Transition Culture

22 Apr 2014

The Impact We’re Having: Aveiro em Transição in Portugal

Aveiro em Transição is a Transition initiative in Portugal.  When they heard we were looking for tales of the impact Transition initiatives see their work having, they sat a group of people down who are active in the initiative and asked them the question.  Here’s what they had to say.  

Jenny Tavares:

O que é a Transição? O que é estar em Transição? Perguntei-me há um ano atrás e, dia após dia fui encontrando as respostas entre desconhecidos que tornaram-se amigos, entre reuniões, oficinas e tertúlias. Começo a fazer coisas nas quais não tinha pensado antes: a plantar uma horta, a tricotar acompanhada de pessoas da cidade que nem sabia que existiam, a fazer pão em casa ou a colher plantas selvagens para fazer uma salada. Dou por mim a ouvir com atenção, a partilhar, a agradecer e a relembrar o quanto é importante “sonhar, fazer e celebrar”. 

Dou por mim a ser feliz, pé ante pé… em transição. 

What is Transition? What is being in Transition? I asked myself a year ago, and every day I found answers among strangers who have become friends, between meetings, workshops and gatherings. I started doing things they had not thought of before: to plant a vegetable garden, knitting accompanied by townspeople who did not know existed, to make bread at home or harvesting wild plants to make a salad. I find myself listening, sharing, thanking and remembering how important it is “to dream, do and celebrate.”

I find myself to be happy, step by step … in Transition. 

Ana Jervis Cunha:

Já não sei o que é viver sem Aveiro em Transição, e começámos há menos de 1 ano! Era algo que sentíamos que tinhamos de fazer e, no momento certo apareceram de vários lados as pessoas/projectos/associações certas! Vemos crescer o número de participantes nos eventos e no grupo central, recebemos propostas, louvores e testemunhos de desconhecidos, que passam a amigos e parceiros, de como foi importante algum dos nossos eventos para melhorar a sua vida ou como querem colaborar na oficina de freeskilling. E isto melhora a nossa auto-confiança, auto-conhecimento e senso de comunidade, há um empoderamento (empowerment) mútuo!

Aprender a fazer iogurte em casa com um amigo de Paredes em Transição mudou a minha vida…e é tão fácil! Diminuí a dependência do supermercado em vários produtos alimentares e cosméticos. A criação do grupo Educação Livre Aveiro nas Mães de Transição Aveiro tem promovido uma rede de debate e apoio entre pais, filhos e educadores que aguardavam este momento com esperança numa educação alternativa mais ecocêntrica para as crianças. Profissionalmente recebo na quinta pedagógica onde colaboro, voluntários e formadores através de Aveiro em Transição, com quem temos uma parceria, e que nos estão a dar uma grande ajuda a construir um projecto de Educação Ambiental e Sustentabilidade único em Aveiro, onde as pessoas podem cultivar as suas hortas, aprender sobre os polinizadores no apiário e sobre a fauna e flora na floresta e charcos. 

I just don’t know what is to live my life without Aveiro in Transition, and we’ve just started less than 1 year ago! This was something we felt we had to do, and at the right time the right people/organizations/projects came up! The number of people in the core group and attending the events is rising, and we receive proposals, appreciation emails and messages from people saying how important one of our events was in order to improve their family life and others willing to share their knowledge in a freeskilling workshop. And this has strengthened our self-confidence and sense of community, there is a mutual empowerment! Learning how to make homemade yoghurt with a friend from Paredes in Transition changed my life… and it’s so easy to do!

I’ve become more independent from supermarket groceries. The Alternative Education Aveiro group, born from Mothers in Transition Aveiro, has promoted a network of parents, educators and children to discuss and create a non-traditional education. In the pedagogical farm where I work, I receive volunteers and educators from Aveiro in Transition, as part of a partnership, and they (we) are giving a lot of help building a sustainable environmental education project, unique in Aveiro, where people can grow their vegetables, learn about honeybees and pollinators and local fauna and flora. 

