Transition Culture

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.


17 Apr 2013

Six resilience “aha!” moments

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Usually when I go to events I tend to be the ‘resilience guy’, or one of a handful of people who work with and think about resilience who tend to gather at the back of other events and bemoan the fact that no-one has talked about resilience yet.  So I was fascinated when I saw that the British Red Cross was hosting a one-day conference on resilience, the first that I’ve been aware of.  They had stated that the objectives of the day were to:

  • share and generate learning on how resilience building works in practice in various settings and from a variety of perspectives – in other words, what works well and why?
  • understand how humanitarian agencies can effectively contribute to building resilience within communities.

About 200 people attended, including researchers and policy-makers, community activists, people involved in refugee services,emergency/humanitarian response,health and social care and age-related resilience. It was a fascinating day, and one that I’d like to share five of my lightbulb moments from the day.

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Categories: Climate Change, Community Involvement, General, Localisation, Peak Oil, Resilience


15 Apr 2013

David Seymour on the Totnes & District Local Economic Blueprint

In the last of this series of short videos about the Totnes & District Local Economic Blueprint, David Seymour of Bridgetown Stores in Totnes discusses its implications for the local economy.

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Categories: Community Involvement, Economics, Food, Localisation, REconomy Project, Research on Transition, Resilience, Social enterprise, Transition Network


11 Apr 2013

How to make your Transition Group even more effective

How does this resonate with your experience of being involved in Transition?  Your group is highly effective, generally harmonious, communicates clearly and effectively, has power dynamics which are understood and enjoyed by everyone, deals creatively with conflict and runs its meetings in such a way that people look forward to them and love being part of them.  If your answer sits anywhere between “absolutely not” and “hmmm”, then you might enjoy this short video:

https://youtu.be/NmEC3BCOBq8

It’s an introduction to Transition Training’s new ‘Effective Groups’ training and resources, developed by trainer Nick Osborne, who also narrates it.  I spoke to Nick, and what follows is a choice of audio from our conversation broken into different questions, or some notes for those who would rather read the key points.

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Discussion: Comments Off on How to make your Transition Group even more effective

Categories: Community Involvement, Education for Sustainability, General, Great Reskilling, Research on Transition, Resilience, The 'Heart' of Energy Descent, Transition Network


10 Apr 2013

A March Round-up of What’s Happening out in the World of Transition

Pic courtesy of NewsShopper.co.uk.

Pic courtesy of NewsShopper.co.uk.

We’ll start this month’s Round up in Crystal Palace in London, and news of the ‘Palace Pint’.  Crystal Palace Transition Town started the initiative inspire by the nearby ‘Brixton Beer’, and more than 80 people have now planted hops in their gardens as part of the scheme.  CPTT have teamed up with local brewers Late Knights in Penge, who will brew a special brew using the hops and who will also run sessions throughout the year where people can learn to brew.  Hops were also planted in the Crystal Palace Museum Garden and in the Grape and Grain pub’s Tipsy Garden (see pic above).  

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8 Apr 2013

Cllr. Jill Tomalin on the Totnes & District Local Economic Blueprint

Here’s Cllr. Jill Tomalin of Totnes Town Council giving her, and the Council’s, reflections on the Totnes & District Local Economic Blueprint which was published last week.

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