In the second winning entry from our “The Course That Changed My Life” competition, Marie Lefebvre shares her experience of a course in Project Management that led her to look at achieving her goals in a very different way. “Last June, I completed a course in Project Management. The course was in my diary since […]
Here’s a wonderful story from the Bristol Pound blog, which its author, Haley Pearson, gave permission to reproduce here. It’s a great local currency story, and with the Bristol Pound on a roll, recently announcing that it can be used on the city’s buses, I thought this was a lovely story about the kind of magic […]
This month’s round up is huge. Seriously. Get a cup of tea, a few biscuits, put your feet up and enjoy. It’s a cracker, and has stories from parts of the world we’ve never had before. So, sitting comfortably? Let’s get started with some groundbreaking local currency news. The Bristol Pound recently announced an arrangement […]
Many Transition initiatives find interesting ways to work with their local schools, from food-growing projects to Transition Tales to tree planting. But the story I want to share with you today is the tale of the Transition initiative which actually became a school, which set up a new school from scratch. The Swanage School opens this […]
Today we have a guest post from Sophy Banks, as many of us return to work after a sun-soaked summer, on how to bring a balance of ‘being’ and ‘doing’ into that return to work, and also hear about a forthcoming training that will explore that balance in the wider work of Transition. Here we […]
Transition Network’s Transition Launch training, the training designed to support people getting started making Transition happen where they live is now up and running. Developed in partnership with Gaia University, it’s a fantastic new opportunity for people who, for one reason or another, struggle to find the time to do the training, but would still like […]
Linlithgow, Lewes, Totnes and Taunton are just four of the Transition initiatives we know of who have held or are due to hold Open Eco-Homes events. If you are a Transition group based in England and are planning to hold such an event event, then you could apply for funding from £500 up to £20,000 (England-wide […]
We wrote a while ago here about when Transition Network’s Rob Hopkins spoke at the An Innovative Society for the Twenty-First Century event in Paris, organised “under the aegis of” the President of France, which explored what life after growth might look like in the French context. The video of the talk is now available, […]
Over the next 3 days, we’ll be publishing the winners of our Transition Training competition, where people were invited to share stories of the course they did that changed their lives. Thanks to everyone who entered. In today’s first one, Jen Gale shares the power of learning how to use her sewing machine. Just […]
Over the next few days we will be sharing the winning three stories in our Transition Training competition of courses people did that changed their lives. I thought it might be a good idea to start with my story of the course that impacted me the most in my life so far. In June 2001, […]
Hide Enomoto is one of Transition’s true pioneers, who also happens to be a lovely guy and, as was discovered at the 2008 Transition Network conference, a wizard with a football. One of the drivers behind Transition Japan, he recently visited Transition Network’s office in Totnes, proudly clutching the just-published Japanese version of The Transition […]
Marina O’Connell is a fruit grower, a Transition and permaculture trainer, and the designer of a new course offered through Transition Training, called Resilient Food Systems which will be run for the first time Friday 13th to Saturday 14th September at Organic Lea in Walthamstow in London. I met with Marina in late July, and […]
One of the most illuminating voices in the British media at the moment is Nafeez Ahmed, who has been regularly writing about peak oil, climate change, geopolitics and how they all overlap in the Guardian. I was very honoured to be able to speak to Nafeez to hear his thoughts on the current state of […]
Transition Network’s REconomy Project has just published a fantastic new report entitled The New Economy in 20 Enterprises. Pulled together by Michelle Denton (below, right) and Fiona Ward (above), it opens like this, “Welcome to the UK’s top twenty ‘Transition oriented’ social enterprises. Combined these enterprises have a turnover of £3.5 million and provide paid employment […]
While many people’s summer reading might have consisted of the new Dan Brown book or perhaps the JK Rowling book that wasn’t by her and then was, mine focused on Vincent Van Gogh. As we focus for this month’s theme on education and learning, the thought I was left with was how did he get […]
This month’s theme has been ‘The Power of Just Doing Stuff’. It’s the first month we’ve had Transition Culture in its new home here at TransitionNetwork.org, and thanks for sticking with us while we figured out how to do that. I think we’re getting there now. It’s been a very full month, a month in […]
Every summer holiday break needs some stimulating reading that isn’t too taxing on the brain. So rather than the latest Dan Brown book, may we offer you our wonderful shiny new Transition infographic? It is the work of Bristol-based designer Trucie Mitchell, who also happens to be the designer of Transition Free Press. It can […]
Here are two great reasons why we are starting this July round-up with DE4 Food in Derbyshire, a great social enterprise which features in the recently-published The Power of Just Doing Stuff. Firstly, as their ‘patchwork farming’ approach gains strength, they recently added the local Tansley Primary School Gardening Club to their list of local producers. […]
Over six weeks I have travelled up and down the country visiting Transition initiatives to pay a visit, to hopefully give their efforts a boost, and to give The Power of Just Doing Stuff a bit of a push. It’s been amazing I must say. I’ve been to (in order) Crystal Palace, Sheffield, Downham Market/Swaffham, […]