Ana Sofia Pereira:

A iniciativa de Transição ajudou-me, acima de tudo, a saber trabalhar em prol de causas e preocupações que já tinha de forma mais organizada e motivada. É incrível a força que a união de pessoas interessadas faz. Por causa da Aveiro em Transição, ganhei força para dinamizar o Mães de Transição Aveiro, um grupo informal de entreajuda para mães e famílias na zona de Aveiro. E a partir disso, surgiu a Educação Livre Aveiro, um grupo de famílias e interessados dispostos a criar um projecto educativo alternativo que abarque a problemática da transição desde muito cedo e na escola. A Aveiro em Transição abre caminho para muitas sinergias maravilhosas entre famílias e movimentos. Pode-se dizer que somos uma grande família, todos a crescer e a caminhar no mesmo sentido e todos a ajudar-nos mutuamente, tal como fazem as famílias. 

The Transition initiative helped me, above all, to know how to work in favour of causes and concerns I already had in a more organized and motivated way. It’s incredible the strength of a union of moblized people. Because of Aveiro in Transition, I found the motivation to create Mothers In Transition Aveiro, a mutual help informal group for Aveiro mothers and families. And through that came Free Education Aveiro, a group of families and people interested willing to create an alternative educational project which includes transition issues from early on. Aveiro in Transition makes way to a lot of wonderful synergies between families and movements. You can say we are a big family, all growing and going in the same direction and all helping each other, just like families do. 

Jason Baker:

Through our initiative ELA (Education Livre Aveiro) we have been able to get our homeschooling project started. It really makes a big difference working as a group/ community. Also the free seminars about making bread, eating wild plants etc. have been very useful and inspiring. My sense of community has change so much since I have been participating in Aveiro in Transição. What a wonderful idea for wonderful people (us). Hugs Jason 

Andreia Ruela:

Gratidão

Com a formação Iniciativas de Transição, passei a reflectir e a agradecer regularmente todos os contributos (de pessoas, da natureza, da tecnologia) para que cada dia seja único e especial. Com este exercício diário, passei a ter mais consciência da interligação das nossas acções e a valorizar mais a simplicidade e os aspectos positivos de cada dia.

Partilha de Saberes

Com as oficinas de partilha de saberes promovidas pelo grupo de Aveiro em Transição tenho adquirido novos conhecimentos e competências muito úteis para o meu quotidiano e da minha família. A oficina que nos ensinou a fazer pão revolucionou a minha vida. Desde a participação nesta oficina, passámos a fazer pão em casa, a alimentar a nossa criatividade e a deliciar-nos com o produto final sempre único. Desenvolvemos o gosto de saborear aquilo que criamos e confeccionamos em conjunto. 

Since the Transition Initiatives Training, I reflect and thank all contributors (people, nature and technology) to make my days unique and special. With this daily exercise, I’ve become more aware of the interconnectedness of our actions and focus more on the simplicity and the positive aspects of every day.

I have acquired new knowledge and skills useful for my daily life and my family with freeskilling workshops promoted by Aveiro in Transition. The workshop where we learnt to make bread just revolutionized our life! We started to bake bread at home and feed our creativity. We’ve developed a taste to savor what we create and make together. 

Sacha Vieira:

Impactos da transição em Aveiro:

As oficinas de partilha de saberes estão a capacitar os cidadãos aveirenses nas mais variadas dimensões (e.g. fazer pão, croché, ervas aromáticas, ervas comestíveis e hortas verticais). Constatamos que participam pessoas que desconhecem conceitos como cidades em transição e permacultura e é cativante ver a sua curiosidade e sede de saber mais.  O grupo participante está a crescer a olhos vistos e as cadeiras começam a ser poucas.

Impactos da transição na minha vida:

A minha presença no grupo leva-me a confirmar a ideia de que existe uma solução para tudo e que é na partilha que está o ganho. Juntos, podemos fazer da vida e do mundo o que quisermos. Somos cada vez mais a querer uma comunidade saudável e feliz e é muito reconfortante este sentimento coletivo de identidade e de contribuição presente para o futuro. 

