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 blog, and details of my books, on my new website.

Monthly archive for November 2010

Showing results 11 - 12 of 12 for the month of November, 2010.


1 Nov 2010

New Research Explores Inclusion and Diversity in the Transition Movement

The number of pieces of quality research being conducted about Transition continues to grow.  Here is a new one by Danielle K. M. Cohen at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, as part of her dissertation for her MSc in Human Ecology.  Entitled “Reaching out for resilience: Exploring approaches to inclusion and diversity in the Transition movement” it is a very useful study about inclusion and diversity.   Here’s a sample quote from the conclusion: “people in Transition – in this study at least – often talk about inclusion with a view to bringing different people into the movement. I have argued that this view of inclusion can imply and perpetuate hierarchical power relationships underpinned by assumptions of assimilation and integration. As one co-operative inquiry participant put it, Transition should perhaps not be seeking to include others but should be seeking to be included by them”.  You can download the full thesis here: my thanks to Danielle for allowing me to post this.

Read more»


1 Nov 2010

The Environmental Movement in Ireland: a postscript

I have just been looking at the online version (which is pretty restrictive, but you get the general idea) of Liam Leonard’s new book ‘The Environmental Movement in Ireland’.  It offers a very well researched overview of the evolution of the green movement politically in Ireland, the rise of protest culture through campaigns such as The Glen of the Downs roads protest, the Rossport 5 and the various anti-incineration and anti-nuclear campaigns.  As such, it is a very detailed and comprehensive look at those aspects of the green presence in Ireland, but it strikes me that one key part of that story is missing.  So far as I could tell, there is nothing that documents the movement that was developing in parallel which focused on solutions, on practically modelling solutions, often at great personal and financial cost.  This morning then, I want to take a stab at what that chapter might have included.

Read more»