Transition Network Newsletter – January 2012
CONTENTS
- December Round-up of What’s Happening out in the World of Transition
- US Edition December Round-up
- Transition Podcast
- Stories From Our Social Reporters
- Arts and Creativity
- Land Rights
- A Celebration of the Social Reporting Pilot
- Highlights from last year and visioning for this
- FILMS – In Transition 2.0 Update
- BOOK review
- TRAINING
- PRACTICAL
- FORUM
- QUOTE OF THE MONTH
December Round-up of What’s Happening out in the World of Transition
This month’s round up has a few stories of Transition groups working on energy efficiency, fuel poverty and renewable energy. Wilmslow and Worthing have been planting orchards. Other news from Canada, Ireland, Holland and Portugal.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/news/2012-01-04/december-round-what-s-happening-transition
US Edition December Round-up
http://transitionus.org/stories/december-round-whats-happening-out-world-transition-us-edition-2011
Transition Podcast
This month covers Community energy companies, a Farmshare CSA project, and a resource centre and farmers’ market
http://transitionculture.org/2011/12/15/its-the-december-transition-podcast-community-energy-companies-farms-and-resource-centres/
STORIES FROM OUR SOCIAL REPORTERS
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories
Social Reporting Findings and Call for Writers
From September to December 2011, 12 voluntary writers and a voluntary editor from different Transition initiatives committed to collaboratively writing a group blog and publishing a new story every day. For them this was one post per fortnight. For the editor it was seven days a week. Together they produced an extraordinary and honest account of life in Transition; the ups and downs, the thrills and the disappointments, the challenges of swimming against the mainstream narrative’s current in an effort to re-set our cultural stories, help us all align to a more realistic worldview, and give back some pride to our local communities.
In 2012 we will be continuing our daily posts, exploring and reflecting on all Transition subjects under the sun, and extend a call for new writers to share their experiences of being in Transition. This is a brief overview of findings from the Social Reporters’ end of pilot survey,
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/blogs/ed-mitchell/2012-01/social-reporting-findings-and-call-writers
Arts and Creativity
Use or Ornament
This phrase articulates an age-old debate about the role of the arts in our society.
The arts and Transition should be a perfect match. Are we there?
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/guest-editor/2011-12/use-or-ornament
New Dawn for Ceilidh Culture
For countless generations, ceilidhs have been at the heart of Celtic life.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/catriona-ross/2011-12/new-dawn-ceilidh-culture
Light and Dark
Art as a tool to bring across history’s lessons to the next generations should not be underestimated.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/ann-owen/2011-12/light-and-dark
Resistance is Beautiful
Transitioning into an unknown future has got to be about creativity. We must let our imaginations run loose to create new ways of living, new types of energy and new games to play.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/joe-rake/2011-12/resistance-beautiful
Land Rights
Transition Branching Out? Land reform: losing and recovering the Commons
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/guest-editor/2011-12/transition-branching-out-land-reform-losing-and-recovering-commons
We belong to the land
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/ann-owen/2011-12/we-belong-land
Occupy by permission
It’s dark outside and I can hear the wind threshing the trees across the road.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/caroline-jackson/2011-12/occupy-permission
Both Sides Now
I’ve been thinking a lot about the uselessness of polemic thinking.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/jo-homan/2011-12/both-sides-now
Whose Land? Our Land
In the UK, 0.3% of people own 67% of all the land in the country.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/joe-rake/2011-12/whose-land-our-land
A Celebration of the Social Reporting Pilot
With Love From the Post Office
Charlotte Du Cann looks back over the 3 month Social Reporting pilot showing some of the workings behind this pilot and what made it a success.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/charlotte-du-cann/2011-12/love-post-office
Looking Back, Looking Forward
Highlights from last year and visioning for this
To start the year Transition-style we are having a month of Pausing for Reflection and Visioning ahead. In these first two weeks we’ll be looking back at our 3 month pilot and selecting some of its most striking posts and republishing one of them each day. Tough call! Because there were many brilliant ones.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/charlotte-du-cann/2012-01/looking-back-looking-forward-our-new-year
An Avalanche of Comments
This one sentence provided the electric jolt to remind me about the importance of our conversation, for without that conversation there is nothing.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/marella-fyffe/2012-01/avalanche-comments
Let’s talk about change
Like most other people, I just want to stay under the duvet.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/stories/adrienne-campbell/2012-01/lets-talk-about-change
FILMS
In Transition 2.0 Update
‘In Transition 2.0’ is nearly ready to be unveiled to the world! It draws together stories from around the world showing Transition initiatives at the various stages of transitioning their communities. In order to be able to feature some of the stories from overseas, they ran a crowd-funding process which raised the money required. An international team of volunteers have translated the film in 18 languages. Also, in spite of telling stories from around the world, no-one set foot on an aeroplane in order to make this film, local camera-people being enlisted to film each sequence, making this one of the lowest-carbon international films ever produced.