Impacts of Aveiro in Transition in the community: 

The freeskilling workshops are capacitating the citizens in Aveiro in varied ways (e.g.: homemade bread, aromatic herbs, vertical gardens, fixing bicycles). We realize that cities in Transition and permaculture concepts are not familiar for the community and it is pleasant to notice the curiosity and the willing to know more. The group is growing step-by-step and the venues start to be “not big enough”.

Impacts of Aveiro in Transition in my life:

My integration in the Transition group in Aveiro gave me the feeling that there is a solution for everything. Sharing is all and the group/team atmosphere nurtures the certainity that together we can build the community we want to live in. We are more and more with the wish to build a happier and healthier world and there is a warmth feeling of contributing today for the present and also future. 

Maria José Valinhas:

I have been in transition for a while but the feeling of being part of a community feels great and reassures me that this is the way. Being part a community has opened “doors” in my life and others trough the sharing of knowledge, skills and help. It makes sense an Aveiro em Transição!

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14 Apr 2014

Eamon O’Hara on the "important catalytic effect" of community-led action

One of the most fascinating recent studies into the impact of Transition was Local Communities Leading the Way to a Low Carbon Society, a report published by AEIDL (Association Européenne pour l’Information sur le Développement Local.  It looks at Transition, permaculture and ecovillage networks, what it calls the “Silent Revolution”, “a potentially powerful driver of pro-environmental behaviour change”.  We caught up with Eamon O’Hara, who created the report, to find out more about it, and about his conclusions. 

How did you create this report, and what research did you do for it?  

I have been working at European level on programmes and initiatives dealing with local development for almost 20 years now and around 2008/2009. I started to become more aware of Transition and other similar movements that were developing around Europe. It struck me at the time that not much was known about these grassroots movements at European level, at least in Brussels, where I was based at the time.

There was some really great work being done, some great examples of local projects and communities that were transforming themselves, but it was off the radar for many people. Of course there was nothing abnormal about this. These were grassroots movements, developing organically at their own pace and normally this would be fine. But climate change and the drive for sustainability are issues that need urgent responses, so it seemed to me to be important to try to promote awareness and a wider replication of these initiatives in communities across Europe. 

From other programmes I worked on I knew there was considerable experience, and tools and methodologies, that could be drawn on to facilitate the exchange of good practice and ideas, but a necessary first step would be to build awareness around this movement and its potential. Over the next couple of years I began to make contacts within Transition, the Global Ecovillage Network and within other community-based initiatives focusing on climate change and sustainability. Then, in 2012, I received support from AEIDL, a Brussels-based association that I have worked closely with for many years, to carry out a preliminary study.    

This study was a combination of desk research and interviews with key people in the countries targeted. I focused mainly on 13 countries where I knew there were community-led initiatives focusing on climate change and sustainability. The study was essentially a mapping exercise, focusing on, firstly, identifying initiatives where they existed, and then trying to better understand the scope and scale of their activities. I had a limited budget, so this study was by no means exhaustive but I think it was an important first step in terms of developing an understanding and awareness of this fledgling movement. 

How has it been received since you published it?  

It has been really well received. A lot of people have expressed surprise that they hadn’t heard about the initiatives featured before, especially given the scale of activities that now exist across Europe. It has certainly got the attention of policy makers in Brussels and I think this is something we need to build on. 

Another important outcome of the study, however, is that it allowed me to build up a strong network of contacts across the countries studied. These contacts represent a wide range of initiatives and I sensed there was a strong interest and desire among them to work more closely together. In some cases there had already been informal interaction, but there was a clear interest in taking this to another level. So, in follow-up to the study I set about coordinating a discussion between these contacts and from this discussion the idea of establishing a formal network emerged. This has since progressed to the establishment of ECOLISE, the European network for community-led action on climate change and sustainability. 

