10 Feb 2011
Transition Lancaster’s Potato Day!
Transition City Lancaster did one too!
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.
Come find me at robhopkins.net
9 Feb 2011
Community Asset Development 2: an interview with Dave Chapman of BASSAC
Dave Chapman exploring the Dairy Crest site in Totnes, site of the proposed ATMOS Project.
Dave Chapman works for BASSAC (the British Association of Settlements and Social Action Centres) and lives in Totnes, where he is active within the ATMOS Project. For the Ingredient of Transition being prepared for the forthcoming new Transition book on the Community Ownership of Assets I talked to Dave about community asset development and also about the ATMOS Project.
Why is the community ownership of assets important? Why does it matter that the community is able to own its own assets?
Self-determination, more than anything else. It’s about defining where you’re going to. Land ownership enables you to define where you take a community in the end, so it can come down to supporting energy use, food use, employment, housing – it’s the basis for the right mix within a community.
9 Feb 2011
A Review of ‘Localisation and Resilience’ by Frank Kaminski
Localisation and Resilience at the Local Level: The Case of Transition Town Totnes (Devon, UK)
By Rob Hopkins
475 pp. University of Plymouth, Devon, UK – Oct. 2010. £15.00; available only in PDF at Transitionculture.org.
For several years groups of innovative, environmentally conscious people worldwide have been part of a social change movement called Transition. It strives to create relocalized communities that are resilient to the looming climate and energy crises, and in which “the future with less oil could be preferable to the present.”
8 Feb 2011
Community Asset Ownership 1: an interview with Sara Neuff of Coin Street Community Builders
Here is the first of two interviews I did recently for the new book, on the subject of the community ownership of assets. The second will be published tomorrow. Today’s is with Sara Neuff of Coin Street Community Builders, an amazing project I have written about here before.
So Sara, why is it important that communities own and run their own assets? Why does it matter?
The first response to that is that it in a sense depends upon the kind of asset and what it is you’re trying to achieve.
7 Feb 2011
Transition Network’s Projects Database: tell the world about your Transition projects!
It is often asked, “if a tree falls in a forest and there is no-one there to hear it, does it make a sound?” Likewise, one might ask, “if a Transition initiative sets up a really great project but doesn’t include it in Transition Network’s Projects Directory, does it maximise its impact and replicability?” There are already 114 great projects in the directory, but we know there are lot more projects out there than have yet made it in there. It’s simple, its free, its easy, and there is a step-by-step guide to how to upload projects. In researching the forthcoming new Transition book, it is clear that there are loads of great things happening, so do tell the world about what you are doing, and also have a good rummage around in the Directory, there’s loads of inspiring projects underway….
