Author Archives: Rob Hopkins

I was born in 1933 so my upbringing involved all those things associated with a wartime economy, food, clothes and petrol rationing all these things seemed natural and worth doing to achieve a result. Also I don’t remember feeling deprived! In 1944 I went to a Quaker school to study for School Certificate (the last […]

I had been hanging around the periphery of Transition Town Tooting for a while, attending the occasional meeting and event, but without really absorbing what it was about. There was (to my uneducated mind) a sense of community, and of being responsible for your surroundings. There were of course some really genuine and lovely people […]

One tool that some Transition initiatives have been finding useful in thinking about resources in a different way is Streetbank.  Streetbank, as its founders put it, “puts you in touch with your community, bringing neighbourboods closer and making the world a bit nicer”.  Sounds pretty akin to Transition we thought.  So here’s a conversation we […]

The most commonly asked question I’ve heard from Transition initiatives that have been going a while is “How can we get people who come to our events, to start taking on responsibility, so our initiative can grow and those of us at the centre don’t get exhausted?” A crucial part of the answer is managing […]

In 2012, an article in Troy Media entitled How Transition is starting to rebuild Ontario looked at the 30 Transition initiatives underway in the province.  The author, Bruce Stewart, wrote: “For Ontario, the Transition movement has the potential to do what it’s done in the UK: be the engine to rally a new, relocalised, vibrant […]

I was lucky to grow up during the much maligned 70s when we learnt so much about how to deal with what the future might bring. I heard and read Schumacher. I drew the peak oil curve for myself. Then I became an actor and director. In 1999 I did a permaculture course which was […]

While getting my Master’s degree I studied our planet’s rising greenhouse gas levels, including their implications to the health of our natural resources and climate.  After graduating I worked for a nonprofit for a while, gave birth to twins, and then suffered a major health setback.  For years I was up to my eyes in diapers, wooden blocks, and restaurant […]

Today Transition Network launches the first version of our Funding Primer (“Tips, suggestions and advice for getting your Transition group’s projects funded”).  We hope you find it useful. Originally developed for the Transition Thrive training, it offers an overview of approaches and options for Transition initiatives seeking funding for their work.  On the date of […]

We recently posted Part One of our Transition Town Totnes Reunion, looking at what the resources were needed to get TTT up and running with strong foundations, and at what actually were the resources that were needed alongside funding.  Today we post Part Two, which picks up the story from the end of 2007.  It […]

Looking back now, it feels that I have been Transitioning since I know myself.  As it happened with many people in Transition movement, for me it started with increasing a sense of objective investigation of the inner and outer world. I come from a background of Buddhist meditative practice, which itself at some moment started […]

One way of resourcing a Transition initiative that has grown in popularity in recent years is crowdfunding.  One of the best crowdfunding appeals I came across recently was by author and co-founder of the Dark Mountain Project Paul Kingsnorth to crowdfund his new book The Wake.  The appeal met its target and used social media very […]

I was recently in Amsterdam at an event at which one of the other speakers was S. Vishwanath, better known as Zenrainman.  He spoke of his work in Bangalore, where he is working to get the city to look at its resources in a very different way.  Could the city of Bangalore really become a net […]

When Rob asked me to recount my “Stepping up” moment, I immediately experienced that stomach lurch again that is probably more familiar to you in moments of utter panic when you realise you’ve tripped and are about to tumble down the stairs, or when you’re going too fast to take that corner without crashing; so […]

To Jamie Angus, the Editor, Today Programme. Dear Jamie, I am writing to complain in the strongest terms about your piece on this morning’s programme on climate change and the current floods which featured Sir Brian Hoskins and Lord Nigel Lawson.  I write both in my own capacity and on behalf of Transition Network, a charitable organisation supporting […]

In times of great uncertainty one needs to find an anchor and hope.  In the spring of 2009, just coming up to the age of 60, I went to a Be The Change Symposium in search of hope and solutions.  I wanted to help make a difference in the world but what I was already […]

Sometimes in a life a moment happens, when something in you – which was dormant for a long time – suddenly awakes; being triggered by something very unexpected. And never goes to sleep again for a long time…at least that’s what I hope 🙂  This is somehow what has happened to me in regards to Transition.  Having been […]

My ‘Step Up Moment’ came in the form of three questions that challenged me, and reframed my sense of how to be on this planet.  The first one came when I was persuaded to attend a ‘Be The Change Workshop’ by my niece. As part of that magical process came the question ‘When you throw […]

There’s a rather good programme on BBC Radio 4 called ‘The Reunion’, which “reunites a group of people intimately involved in a moment of modern history”.  With our theme this month being ‘Resourcing your initiative’, we thought it might be interesting to revisit the beginnings of one of the first Transition initiatives, Totnes in Devon. […]

Posted here by accident.  You’ll actually find it here, where it was meant to be!  Apologies.