I think this is a hugely important development. ECOLISE now brings together all the key stakeholders involved in community-led action on climate change and sustainability in Europe and I think it is well placed to build on the awareness the study has created and really set about the task of championing the cause of community-led action on climate change and sustainability in Europe.  

What is your sense of the impact that Transition has had since it began?   

Transition has been pivotal. It has opened the door for ordinary people to get involved in reshaping their communities and in so doing reshaping society. That opportunity always existed for people, but Transition has provided the “how-to” guide, and by leading through example, has inspired people and given them the confidence to take action. 

However, I think Transition’s best days are still ahead of it. The challenge now, however, is to take Transition from being an initiative that is still largely limited to pioneering communities to a concept that is mainstreamed in the thinking and actions of every community. Of course Transition is not alone here. There are also other initiatives, such as the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN), Low Carbon Communities and others, and there is also considerable knowledge and experience available in movements such as Permaculture, but the essential principles are largely the same and I think this knowledge and experience now needs to be disseminated on a much larger scale.    

You write that lobbying and advocacy “remains a relatively minor part of their activities and the focus is more on local rather than higher level decision making”.  Do you see this as a weakness or a strength of the Transition movement?  

For me this is a weakness, but not just of Transition, of community-based initiatives in general. It is completely understandable, as I mentioned above, as Transition is a grassroots movement and there are obviously limited resources and capacity, but I think this is an important activity. To achieve the kind of scaling up I mention above, I think the Transition approach must essentially become part of mainstream policy and thinking and for this lobbying and advocacy are essential.  

But I think this can best be achieved by initiatives like Transition and GEN and others working together, and this is why I think ECOLISE has such an important role to play in facilitating this scaling up. 

You mention what you see as the “important catalytic effect” Transition can have, and how it has the “potential to change social norms”.  Could you tell us more about what you meant by that?  By what mechanisms do you observe that it does that?  

Again, this applies to community-based action on climate change and sustainability in general, not just Transition. The catalytic effect is essentially about one community being an inspiration for others. Communities that have been successful in developing community energy projects or in reducing their carbon footprint are an important source of ideas and information for others. These communities demonstrate what can be achieved and in this way give confidence to other communities to follow suit. 

Various studies have also shown that community-based initiatives tend to have a longer term impact, which goes beyond the immediate effects on carbon emissions or other indicators. These initiatives are generally more holistic in nature, covering a wide range of issues, such as food, transport, energy, etc.. so they can impact on more than one aspect of people’s lives. But the group dynamic aspect of community-led initiatives is also important. Norms are established by groups, not individuals, so this potential for growth and learning within a group environment is an essential precursor for wider behavioural change.   

Having created this report, what do you see as the keys to Transition being able to go more mainstream?  What, for you, might its next steps look like, and what support would most skilfully enable that?  

I think the most important thing now is for Transition to work with the other partners in ECOLISE to create the conditions that will allow for the mainstreaming of community-based action on climate change and sustainability. This is a formidable task and one which can best be achieved by working together. It requires a coherent dialogue with policy makers on why and how community-led action on climate change and sustainability should and could be mainstreamed and what supports are required. It also requires a concerted effort to promote awareness of the potential of community-led action and to make available to communities across Europe the information, tools, guidance, training and advice they need to make this happen. 

It is important to be aware however that not every community will necessarily want to become a Transition town or district, but I don’t think this should be an issue. The key thing is to mainstream the approach, to make available the learning and knowledge and to allow flexibility for communities to use this and adapt it to their own circumstances. 

How impressed were you by the evolving evidence base for Transition?  Do you think researchers are asking the right questions, and is there a good body of evidence already would you say?  

Some really good work is being done in this area but I think more is required, not just for Transition but for community-led initiatives in general. To get policy makers on board and achieve the mainstreaming that is needed we need a more convincing argument as to the benefits. There is strong anecdotal evidence and some interesting studies have been carried out but we need to build on this and provide strong empirical evidence that supports the argument for mainstreaming. 

