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.


3 May 2011

Ingredients of Transition: Investing in Transition

FC United is a supporter-owned football club in Manchester, formed by Manchester United fans opposed to the Glazers buyout of the club. They play in the Northern Premier League and aim to raise £1.5 million for a new ground, and have already raised £700,000, in part through a very well supported share launch. Might a similar model also enable the rapid acceleration of Transition at the community level?

Here is a last minute addition to the ingredients for the forthcoming ‘Transition Companion’.  It is especially timely as OVESCO in Lewes’s share option has managed to raise £286, 600 is only £20,000 short of its target … if you live in an around Lewes, get your shares before 27th May!!

Money isn’t a neutral thing.  The decisions we make with our investment choices either prop up and reinforce an economic model rooted in a past of cheap energy prices and climate irresponsibility, or they can help to bring forth a new, revitalised and more appropriate way of doing things.

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2 May 2011

Competition winner!

Just to update you… the winner of the Tagore festival tickets is Nathan Burlton (see left), who correctly identified that the following two statements about Rabindranath Tagore are not true.

2. When Tagore was at Dartington with the Elmhirsts in the 1930s, he set a local record for ‘welly wanging’ (hurling a Wellington boot over long distances) which stood until 1984.  Superstitious locals attributed his success to Eastern mystical powers…

5. Tagore once had a trial with Leyton Orient FC, but wasn’t signed up, much to his disappointment.  His sense of rejection was captured in his poem “A Lonely Lament from Between the Posts” (Tagore was a goalkeeper).

Shame really, would have been great if at least one of those had been the case…

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Discussion: Comments Off on Competition winner!

Categories: General


2 May 2011

A short film of the launch of OVESCO’s share launch

Here is a short film of the launch of OVESCO’s (Ouse Valley Energy Services Company) community power station share launch.  If you live in and around Lewes, you have until 27th May to get your shares.  They have raised £287,000 so far, and still need to raise another £20,000.  A very exciting model, which will be put in a wider context tomorrow.

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29 Apr 2011

A trip to London the day before a Royal Wedding

Special Royal Wedding packs of Top Trumps available for sale on Paddington Station yesterday

I spent the day yesterday in London.  I arrived thinking it was going to be packed with people, but actually it was remarkable how few people there were.  I’ve never seen Paddington station so empty.  The London underground was positively spacious.  Where was everybody?  I did see one plastic Union Jack hat, but that was about it.  Anyway, here’s a rather entertaining story from the day….  I met Peter Lipman (Chair of Transition Network) and we headed over to Ladbroke Grove for a meeting we were having there.  We had about 20 minutes before the meeting, so went round the corner from the meeting venue and sat on a wall to catch up about this and that. 

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Discussion: 2 Comments

Categories: Politics, Storytelling


28 Apr 2011

How can we grow more food locally? Pam Warhurst of Incredible Edible Todmorden speaks in Bath

Transition Bath recently posted this film of an excellent talk they hosted from an event called ‘How Can We Grow More Food Locally?’ (which had a great poster – see left).  The talk was part of a wider series of ‘Transition Talks’, the next one being called ‘Does money make the world go round?’ which features Mark Boyle (‘the Moneyless Man’)  and Molly Scott Cato.  Here’s the talk…. very inspiring.

Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five

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