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.
This week sees the launch of Alexis Rowell’s Transition Book, “Communities, councils and carbon – what we can do if governments won’t”, which will be available here at Transition Culture from early next week. It’s a blood, sweat and tears account of life as an elected eco warrior trying to encourage local government to work with communities to make the world a greener place, packed with great case studies and tips for Transition initiatives and Councils alike. The book is being launched next week, at 7pm on Wednesday 13th October at Caponata, 3-7 Delancy Street, Camden Town (www.caponatacamden.co.uk) and speakers include: the Home Office Minister, Lynne Featherstone MP; the Chair of the Transition Network and Director of Sustrans, Pete Lipman; Author and Co-Founder of Transition Belsize, John-Paul Flintoff; and the Deputy Leader of the Local Government Association, Richard Kemp. The event is open to all interested Transitioners, although you’ll need to contact Stacey at Green Books (stacey (at) greenbooks.co.uk) for an invite. In the meantime, and to whet your appetite, here is my foreword for the book. Congratulations to Alexis on the publication of this landmark publication…
It’s October already, so it’s time to share September’s Transition activities from across the world… we have lots of news from Transition groups in the Netherlands. Their Renewable Energy Project has 75 households involved in it, which between them will have about 800 solar panels on their roofs in the coming spring. Also their first Local and Interest Free money project was launched at the end of September, and they also recently held a Post-fossil Festival, with lots of interesting activities going on. Their ‘Share your stuff – with people you trust’ social website, launched in August, has seen 688 people share 832 goods…wow! They’ve also been making ‘eatable façade gardens’ in the heart of the old city of Deventer, and there’s a great video too:
Missed the Transition Conference and can’t wait till next year – or simply keen to delve deeply into understanding the wider movement of which Transition is a part?
Transition Scotland Support is hosting the Transitions, Diverse Routes to Belonging conference with the support of Transition Network and Edinburgh University. The conference is on the weekend of November 20th-21st (with overnight accommodation available from the 19th) and will be a chance to deepen and broaden our understanding, our alliances and our actions. This conference is a truly international feast and will be a fantastic opportunity to see how Transition can make new alliances and work with the other movements and initiatives which are all aiming at reclaiming our creative, collaborative, place-based way of living.
Over 40 people came together in Bristol on Wednesday to explore what the government’s Big Society agenda might mean for Transition initiatives. The venue was the Unitarian Church Hall, and the day proved to be very focused and yielded much insightful thinking and useful ideas. What follows is my attempt to produce a clear record of the event, the ideas and the debates, as well as the suggestions for where this might go next, dragged from my illegible notes, so any mistakes or misrepresentations are entirely my own doing.
I spent yesterday at the Development Trust Association (DTA) conference at the Derby Assembly Rooms. A fascinating day, including an interesting look at Development Trusts globally, participating in a workshop about Low Carbon Communities, and meeting some fascinating people, as one always does at such events. The highlight for me though, and something of interest given recent discussions here at Transition Culture, was a debate about the coalition government’s ‘Big Society’ agenda (see the end of this piece for an event Transition Network is running soon to explore its implications).
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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