We also need to better understand the potential for replicating community-led approaches in different contexts across Europe. Local conditions on the ground vary considerably from one country, or one region, to another so we need to better understand how existing approaches can be adapted to different contexts. 

As an extension of this, we need to know what works and what doesn’t in different contexts. We need to be able to provide advice and guidance that is context specific. All of this requires a coordinated transnational approach to research and knowledge development, which is developing but still in the early stages.  

You concluded that: “Community-based approaches should not be seen in isolation. Their role must be seen in the context of wider action and an appropriate support framework must be established in order to assist the further develop and replication of these approaches, without losing their essential local, bottom-up ethos”.  What is the role that Transition groups play do you think that none of the other scales can do?  

Transition groups and other local community-led initiatives play a key role in engaging with and mobilizing local communities.  By engaging local people they can unleash a resource that other levels can rarely unleash and facilitate the development of ideas and projects that are tailored to local needs and conditions.  Policies and programmes developed and implemented at higher levels rarely if ever achieve this.

However, if higher levels of governance and decision making recognize this important contribution of community-led initiatives then policies and programmes can be designed  in a way that makes space for and facilitates this local, bottom-up approach.

There is already a precedent in terms of EU rural development policy, part of which is implemented through a bottom-up, community-led approach. The European Commission has also proposed that this approach (community-led local development, or CLLD) be extended to other policy areas in the 2014-2020 programming period. This opens up a real opportunity to establish community-led approaches as an integral part of the EU’s response to climate change and sustainability. 

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14 Apr 2014

The Impact We’re Having: Zsanett and Zoltán of Transition Hosszúhetény

Hosszúhetény is the most populous village in Baranya county, in the south of Hungary, with 3400 inhabitants. It’s situated in beautiful natural surroundings at the foot of the Zengő peak of the Mecsek hills. People who live here are traditionally very proud of their natural environment, one famous example of which was in 2004, when fierce resistance from locals and green groups made the Hungarian government abandon a plan to build a NATO radar on the peak. While this event made Hosszúhetény somewhat famous, sustainability did not become a priority in everyday life of the inhabitants afterwards.

Things began to pick up in 2007, when the local government became a founding member of the Hungarian Climate-friendly Association. Around this time a civilian climate-friendly club also started in the village, which after a few years led to various initiatives to promote local and sustainable consumption and living. A group of around 20 people worked on various projects. A local marketplace was created with weekly market days from local producers and in 2012 a Local Exchange Trading System (LETS) started. We have annual seed swap events and we have organized various informative programs such as movie screenings and talks about sustainability and climate awareness, gardening workshops and lectures, health days, among others.

In December 2012 we held a screening of In Transition 2.0 (see photo below). The realization that there was a whole movement out there with the same objectives and ideas that we had was a heart-warming and encouraging experience. By this time we also knew that the real challenge is to keep the great ideas and projects running (the local market and the LETS had both become non-functional), and we wanted to learn how to achieve this.

Eventually, a group of dedicated people participated in a Transition training weekend in October 2013. This training has given us valuable insights into the structures and dynamics of our local  community and it has started us on a new way to Transition. We are now in the process of learning how to get the most out of ourselves and our ideas. We are improving communication with the local government, finding ways to reach more people, helping to make the local events sustainable, raising awareness on food self-sufficiency.

We have also entered a 2-year project organized by Transition Wekerle, through which we will learn from and teach other transition communities, as well as build our local and national transition network. We believe the next years help us to strengthen our local community, learn new skills and set up new initiatives which help to make our village more resilient.

By Zsanett Roozental-Pandur and Zoltán Hajdú 

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10 Apr 2014

Why I despise self checkouts with a rare and unbridled passion

It’s time for a rant about SACAT.  “About what?” you might most reasonably cry.  ‘Semi Attended Customer Activated Terminals’, that’s what.  In plain English, it’s those self checkout things that are taking over shops up and down the land.  In 2008 there were 92,600 such units in use worldwide, by the end of this year it is expected to top 430,000.  In the UK, 32 million shoppers now use them every week, over one third of Tesco’s store transactions every week are self checkout. I recently went to WHSmith at St Panchras station in London, the first shop I’ve been into that is 100% self checkout.  No staff.  I turned around and walked back out again.  