Joanna Blythman is a journalist and author who writes about food and food issues. Her book The Food We Eat had a huge impact on me when I read it nearly 20 years ago. She remains one of the most incisive and insightful writers on food issues. I had wanted to interview her for some […]
On June 4th 1976, the Sex Pistols played a gig at Manchester Free Trade Hall that has gone down in history as one of the most famous gigs ever, credited as having inspired a huge number of influential bands, record labels, designers, even, according to the late Tony Wilson in the film ‘Joy Division’, with […]
Transition Streets was initiated by Transition Town Totnes in 2010 and won the 2011 Ashden Award for Behaviour Change. Since its inception, it has been run with almost 700 households in Totnes and district, with, on average, each household reducing its emissions by 1.3 tonnes (a saving of around £600 per year). It has subsequently […]
You may feel as though your efforts, working in your local Transition initiative or doing other community resilience work, is just a drop in the ocean. Yet there is a huge power in it, especially when you look at it from the context of what happens when you add all that stuff up. The Fife Diet in […]
The penultimate Transition Thursday took place on July 18th in Lincolnshire. Invited jointly by Transition Town Louth and Transition Horncastle, Rob Hopkins travelled to the east coast for a Transition-filled day. Previous Transition Thursdays have taken him to Crystal Palace, Sheffield, Swaffham/Downham Market and Worthing. Here is a short film he made of the day: […]
Last week I attended an extraordinary occasion in Paris, which felt momentus and historic, but in the somewhat confused and mixed way these things often do. Hosted in the incredible, palatial National Assembly, with its statues, chandeliers and gold leaf, the event, called ‘An Innovative Society for the Twenty-First Century’ was hosted by IDDRI (the […]
On July 11th, I visited Worthing in Sussex for the fourth Transition Thursday. It was an amazing days, and thanks so much to everyone who made it possible, especially Pauline, Gillian, Steve and Anne. On a day blessed with blue skies and sunshine, we spent the afternoon visiting three different land-based projects of Transition Town […]
On Saturday 18 May a river of fruit and nut trees appeared along Salusbury Road as part of the Chelsea Fringe Festival in an initiative of Transition Town Kensal to Kilburn (TTK2K). Shops and businesses along the street sponsored 22 edible trees which were placed outside their premises for the three weeks of The Chelsea Fringe. […]
What does it take to find the confidence to step over into actually starting a Community Supported Agriculture scheme? Where does the drive to step from thinking “someone should set up a really cool market garden” to thinking “I’m going to set up a really cool market garden” come from? On a beautiful summers day […]
So, three down and three to go. I wrote a report and made a short film of the first Transition Thursday (even though it was actually on a Tuesday), which took place in Crystal Palace in London. I’m going give you an update on the next two, which have taken me first to Sheffield, and then to […]
One of the things we’re going to be doing now Transition Culture has migrated to its new home is to have a theme for each month, something that will bring a degree of focus to what we post during that time. This month’s theme is ‘The Power of Just Doing Stuff’, which doesn’t mean that […]
It was a tough call deciding which story to lead with in this month’s Round-up. In the end we decided to start with this story from the Amazon in Brazil. May East, Transition trainer extraordinaire, travelled there to give a Transition training. The host was Mapiá Village, an intentional community created by traditional forest people […]
The Herefordshire Economic Evaluation was published recently, the second such study, following the Totnes & District Local Economic Blueprint. Brixton’s is expected during the next few weeks. They set out, for the first time, a powerful economic case for community resilience as a form of economic development. I spoke to Nick Sherwood, who co-ordinated the […]
Regular readers may know that I spend rather a lot of time on train stations. I travel the length and breadth of the UK using this marvellous form of public transport, and one of my great bugbears is that whichever station you arrive at, they all feature the same food outlets. Pumpkin. Upper Crust. Costa. […]
John Paul Flintoff’s article about Transition and The Power of Just Doing Stuff that appeared in the Guardian two weeks ago seemed to hit the right note, and has been popping up all over the place. It also led to the book being the bestseller in the Guardian book shop, outselling Iain Banks and Paul […]
The Power of Just Doing Stuff is now officially launched and out in the world! Following a pre-launch at Saturday’s Schumacher Lectures in Bristol, the book was officially kicked off at an amazing event in Crystal Palace, London. We are deeply indebted to John Barrett and Jonathan Goldberg for the great photos here. Rob Hopkins spent the afternoon […]
“Rob Hopkins has done more to change the way that we live in the past 10 years than any one else in Britain. because he has given people the tools create change for themselves. It is beautifully simple and incredibly powerful.” Monty Don, gardener, writer and broadcaster It’s been a while in the gestating, but […]
We’ll start this month’s round up in South Africa. We loved this video from German TV about Transition Town Greyton, and the work they are doing. Wonderful stuff. Altogether now: “Stuff your bottles, clean up your town”… This month’s round up comes to you with a new added source of material, Twitter. There are hundreds of […]
