Transitioners’ Digest (May-June 2015) REconomy

By rob hopkins 30th June 2015

We’ve had a fascinating couple of months going into our REconomy theme.  Welcome to our traditional theme Digest, where we condense those 8 weeks into a few paragraphs so you can more easily find the bits that interest you.  We started with our editorial, 8 Paradigm Shifts at the Heart of REconomy, which put REconomy in its wider context of change we can already see happening in the world.  We heard from the people making the Exeter Pound, set to launch on September 1st, a reality, about the steps they are taking and how it’s going. 

We asked ‘What is a Transition-oriented enterprise?’, and Rob Hopkins wrote about his experience of visiting Wilmslow in Cheshire having been won by Transition Wilmslow in a competition.  We heard from different parts of the world about what REconomy looks like in that context, hearing from Linlithgow, Portugal, United States and Mexico.  

We rather excitingly unveiled three new free REconomy guides for Transition groups, one of which was the Transition Events Toolkit, which author Jo Taylor introduced.  We also published extracts from one of those guides, ‘Transition Core Resourcing’, capturing the diversity of approaches groups use to fund the core of their work.  We published 4 specially-commissioned short videos, ‘REconomy Reflections’, in which Fiona Ward and Rob Hopkins reflected on where REconomy came from, what it is, and where it’s going.  

Following our recent glowing review of Julian Dobson’s book ‘How to Save Town Centres’, we interviewed him.  “It’s time to raise a glass to the New Economy” he told us, among other things.  One amazing manifestation of REconomy is the Local Entrepreneur Forum.  Transition Town Brixton just held the first LEF outside Totnes, and it was amazing.  We blogged about the experience here, and here is a short, and rather wonderful, video about it: 

 
 
  
 The ideas behind REconomy, and Transition, of basing our local economies on the Multiplier Effect, are no longer confined to the localisation/Transition movement.  Something remarkable is happening in Preston, where Preston City Council are doing an amazing job of reimagining their local economy having done a detailed analysis of where they, and other key local stakeholders, spend their money.  We spoke to two of the key people behind that work to hear what happened, and what’s planned next.  Crowdfunding is one of the key tools used by Transition groups in order to kickstart their projects.  We heard the story of two such crowdfunders, Transition Cobham’s Community Garden Crowdfunder, and Grown in Totnes, who raised over £26,000 for a local oats processing project, a tale they tell here.  
 
One of the other fascinating ideas out there which overlaps in some ways with REconomy is The Blue Economy, the work of Gunter Pauli.  At a recent event in Brussels, Transition Network’s Rob Hopkins and Gunter Pauli shared a stage, and both presentations and the ensuing discussion offered fascinating insights into where the two ideas overlap and can inspire each other.  
 
Lastly, much of the innovation around REconomy has been the work of Fiona Ward.  She is now moving on from REconomy to do other things, and she wrote a farewell blog post, rounding up her work of the last 5 years, and bidding farewell to REconomy, as well as sharing what’s next for it.  You can read her post here, and we’d like to take the opportunity to offer her our deepest thanks, and wish her all the very best in her next projects.  
 
Oh, and finally, Transition Network is looking for a new Communications Co-ordinator.  If you know anyone suitable, do let them know!
 
 
 

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