It’s bad enough on the occasions when I visit my local Co-operative store, who have now just two tills with actual human beings.  The rest is all self-checkout.  According to Geoffrey Barraclough of BT Expedite, who installed the system in the WHSmith store at Kings Cross, such systems are great because because they:

Enabl(e) shoppers to pay for goods quickly by making more till points available is a proven means for retailers to help boost footfall, service and sales levels”.  

That may be the case, but surely the main reason is that they need to employ less staff and thereby make more profit?  Whenever I go into a shop which has self-checkout, I refuse to use it.  I make a point of telling whoever is at the till that I am refusing to use it because I don’t want even more staff to lose their jobs.  It’s a solidarity thing.  But when I go to a shop that doesn’t even give you the choice, sorry, they just lost a customer.  

A few years ago I did a series of oral history interviews with people, asking for their memories of Totnes in the 1940s and 50s.  One woman told me of her experience of doing the week’s shopping: 

I used to go to the grocer’s and I could sit down, lovely.  They’d go through your list and say yes, yes, we’ve got some new whatever it is, would you like to taste some, you’d have a little snippet of cheese or something, great, yes, we’ll have that.  Now we’ve got a tin of broken biscuits, but they’re not too bad, half price you see, would you like them? As soon as you put a biscuit in your mouth its broken isn’t it?!  Then they’d say “now Mrs Langford you’re going to the butchers yes yes and going to get some fish?  Yes yes, and paraffin?  Yes yes, and they used to say to me now bring any parcels in, we’ll put it in the box with your groceries, and bring the lot up for you.  And they did you see.  

When I go shopping, I want to interact with people.  Even the act of popping in to buy a newspaper involves a few words, a “how you doing?” or even just a “thanks”.  It’s interaction, it’s communication, it’s the glue that sticks us together.  A study in the US looking at why people use farmers markets found that ‘social interaction’ was one of the key reasons, people who shopped there having 10 times more conversations than people shopping in supermarkets.  It quoted one shopper as saying: 

“You end up talking a lot more to other people than you do in a grocery store.  I mean, typically you go to the grocery store and you don’t talk to anyone.  Even the checkout people, I mean now you don’t even need to see the checkout person, you can just go through the automated line”.

And if I’m checking myself out, I am doing the shop’s business for them.  Not content with assaulting high streets with out-of-town shops, and then moving onto those self same declining high streets to add “vibrancy” to them, they have now, with most of the opposition neutralised (97% of all UK groceries are now sold through just 8,000 supermarket outlets), they are getting us to do the checking out for them!  What next?  Stacking the shelves?  Sweeping the floor on our way out?  Perhaps giving the bathrooms a lick of paint?

We wouldn’t expect to do those things unpaid, so why doing the check out?  It’s not as though they offer you a choice whereby if you check yourself out they give you a few percent off your bill.  

Of course, many people might say “actually Hopkins I rather like going shopping and not having to talk to anyone”, but for me that’s tragic.  Think forward.  Imagine if we get to the stage where every business, in order to remain competitive with the staff-less chain stores, installs self checkouts?  Imagine the day when you can do all your week’s shopping without ever speaking to anyone.  Something is lost, something as fundamental to our wellbeing as being able to hear the birdsong on a Spring morning.  As hearing the sound of children playing.  Civility, community, humanity, all start to unravel.  

So I say “no more!”  Shun the soul-less cash extracting electronic leeches!  Refuse to spend any money unless a human being is involved!  Turn around, walk out and walk on.  The kind of world we want our children to inherit is being shaped by the choices and the decisions we make today every time we go shopping.  Choose community and people and conversation over blatant money-grabbing and unemployment generation.