I recently saw Rob Newman’s one-man show ‘New Theory of Evolution’ at the Exeter Phoenix.  Regular readers will be familiar with Rob’s ‘History of Oil‘ stand-up tour from a few years ago.  His new show was about evolution, and he describes it as “an exploration of the exciting new discoveries over the last decade in […]

In 2006, Alex Crowe and his family went down the road to self sufficiency. Eight years later, he explains why Transition is a much better idea.  Change was everywhere in 2006. “An Inconvenient Truth” was released in cinemas. Rob Hopkins and Naresh Giangrande were developing the Transition movement in Totnes. And in our living room, […]

Tina Clarke is a Transition Trainer and more recently a REconomy trainer, helping to develop new REconomy trainings for Transition groups.  On Tuesday February 11th between 19.00 and 20.30 GMT (14.00 -15.30 EST), she will be presenting, along with Transition Network Funding Manager Nicola Hillary, a free webinar called Getting Ready to Fundraise – resourcing your  […]

I was leading a life that was not making sense at all and not making me happy! I was already doing my Inner Transition and did not know! Earning lots of money, spending at the same rate , consuming without reflection and so on….. the list is long and I know my footprint is still long. […]

This month we will be exploring the theme of resourcing your group.  Although we will be touching on issues of funding and finance, our explorations will be about much more than just that.  The resources available to a group, and how it harnesses those resources, will be a greater factor in whether the group is […]

During February we’ll be hearing people’s ‘Step Up’ moments, the moment they decided to step across into helping make Transition happen rather than just listening or talking about it.  Our first comes from David Pitcher: “In London, very few families cycle with their children, despite their being lots of cyclists and lots of children!  I really […]

In a guest post, Ben Brangwyn, Transition Network’s International Development Co-ordinator, tells the story of the scaling up of Transition Network internationally, the emergence of the international Hubs and where it’s all going now. Introduction This is a little tale of the spread of Transition internationally. We think it’s a relevant story for Transitioners because […]

We published a taster of this piece earlier in the week, introducing Andy Lipkis, founder and President of Tree People. It’s a fitting way to draw to a close our month on ‘Scaling up’.  Andy was raised in Los Angeles in the mid-1950s, at a time when the smog was so bad that he had […]

And so our month on ‘Scaling up’ draws to a close.  It has been such a busy and thought-provoking theme that I thought I’d pick up on a few of the threads before we draw it to a close.  I also generated a new term to describe myself which is always handy.  It has been […]

Our recent post about Kevin McCabe’s ‘cob citadel’ and what we might learn from it about ‘scaling up’ generated a lot of debate and discussion.  Robert Alcock, a cob self-builder living in Spain commented that “the really great thing about cob is that it is an inherently anti-mainstream material”.  Intrigued, and wanting to hear more of […]

You know how sometimes someone will just put something you were thinking far more eloquently and clearly than you would have been able to? On Thursday we’ll be posting an interview with Andy Lipkis of TreePeople in Los Angeles. When I talked to Andy last week, it was 80°F, and a state of drought emergency […]

Today we have a post from Sophy Banks, the first of what will become a monthly column.   “I have to confess I had a bit of a reaction to this month’s theme “Scaling up”. I’ve been unpicking it in a number of conversations with others in Transition, and what follows is an attempt to […]

Rosie Boycott is the Chair of the London Food Board, working for the Mayor, Boris Johnson.  She was the force behind the Capital Growth initiative which has been a remarkable catalyst for urban agriculture across London.  We wanted to hear her thoughts on what she has learnt about scaling up, about how top-down initiatives can support […]

The challenge How might Transition initiatives most skilfully approach local church groups, and what common ground might they find upon which a good working relationship might be built?  Key points Identify the best people to talk to Seek common ground around issues of peace and justice or ‘common good’ Many of the discussions taking place […]

The growth of the local food sector over the last 20 years has been remarkable.  As we, this month, reflect on how Transition might scale up, what lessons and insights can we draw from the local food movement?  A new film Local Food Roots, by f3 local food consultants cooperative and Sprout Films, with Joy […]