In early February, each of the initiatives whose stories are told in the film have been invited to host a preview. The premiere of ‘In Transition 2.0’ will be at a high profile event in late March (still under wraps). The DVD will be released around the time of the premiere.
Find out more and view the trailer (completed just yesterday) here
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/news/2012-01-05/transition-20
New Forest – Connecting Our Food
‘Connecting to Our Food is a look at the resurgence of local food activity in the New Forest. The film shows the creativity that can spring from a passion for community-sourced produce, and how reconnecting with our food is at the fulcrum of our relationship to our own health, our home planet and each other.’
DVD of the 22 min film including screening license costs £5.00 plus any P&P.
BOOK
New Ingredients of Transition
The Transition Companion reviewed in Positive News says the « new guide to the Transition movement reflects its growing diversity and richness »
http://positivenews.org.uk/2012/community/transition_news/5707/ingredients-transition/
Order books direct from Green Books
http://www.greenbooks.co.uk/
TRAINING
How well is your Transition Initiative going? What can you do to take your Transition Initiative to the next level?
On 28-29 January in Bath, Transition Network will be holding its second Transition THRIVE training. We have designed this 2-day course to help existing Transition Initiatives take stock, identify their main barriers to sustaining momentum and develop strategies on how to move forward. Through case stories of other Transition Initiatives, group work and discussions, this training addresses each participant’s needs. It will offer practical advice on topics such as creating jobs in a local, green economy and could some of some the really inspiring examples of social enterprises work in your initiative.
The training will be run by Naresh Giangrande, co-founder of Transition Town Totnes and Transition Training, and Jenny Mackewn a senior lecturer at Bath University and member of Transition Bath.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/events/2012-01-28/transition-thrive
PRACTICAL
Looking for Transitioners Interested in Woodlands (UK)
The Woodland Trust want to find out if there are any Transition groups actively engaged in or contemplating projects involving woodlands.
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/news/2011-12-20/woodland-trust-looking-transitioners-interested-woodlands-uk
Co-operative Renewable Energy in the UK
Co-operatively-owned energy generation is a vibrant and growing sector in the UK. The first co-operatively-owned wind turbines, Baywind in Cumbria, started turning in 1997. Since then, over 7,000 individual investors have ploughed over £16 million into community-owned renewable energy.
This report summarises insights gained from visits to five co-operatively owned energy projects during the summer of 2011.
http://energybulletin.net/stories/2012-01-05/co-operative-renewable-energy-uk-guide-growing-sector
FORUM
Topics under discussion include:
Conflict in TI groups; UK Localism Act – have your say; Garden and Household Tool Co -operative -any advice?
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/forum
Transition Projects Directory
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/projects
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
« Community is nearly impossible in a highly monetized society like our own. »
(« That is because community is woven from gifts, which is ultimately why poor people often have stronger communities than rich people. If you are financially independent, then you really don’t depend on your neighbors—or indeed on any specific person—for anything. You can just pay someone to do it, or pay someone else to do it.) »
Charles Eisenstein
http://www.nationofchange.org/build-community-economy-gifts-1325082127
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http://www.transitionnetwork.org/news/2012-01-05/january-2012-transition-network-newsletter
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This newsletter is published on the first Friday of each month.
Newsletter Editor: Mike Grenville, from Transition Forest Row for the Transition Network
Contact: mgrenville@gmail.com
+44 (0)7974 924289
