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
Archive for “Community Involvement” category
Showing results 281 - 285 of 692 for the category: Community Involvement.
9 Nov 2010
Here is a section from my recently completed thesis, which is available here, which looks at the potential of local building materials in the relocalisation process.
“The process of building with bales includes the possibility of making a profound change in the fabric of human societies around the world. In fact this vision is not exclusively a matter of straw bales: the questions we are trying to pose…. are basic: how do we build, and how does that process occur in relation to the community and to the life around us? Straw bales happen to be the material that has inspired many to look at the process of building in a different light”. (Steen et al.1994: xvi).
In the same way the local food movement shifts its focus from out-of-season, long supply chain, high embodied energy foods towards more locally sourced, low impact foods rooted in the local region or ‘foodshed’ (Kloppenberg et al. 1996), an emerging branch of architecture and construction examine similar transitions with building materials.
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9 Nov 2010
Three years in the making, I am delighted to announce the completion and availability of my PhD thesis, which offers the most in-depth study yet of the Transition concept in practice. It can now be ordered here. Exhaustively referenced and comprehensive in its analysis of the thinking underpinning Transition and of its impacts in practice (running to over 90,000 words), ‘Localisation and Resilience’ is a pivotal addition to the literature on this fast-growing response to peak oil and climate change. It takes as its focus the Devon town of Totnes, the UK’s first Transition initiative, looking in detail, using interviews, oral history, focus groups, surveys, World Cafe and Open Space methods, at the impact Transition Town Totnes has had during its four year existence. It also takes a detailed look at the literature on resilience, and argues that the combination of resilience thinking, localisation and social enterprise offer a powerful tool for the economic revival of communities and for achieving a low carbon economy. If you are interested in resilience, sustainability, Transition, and the future of local economies, this is an essential new publication.
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1 Nov 2010
Here's what happens at a Brazilian Unleashing ..they do the hokey-cokey and they turn around... (sorry, this joke probably only means anything to English readers....)
We start this month’s update of Transition inspiration, activity and celebration with wonderful news from Rio de Janeiro and the launch of Transition Santa Teresa, which was attended by 200 people from the neighbourhood association, the local chamber of commerce, local NGOs and residents from Santa Teresa and the neighbouring slum. So we send huge congratulations to T Santa Teresa! Here is a film about some Transition goings-on in Brazil, including a Transition rap in Portugese… fantastic…
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1 Nov 2010
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.
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1 Nov 2010
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.
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