Sustainable Gardeners and Farmers
Sharing knowledge to sustain our food systems and communities
This group will create an open, global forum where growers can share practical knowledge with each other, pose questions and find answers. It is open to experts, amateurs and to beginners who look to enrich their lives by learning to grow food. It will also provide a space to share concerns about current food systems as well as sustainable approaches. I form ...learn more
GROUP DETAILS
Created: Dec 24, 2007
Updated: Nov 26, 2009
Membership: Open
Semi-Private
Organization Info [Edit]
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> What is a Transition Town (or village / city / forest / island)?
Who We Are
Transition network refers to the broad international community of individuals and groups basing their work on the Transition model (has sometimes been referred to as “the Transition Movement”).
(Photo source: Transition Network: Who We Are and What We Do)
Transition Network Ltd. was set up in spring 2007 to support Transition Initiatives around the world. The mission of our embryonic charity is:
- to inspire
- to encourage
- to network
- to support and
- to train
...communities as they consider, adopt, adapt and implement the transition model in order to establish a Transition Initiative in their locale. The transition model emboldens communities to look peak oil and climate change squarely in the eye and unleash the collective genius of their own people to find the answers to this big question:
"for all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how are we going to significantly rebuild resilience (in response to peak oil) and drastically reduce carbon emissions (in response to climate change)?"
Typically, self-determined solutions will involve some flavour of relocalisation.
What We Do
What follows is an outline of some of the projects and developments that Transition Network Ltd. will be undertaking over the next three years (from October 2008) in order to carry out this intention. It will continue doing this, always bearing in mind the desirability, where possible, of projects and functions being owned by the most appropriate people/groups and at as local a level as possible;
1. Continuing to develop and deepen Transition Training, increasing the quantity and ensuring the quality of Transition Training workshops (the full menu of trainings that have been developed) across the country, training core teams of Transition trainers in other parts of the world, and providing ongoing support to those trainers already qualified to deliver the training.
2. Continuing to co‐ordinate and co‐develop materials to assist those on the ground doing Transition work. These will include but won’t be limited to;
- Radically improving our delivery of our “enabling sharing and networking” by, for example, setting up a much improved web platform
- Producing ‘The (First) Transition Movie’, a film about the Transition concept which will be developed as a collaborative process
- Supporting the emergence of a quarterly publication, ‘Transition Times’, which would begin online but which could evolve into a regular magazine. This would be complemented by a blog on the new website where individual initiatives are invited to post their successes and failures, events and news
- Support the production of a series of books on different aspects of Transition, i.e. food, energy and so on... The Transition Guide to Food is already in development
- Tools to facilitate EDPs, up‐to‐date presentations and examples of best practice, as well as a forum for people to post their own resources, be it links, papers, short films or their own powerpoints, which they think others will find useful
- Producing clearer ‘maps’ of how Transition Initiatives might evolve over time, how to assemble the 12 Steps and how a variety of Initiatives have designed different ways through them, drawn from the experience of various initiatives
- Hosting, moderating and editing the collaborative rewrite of ‘The Transition Handbook’ using a wiki approach, with the original book serving as the basis for a gathering of tools, stories, experience and insight from across the Transition
- Setting up an online registry of Transition speakers.
- Supporting and enabling action research and evaluation at a national/international level – partnering with universities where appropriate
- Organising (in the UK) bi‐annual national Convergences alternating with regional Transition Convergences.
- Supporting new emerging areas of Transition by designing specific events, i.e. Transition in Cities conference (November ’08)
- Supporting national and regional transition organizations as set out in the principles above
- Thinking strategically about the emerging context in which Transition Initiatives grow and develop ‐ and when needed revising our practices and this document as a consequence.
In essence, Transition Network Ltd’s core function will be to continue to be a catalyst for the Transition model.
More on Transition Network: Who We Are and What We Do (PDF) and Transition Network website.
What is a Transition Town (or village / city / forest / island)?
Video source: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQF09NG00V8
They begin by forming an initiating group and then adopt the Transition Model (explained here at length, and in bits here and here) with the intention of engaging a significant proportion of the people in their community to kick off a Transition Initiative.
A Transition Initiative is a community (lots of examples here) working together to look Peak Oil and Climate Change squarely in the eye and address this BIG question:
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"for all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how do we significantly increase resilience (to mitigate the effects of Peak Oil) and drastically reduce carbon emissions (to mitigate the effects of Climate Change)?"
After going through a comprehensive and creative process of:
- awareness raising around peak oil, climate change and the need to undertake a community lead process to rebuild resilience and reduce carbon
- connecting with existing groups in the community
- building bridges to local government
- connecting with other transition initiatives
- forming groups to look at all the key areas of life (food, energy, transport, health, heart & soul, economics & livelihoods, etc)
- kicking off projects aimed at building people's understanding of resilience and carbon issues and community engagement
- eventually launching a community defined, community implemented "Energy Descent Action Plan" over a 15 to 20 year timescale
This results in a coordinated range of projects across all these areas of life that strives to rebuild the resilience we've lost as a result of cheap oil and reduce the community's carbon emissions drastically.
The community also recognises two crucial points:
- that we used immense amounts of creativity, ingenuity and adaptability on the way up the energy upslope, and that there's no reason for us not to do the same on the downslope
- if we collectively plan and act early enough there's every likelihood that we can create a way of living that's significantly more connected, more vibrant and more in touch with our environment than the oil-addicted treadmill that we find ourselves on today.
Final point Just to weave the climate change and peak oil situations together...
- Climate change makes this carbon reduction transition essential
- Peak oil makes it inevitable
- Transition initiatives make it feasible, viable and attractive (as far we can tell so far...)
Cheerful disclaimer!
Just in case you were under the impression that Transition is a process defined by people who have all the answers, you need to be aware of a key fact.
We truly don't know if this will work. Transition is a social experiment on a massive scale.
What we are convinced of is this:
- if we wait for the governments, it'll be too little, too late
- if we act as individuals, it'll be too little
- but if we act as communities, it might just be enough, just in time.
Everything that you read on this site is the result of real work undertaken in the real world with community engagement at its heart. There's not an ivory tower in sight, no professors in musty oak-panelled studies churning out erudite papers, no slavish adherence to a model carved in stone.
Comments (1 - 5 of 5)
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Hi Deborah(boatsie).
Fyi, this page is not a group (though there are similarities). This is an organization listing. You can not 'join' this listing. But yes, you can invite people from transition towns marin to visit this page, and add it to their network via the "Actions" box on top right part of this page. This way they'll be 'connected' to this listing and will show up in network visualization for this organization (Transition Network).
As for visualization, you can always look at it by clicking [Visualize] in the Network section of this page (below Organization Info section). See upper part of page.
You don't need to 'move' TT Marin resources. You can just add them to this organization listing's network. See this tutorial on how to do so --> http://www.wiserearth.org/article/e1f8f4526e43076cbff882cbe542a0a5 (you can always go to this tutorial from the Help Desk... assuming you know how to get there)
Btw, while this page is an organization page for Transition Network, there is also a group for Transition Network created by Ben Brangwyn a while ago. You can apply to join.
~Bowo |
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fabulous bowo. so do i have to inform all members of the transition towns marin group that they have to join this group? i fear that some of them may be lost in the re-org.... i guess i'll just send out an email to the entire group... great page.... can we have a visualization as well? Can I move some of the resources from TT Marin over here?
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I agree! A good idea to have this as a hub for connecting all other transition initiatives
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A wonderful initiative. Looking forward to see it spread to the developing / less-developed countries of the world.
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