Transition Culture has moved
I no longer blog on this site. You can now find me, my general blogs, and the work I am doing researching my forthcoming book on imagination, on my new blog.
A wonderful event took place at Bowden House near Totnes last Friday, bringing together about 150 teenagers together to make music and to party together, but also to be introduced to some of the ideas around Transition Town Totnes. The event was organised by a group within TTT and by the Totnes School of English. About half of the kids there were on foreign exchange trips to Totnes, the majority of them from Spain, and the rest were from Totnes itself, often from their host families. The weather just about behaved itself, despite the occasional rumble of thunder from over the hills… The whole evening was a real celebration of music, culture and of the energy the Transion Town approach has unleashed.
Alex Munslow, an independent film-maker has produced a great short film about running Open Space, based around the Open Space workshops we ran at the Inaugural Transition Network meeting at Ruskin Mill in Nailsworth. It features Naresh Giangrande of TTT, a clip of my mobile phone going off rather embarrasingly in the middle of my talk, and captures the whole dynamic buzz that Open Space unleashes. Thanks Alex for making it, and for making the whole thing available on the net.
One of the most exciting initiatives happening as part of Transition Town Totnes is the **Heart and Soul group** who are exploring the psychology of change. Totnes has a relatively high therapist/counsellor per-square-metre ratio compared to other parts of the country, and the H&S group ask the question, “how can the insights from these fields inform and support a community-scale energy descent process?” Their work is fascinating and they are one of the liveliest groups within the TTT umbrella. One of its co-focalisers is Hilary Prentice, and in this article she wrote recently for the Psychotherapists for Social Responsibility’s journal ‘Transformations’, she sets out the nature of the work they are doing.
I have written previously about the recent Inaugural Meeting of the Transition Network, which was an amazing event, bringing together those involved in Transition Initiatives all over the UK. You may be interested to see the proceedings of the event which have now been posted. You will find pdf files of notes taken during the talks, the speakers’ Powerpoints, and the notes from the Open Space sessions. A fascinating resource and an important record of a historic day.
When I was in Lewes for their Official Unleashing, I was interviewed by Adrienne Campbell of TTL. The interview looked at the Transition concept in depth, as well as the practical manifestations in the various towns, in particular Totnes. Some of this interview has now been uploaded to YouTube, question by question. At the same time, Adrienne interviewed Dr Chris Johnstone, author of ‘Find Your Power’, I think some clips from that will be uploaded soon too.
How might our response to peak oil and climate change look more like a party than a protest march? This site explores the emerging transition model in its many manifestations
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A wonderful event took place at Bowden House near Totnes last Friday, bringing together about 150 teenagers together to make music and to party together, but also to be introduced to some of the ideas around Transition Town Totnes. The event was organised by a group within TTT and by the Totnes School of English. About half of the kids there were on foreign exchange trips to Totnes, the majority of them from Spain, and the rest were from Totnes itself, often from their host families. The weather just about behaved itself, despite the occasional rumble of thunder from over the hills… The whole evening was a real celebration of music, culture and of the energy the Transion Town approach has unleashed.