Or even better, you might use them for a month or so, keep a note of how much time you spend operating their checkout system, and send them a bill for your time, charging them the Living Wage for your time (which is, by the way, £8.80 in London and £7.65 an hour elsewhere).  Let’s see how they like that. 

I’ll leave the final word to the great Jonathan Richman who, in four minutes and forty five seconds puts it far better than I can:

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10 Apr 2014

Jo Hamilton on why monitoring and evaluation matters for Transition

What role does measuring and evaluating your impacts have to play for Transition initiatives?  How important is it, and how straightforward is it in a group that is already busy “doing stuff”?  Jo Hamilton is a researcher at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute whose research focuses on those very questions.  She is currently developing a project called Monitoring and Evaluation for Sustainable Communities (MESC) to develop and trial a range of tools to enable groups to self monitor and evaluate their work. She’s still recruiting groups and is running 3 workshops in April and May for groups who’d like more skills and insights on how to do this (more below). 

The project idea emerged from meetings with the Transition Research Network, and is a collaboration between the University, Transition Network, and Low Carbon Communities Network.  We started by asking Jo why it matters that Transition initiatives should do monitoring and evalution:

“Used well, Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)** can be part of toolkit for helping Transition Initiatives assess and make the changes that they want to achieve. 

My prior experience of being involved in, supporting, and more recently research with community groups, has demonstrated the power of reflecting on what has been achieved, learning from what has worked, what hasn’t, and what unexpected outcomes there have been.  Whilst analysing comments from feedback forms after community events has sometimes felt like the last thing I’ve wanted to do, it has always been helpful: to guide future activities, to communicate what we’ve achieved in the event, and to help us see what other changes need to take place. Positive comments can give a much needed energy boost, whilst critical or negative comments can be the starting point of another conversation and provide useful feedback.  

Why does having an evidence based for your impact matter?

Let’s face it, we’re not going to get ‘good feedback’ about the impact of local action from the weather or climate, so we need to see what feedback we can get from the people we’re working with, and the local environment we’re working in.

On a wider scale, having an evidence base is crucial to demonstrate what Transition initiatives have achieved,  and to provide weight to argue for investment in local action, or policies that can enable local action to scale up. At present the evidence base is small, but growing. In addition to the evidence generated by groups themselves, in recent years there have been many academic research projects, masters and doctoral dissertations, which demonstrate impact. You can access many of these through the Transition Research Network.  

What makes a useful indicator? What is worth measuring and what isn’t?

Indicators are specific pieces of information that you collect, so that you can track the changes you’re aiming for. Whilst it is useful to measure the number of people who are reached by or involved in group activities, the changes, or outcomes, that you contribute to are the key things to measure. These could include whether somebody chooses to eco-renovate their home, switch transport modes to more low carbon forms, or exert political influence. However, alongside indicators you also need to ask questions to understand why and how the changes occur and capture unexpected outcomes. 

Is monitoring and evaluation something that groups should be looking to do from Day One, or can it be something they pick up later, and if so when? 

‘Start where you are’ is the key phrase here, as groups get initiated in different ways and have different motivations. Planning M&E is similar to project planning, so integrating M&E into any form of planning is most helpful at the beginning of a project, although it can also be done at any stage. Simply examining the assumptions that underpin the activities you want to carry out, and the changes that could be expected is really useful.  Whatever stage a group is at, M&E can help you learn more about what works, what isn’t working, and what could be done. We’ve compiled a step by step guide which you can download here.              

How do you see the balance between getting on and doing stuff and measuring it?  Is there a danger that measuring things can take away the energy that gives you anything worth measuring in the first place?  There’s the balance? 

It can be a tricky balance to strike, and many groups haven’t done M&E precisely because the focus has been on the doing. However, I liken M&E tools to penknives: they’re multifunctional tools, which fit in your pocket, and you know how to use them. Some penknives are nice and simple, whilst some look like they might be too cumbersome and complicated, thus are unlikely to be carried around and used. M&E is a bit like that. The process of M&E can be multifunctional, the trick is to select the tools you need, carry them round with you and integrate them with what you are doing anyway.