It’s now 12 days until the launch of The Power of Just Doing Stuff, all very exciting. The full list of Transition Thursdays, launch events around the country, will be published later this week, but we thought you might like to know about the first two events where you’ll be able to get your hands […]
Transition Network has put on a big conference every year from 2007 onwards – first in Ruskin Mill near Stroud, then the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester, in 2009 it was Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) in London, then Seale Hayne in Devon, next heading North to Hope Uni in Liverpool, and finally back to BAC […]
Here’s a fantastic video from German TV about Transition in South Africa. It looks at the work of Transition Town Greyton, and is a fascinating response to the question of “what does Transition look like beyond Europe and the US?” This may well become one of oourfavourite videos about Transition :
The Summer Issue of the marvel that is Transition Free Press is published today and is being distributed via a Transition initiative near you as we speak. It is packed with really great stuff, including, which is always a pleasure for me, stuff about Transition I didn’t know anything about. The print quality is far […]
This Sunday, 5th May 2013, is International Permaculture Day and what a truly wonderful thing of great beauty and awe that is. Its theme this year is ‘Grow Local!’ which I thought would resonate with you as a reader of this site, and as I am one of its supporters/participants, I thought I would tell […]
Starting in June, to coincide with the publication of our new book ‘The Power of Just Doing Stuff’, Transition Network will hold 6 consecutive ‘Transition Thursdays’. A Transition Thursday is at its simplest an event hosted by a Transition Initiative, in your area, with Rob Hopkins (and others as suitable) to share experiences, stories, questions […]
Today sees the publication of what may well turn out to be one of the most important documents yet produced by a Transition initiative. Over the next few weeks we will be returning to it, to hear a range of perspectives on it, and hope it will generate debate and discussion. The document is the […]
I recently visited Edible Landscapes London, a project started a couple of years ago by Transition Finsbury Park. The project describes itself as: “a volunteer-led project which aims to help Londoners grow more of their own food. We propagate edible plants which are then used on local growing projects. We teach people how to recognise plants, which […]
Here’s a story from Linlithgow in Scotland, one which includes a request for your ideas. So, last November Chanel held the rather swanky and illustrious ‘Chanel Metiers d’Art’ fashion show at Linlithgow Palace, famous for being where Mary Queen of Scots first came into the world. The Palace’s courtyard was used for the show, and […]
The festival day where Crystal Palace Transition Town’s Westow Park Community Garden was first unveiled to the public. Here’s a great story about the power of just doing stuff, from Crystal Palace in London. I heard recently that Crystal Palace Transition Town (CPTT) had won the People’s Food Garden Award in the Capital Growth Grow For Gold awards late […]
Here is a wonderful story from Seattle. I am indebted to Susan Gregory and Leo Brodie for their time in telling me about it. In North Ravenna, NE Seattle, a rather exciting project has emerged from Sustainable NE Seattle, the local Transition initiative. Inspired by a similar project in West Seattle, the NE Seattle Tool Library opened […]
Organisations with more than 12 million members today urged the Government to fulfil its commitments and avoid pulling the plug on larger community owned energy schemes. The membership organisations, which include: The Co-operative; the National Trust; Friends of the Earth; and Transition Network amongst others, believe that the Energy Bill currently before Parliament threatens to […]
Its official, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) loves Transition towns. What does that mean? We don’t know. Me and a group representing a variety of Transition Initiatives across the EU (Filipa Pimentel – Transition Portalegre Portugal; Josué Dusoulier – Transition Ath, Belgium; Pierre Bertrand – Transition Triéves; Arturs Polis – Ikskile Transition Initiative and […]
Like most things in the garden, Transition initiatives tend to be more reflective and dormant in January, as is reflected in this month’s roundup. We’ll start this month’s Round-up with 3 articles from the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun, created by their Paris office about Transition. We appreciate that very few of you read Japanese, but […]
Transition recognised in the European Parliament It didn’t start too auspiciously. My Eurostar train’s engine broke down at St. Pancras and sat there for 2 hours while engineers tried in vain to reattach the flange to the sprocket (or something). After several aborted attempts where we were told all was now well, only to grind […]
Let’s start this month’s round up in Derbyshire, where Melbourne Area Transition have received planning permission to install 48 PV panels on the roof of their local 12th century church, and there they now sit, in their energy-generating splendour. Here’s a short film made by Chris Bird (author of the Transition book ‘Local Sustainable Homes’ […]
‘In Transition 2.0’ is nearly ready to be unveiled to the world! We are very excited about this inspiring new telling of the Transition story, and want to tell you more about it here, and about how it will be rolled out over the coming months. To get us started, because we are so excited about […]
It’s the end of the month again, which means it’s time to bring you a taste of the wonderful Transitioney things that have been going on around the world. We’ll start in South America with some very exciting news from Colombia where they recently held their first three Transition Trainings, and here’s a report with […]
This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you are agreeing to the use of cookies.