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.
Transition Town Totnes has been running now for just over 4 years, and recently a group of us sat down to try and capture what has actually been achieved by the process. It has been a very illuminating process, one that is very useful to do in terms of being able to get a sense of what has actually been achieved on the ground (I highly recommend it). The name of the report, ‘So, what does Transition Town Totnes actually do?‘, comes from the question often asked by visitors to the town who come to see a Transition town, wander round the High Street and wonder why there are still cars and not windmills everywhere. This report is designed to explain all that is going on below the surface (as well as on top of it…).
After a hectic day at the Diverse Routes to Belonging conference here in Edinburgh, I sat down here to blog about it, but having had a look at the conference’s blog, I’m not sure there is much I can add! The conference team have done an amazing job, doing excellent write ups of the sessions and workshops as well as films of interviews with Alan Stibbe, Alastair Macintosh, Jonathan Dawson and myself, and also films of Justin Kenrick’s opening talk and the mapping activity. It is real state-of-the-art conference blogging, great stuff. My workshop seemed to go OK too. There are also Transition gatherings going on in Hannover and in Brazil over this weekend, and we tried to do Skype chats with both at the end of the day, as well as with groups in Portugal and Spain, but only the Portugese and Brazilian ones really worked. Oh well. So, been an amazing day, I’d better get back for the Open Mike… keep an eye on the blog tomorrow and perhaps I’ll write something more useful when I get home….
In April this year I went to Lancaster for the Unleashing of Transition City Lancaster, and a fine event it was too. Mark Rotherham filmed the event and is editing a film of the event, and has just made this taster available, and rather wonderful it is too… I love his animations of my ‘deep fetid lagoon’ slides…. Thanks Mark.
While I was Tadelakting my bathroom last Saturday, something far more interesting was happening in Totnes town, the annual TTT Winterfest. Sara and Emilio of nu-project were there, and have done this great film of the event, giving a flavour of the different initiatives underway and of what the day was like.
Three years in the making, I am delighted to announce the completion and availability of my PhD thesis, which offers the most in-depth study yet of the Transition concept in practice. It can now be ordered here. Exhaustively referenced and comprehensive in its analysis of the thinking underpinning Transition and of its impacts in practice (running to over 90,000 words), ‘Localisation and Resilience’ is a pivotal addition to the literature on this fast-growing response to peak oil and climate change. It takes as its focus the Devon town of Totnes, the UK’s first Transition initiative, looking in detail, using interviews, oral history, focus groups, surveys, World Cafe and Open Space methods, at the impact Transition Town Totnes has had during its four year existence. It also takes a detailed look at the literature on resilience, and argues that the combination of resilience thinking, localisation and social enterprise offer a powerful tool for the economic revival of communities and for achieving a low carbon economy. If you are interested in resilience, sustainability, Transition, and the future of local economies, this is an essential new publication.
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
Read more»
Transition Town Totnes has been running now for just over 4 years, and recently a group of us sat down to try and capture what has actually been achieved by the process. It has been a very illuminating process, one that is very useful to do in terms of being able to get a sense of what has actually been achieved on the ground (I highly recommend it). The name of the report, ‘So, what does Transition Town Totnes actually do?‘, comes from the question often asked by visitors to the town who come to see a Transition town, wander round the High Street and wonder why there are still cars and not windmills everywhere. This report is designed to explain all that is going on below the surface (as well as on top of it…).
Three years in the making, I am delighted to announce the completion and availability of my PhD thesis, which offers the most in-depth study yet of the Transition concept in practice. It can now be ordered 