However, from experience and from research, I know that reflecting on what you have achieved over the past year, or reading positive feedback from an event, can be a real energy boost. Doing this with other groups can help get a wider perspective on the impact of your work, share valuable learning, and identify areas for collaboration on issues which are beyond the capacity of one group alone.  It can be a fine tuning mechanism, to help your group set achievable goals.  

Some groups (for example Low Carbon West Oxford) who developed a system for M&E from the beginning, have been able to demonstrate their impact to the local authority and funders, which has led to further collaborations and enabled them to replicate and scale up some of their projects.  

A lot of measuring can be incorporated into other activities that you’d be doing anyhow  – when you’re asking for people’s contacts for emails, ask a couple of questions too. At some events, simple feedback can be provided through engaging activities such as writing thoughts and feedback on post-its. 

What are some of the principles that underpin good and worthwhile evaluation? 

Following on from the previous question, it’s good to set some guiding principles for your M&E, and to ensure that you have the resources to do it well. Guiding principles could include making sure that your M&E is focused and feasible, whether it’s useful for, and usable by the group.

You might need to generate evidence for potential funders, or to leverage more support for your work from the local authority.  In the MESC project we’ve been selecting indicators and devising resources that will hopefully enable groups to compare themselves to others, and which can be aggregated so that there’s a more comprehensive view of what is happening at a national level. 

What sorts of things might a Transition initiative want to measure?

It depends what the focus of the TI is, or where the energy is for M&E. You might want to measure the carbon reduction achieved from participants in your activities, how your events are helping local residents in fuel poverty access grants and other services, or how your farmers market is influencing residents’ shopping patterns and food sourcing.   

 

Who are they doing this for? Themselves? Local government? Academics?

M&E can provide useful information for the group and wider movement itself, in helping you to answer the question ‘so, what has your group actually achieved?’. This can help the group feel proud of what they’ve achieved, and help plan future activities. Local and national government always want figures of what Transition Initiatives and other community energy groups have achieved, and being able to provide some of those figures can help justify funding and provide evidence for policy making (such as the recent Community Energy Strategy). 

Can groups do this alone or do they need to do it in partnership with other organisations?

We’re currently trialling resources and tools to find out what groups can M&E alone, and what support they need to do more. More in depth M&E could involve partnering with other organisations, such as Universities, or through the Transition Research Network.  

How have you developed your resources? 

The step by step guide to M&E and tools are based on the teams’ research knowledge and practical experience, and draw on a range of existing resources and research.

We got initial feedback on the step by step guide and some of the tools at two workshops that took place in June 2013, and we’ve developed and adapted the tools. 

Lastly, you are running three free workshops for Transition initiatives who want to find out more about this.  Can you tell us more about those? 

Thanks, perfect plug to the workshops, which we’ll be running in three locations. 

The free workshops will give you an introduction to planning your M&E, and a chance to trial a range of resources. The workshops are part of the MESC project, so participants can receive follow up tailored support to help you monitor and assess impact.  

• Better understand what works and what doesn’t;
• Generate data that will help you to create better reports for funders and other stakeholders;
• Get a chance  to trial a range of resources that will enable your group to self-monitor and evaluate your activities;
• Inform your next steps in whatever project or initiative you are working in;
• Respond to those queries of ‘so what has your group actually achieved?’ 

Workshop Dates and Locations, all 10am – 5pm (pick one) 

Sat April 12^th – Oxford at School of Geography and Environment

Sat April 26^th – Manchester at Anthony Burgess Foundation

Sat May 10^th – London, Lumen URC (nr Euston station)  

Advance booking is essential, and priority will be given to groups who would like to participate in the MESC project to trial the resources.  For further information please email kersty.hobson@ouce.ox.ac.uk or see the project website.

** Monitoring is the collection and analysis of information about a project or programme, undertaken while the project is ongoing.  Evaluation is the periodic, retrospective assessment of a project or programme. 

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