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 Willesden meeting - (l to r) Viv Stein, Chris Wells and Cllr Ann Hunter.jpg
Here is a guest blog from Alexis Rowell in London on recent developments in northwest London.
Two new Transition Initiatives started up on a wave of enthusiasm and energy this month in northwest London – Transition West Hampstead and Transition Willesden (see pic above). Fifty people, including all three local councillors, attended a screening of that Transition favourite “A Farm for the Future” in a West Hampstead church in the London borough of Camden. They then listened to speakers from neighbouring Transition Initiatives Belsize and Kensal to Kilburn and broke out into Energy, Food, Transport and Wellbeing sessions. The evening ended with nettle pesto and lashings of elderflower cordial (provided by Transition Kensal to Kilburn), and the setting of a date for a first Initiating Group meeting.
A more detailed report is to follow, but for now here is a film made by the Ashden Award people about Transition Streets (click here to read their case study report), the project that won us an Ashden Award last Thursday…
A couple of months ago I did a talk at the Tagore Festival at Dartington which eschewed Powerpoint and used objects sent in by Transition groups to tell the story of how Transition unfolds. I really enjoyed it. Here it is:
I wrote the other week about a debate I had been on on ABC Radio in Australia with writer, artist and psychotherapist Dr Chris James about Transition. The discussion was chaired by host Michael Cathcart and it explored her idea that Transition “a way of opting out while consumer society carries on business as usual” and, quite bizarrely, seems to blame Transition for the increase in attacks on refugees in Australia! You can listen to the piece, or download it as a podcast for your listening pleasure, here.
Yesterday I attended a conference in London organised by the University of Surrey’s RESOLVE (the ESRC Research Group on Lifestyles, Values and Environment) called “Living Sustainably: values, policies, practices”. But before I tell you more about that, I must show you this wonderfully silly sign I saw on my way to the venue:
As one respondent put it after I posted the picture on Twitter, “had an idea: ask someone their birth date, calculate how long ago that was, there’s your body age”. Just saved you 15 minutes (plus a few quid I imagine…). I love the idea of their being a “registered official test centre”. Anyway, I digress…
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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