What Transition initiatives do is just fantastic. We see “little buds” of ways of living that are more resilient and happy arising everywhere. The question is: how do we go from “little buds”, that are indeed fantastic projects developing outside of the current system, to mature and extensive “forests”, formed by projects which have the […]

One of the books I read recently which had useful insights to offer for our current discussions about scaling up was Les Robinson’s book Changeology, subtitled “how to enable groups, communities and societies to do things they’ve never done before”.  Sounds like just the thing.  It’s a book about creating social change solutions that stick, […]

The challenge One of the keys to scaling up Transition will be a healthy and mutually beneficial relationship with the local authority.  How best to nurture, build and sustain such a relationship? Key points Recognise that officers in local authorities are usually people like us trying to do good things Identify the best person to […]

This month we’ve been looking at the potential of scaling up Transition, what the obstacles to doing that might be, and a range of perspectives on what’s needed to enable that to happen.  Right in the middle of that, David Cameron announced last week that the UK is now going “all out for fracking”, and […]

The challenge How might Transition be made more interesting, relevant and fun for younger people?  What are the aspects of Transition that will appeal and what is the most skilful way to communicate it?  Key points Make it part of you, it’s really important to model the change in your own life It has to […]

Due to Christmas, things have been a bit quiet on the Transition front, so this is a smaller round up than usual.  We’ll start in Gloucestershire in England with a new video about the work of Transition Stroud.  Transition Stroud have many themes of their work running, events coming up in early 2014 include the […]

Academic Gill Seyfang wrote in 2009 in a piece about natural building that such materials and techniques will only make the step across into the mainstream if they succeed in “scaling up the existing small-scale, one-off housing projects to industrial mass production”. Over the next 2 days we’ll be looking at 2 aspects of earth construction, cob and […]

As part of our month’s exploration of the theme of ‘scaling up’, I recently visited Ottery St. Mary in East Devon to see Kevin McCabe, his wife Rose, and the extraordinary new cob house he has spent the last 3 years building.  In the recent edition of Grand Designs in which the house featured (see […]

It is a rare occurence that I disagree with David Holmgren.  One of my heroes, and the co-founder of permaculture, I generally find his intellect formidable, his insights on permaculture revelatory, and his take on the wider patterns and scenarios unfolding around us to be deeply insightful.  But while there is much insight in his […]

As Transitioners, what’s the most skilful way to approach decision makers, both civil servants and national government?  I talked to Peter Lipman, Chair of Transition Network and Director of Projects and Innovation at Sustrans, who spends a fair amount of time in and out of meetings with government officials/civil servants at national and local level.  What tips might […]

The Transition movement isn’t the first idea/movement to grow rapidly and then wonder how to take the next step forward.  Within the field of social enterprise, the question of scaling up is faced by many diverse enterprises and innovations.  How to take the next step up?  I talked to Nick Temple, director of business and enterprise […]

Today I want to present you with an idea which has the potential to really inform our thinking about scaling up. When I was in Jamaica Plain in Boston I interviewed Chuck Collins of Jamaica Plain New Economy Transition, an interview published here.  At the end of our discussion I mentioned that at a JPNET […]

I went to a conference once where at the beginning of each day, for the first 10 minutes, people were invited to share any dreams they had had the previous night.  The thinking went something along the lines that when a large group of people spend time together, their dreams may often resonate or provide […]

When I was in the US in October I met Doria Robinson, Executive Director of Urban Tilth. Urban Tilth is a non-profit urban agriculture organisation in Richmond, California, in the northern part of the San Francisco Bay Area.  I was blown away by the power of what she does.  How can you even think about creating community […]

When I visited the US recently, I met Chris Prelitz, and heard his story about how Transition Laguna Beach had set out, from the outset, to ensure that they appealed to the Republican members of their community.  It led me to wonder whether there might be an argument that such an approach is more useful […]

Our theme for January is ‘Scaling Up’.  There is no route map to a powered-down, resilient future.  No-one has done this before.  What Transition has achieved in 7 years has been remarkable.  But it’s not enough.  The times we are in, and the escalating challenges we face, bring with them the demand that we demonstrate […]

Today we sign off for 2013.  We’re back on January 6th with our new monthly theme of ‘Scaling Up’.  It’s going to be fascinating.  We really hope you’ve enjoyed our output this year, and thanks for all your input and support.  Everyone at Transition Network would like to extend their very best wishes for a […]