FEBRUARY/MARCH 09
The Speech President Obama Should Deliver
David Korten
We All Share Obama's Responsibility for Change
John Nichols
Looking on the Bright Side
Tom Atlee
Eat the Stimulus
Tom Philpott
Making Dirt
Moksha Mokma
Small Scale Grain and Bean Growing
Jody Woodruff
Willamette Valley Bean and Grain Project
Xan Augerot
Transition Towns
Shaktari Belew
Cultivating Self-employment in Our Changing Economy
Crystal Arnold
Local Enrepreneurs Can Compete With Global Competition
Michael H. Shuman
Towards a More Harmonious Way of Life
Peter Wells
Why Now is the Best Time to Start Your Own Business
Dave Pollard
Cosmic Calendar
Salina Rain
Transition Towns
Engaging the Genius of Our Local Communities
By Shaktari Belew
When flight 1549 made an emergency landing in the frigid waters of the Hudson River in January, our nation witnessed resiliency in action. Every system designed to ensure the best outcome in the worst circumstances worked seamlessly together with the result that there were no fatalities and few injuries.
Resiliency. Parents understand the meaning of that word all too well. Sometimes life with children seems a rollercoaster ride from one minor emergency to the next, and wise parents quickly learn to have multiple backup plans and strategies for just about any occasion.
But how much resiliency have we developed for our communities? Our eagerness to embrace globalization, mass production, and the mindset that “bigger is better” has led to an astounding and systematic dismantling of our previously resilient communities—towns where food was grown locally, products were manufactured locally, and our general systems (water, power, food, housing, education, the economy) were also primarily under local control.
It is now estimated that most cities have between 2.5 to 4 days of food on their grocery shelves. A truckers’ strike combined with “just-in-time” style inventory management and the non-localization of food production nearly brought Britain to its knees a few years ago. As the current trend in trucking company mergers continues here in the US, how vulnerable does that leave our cities? What other scenarios can you imagine that could imperil the food supply for your community at this time of economic uncertainty? If you add in the twin and interrelated issues of climate change and peak oil, the complexities of possible scenarios escalate.
While we have traditionally looked to our leaders for solutions to our problems, the complexity of the issues we now face (climate change, exponential human population increase, uncertainty regarding our future oil supplies, and uncertainty regarding our financial systems) requires new approaches for which no one can claim leadership expertise. If you also consider that literally everything we touch on a daily basis requires petroleum—as either a raw material, for the manufacturing process, or for transportation—any escalation in oil prices or decrease in the availability of oil imports (over half the oil used in the US is imported), places our way of life at risk.
It would be easy to face this complex future scenario with fear or even denial, but there is another alternative that has been developing over the last three years as a global grassroots movement—one that acknowledges the seriousness and complexity of the issues faced, while also offering an alternative possibility that engages the creative genius of our local communities.
Known as the Transition Movement or Transition Towns, it explores the “head (the facts), hands (the doing), and heart (the feelings)” of transitioning from an oil-centric economy to one in which all community systems are localized to ensure greater resilience in the face of uncertainty regarding peak oil, climate change, and the complex web of related issues. Transition Towns acknowledge the wisdom of pro-actively planning new options, over simply reacting to the inevitable, as systems slide into stress or failure.
What really sets the Transition movement apart is it’s whole-systems approach that offers not top-down, readymade solutions that disempower people by telling them what they should do, but instead creates the context in which community members can step into their own sense of responsibility and leadership by actively engaging their creative genius to come up with multiple, simple, and practical small-step changes to their existing food, transportation, housing, business, and economic systems that together begin to successfully reinstate local resiliency. Transition initiatives, developed by diverse communities throughout the world, are stunningly unique, creative, and most of all fun.
Fun. Isn’t that the key to just about everything? Who wouldn’t rather participate in something that is creative, fun, and engaging—and produces a greater sense of interconnection and friendship between community members? The Transition movement comes from the belief that homespun common sense and friendship are core elements of effective community change-making. Teamed with sophisticated internet based organizing (like Skype, networking, wikis, conferencing, etc.) and proven organizational change tools like Open Space Technology, this combination seems to be taking off like wild fire around the world. There are now 126 Transition Towns globally, with more than 600 additional sites in the process of joining.
Open Space Technology, described as “passion, bound by responsibility,” works best when the work to be done is complex, the people and ideas involved are diverse, the passion for resolution (and potential for conflict) are high, and the time to get it done was yesterday. It’s a perfect tool for the exuberant out-of-the-box exploration of ideas and experimentation with solutions that mark the Transition movement model. The essence of Open Space Technology, and the Transition movement in general, is the willingness to listen deeply to every participant, knowing that the complexity of the issues require multifaceted and highly creative responses that can be sourced from any gender, age, culture, educational background, and experience.
Like Open Space Technology, the Transition Movement asks participants to take full responsibility for their level of participation, that each person step fully into his or her own power, and offer their best to themselves and the community. Blend this with an air of joyous exploration and camaraderie, and you begin to understand the power of this profound practical movement.
One might ask how the Transition Movement is different than all the other wonderful community work focused on issues of sustainability and resilience—the answer to that question is itself a bit complex, but the essence of the answer centers on the approach. If you imagine community as a multi-fiber tapestry in which each organization, citizen group, and governmental agency is represented by a thread, then the Transition Town model seeks to recognize, support, and assist in the weaving of that tapestry so that every thread is supported to fulfill its role completely. Transition Towns create communication lines between similar groups to heighten efficiency of effort without competing ourselves out of effectiveness. They focus on the relationships between ideas, experiments, and projects so that the whole system is considered in the implementation of change, not just a single issue or narrow focus of attention.
When discussing the Transition Town movement, Tom Atlee, author of The Tao of Democracy states, “And it is no surprise why it is spreading so rapidly. Not only are these folks incredibly pleasant, upbeat, and savvy about the use of the internet, but the Transition Towns initiative offers a refreshingly creative channel for people’s growing unease about the slow-motion collapse of the old structures and systems we’ve come to depend on. It offers an inspiring, fully adaptable and evolving positive vision of incremental change toward sustainability that any community can realistically and pragmatically implement—one that can be launched by any group of ordinary citizens.”
How do they do this? They offer a list of design principles, criteria, and simple steps to ensure that our efforts are truly whole-systems oriented, inclusive, and productive. Their network unites people throughout the nation and the world experimenting with what works and what doesn’t work in hundreds of diverse communities—people who are willing to share their experience for common growth and knowledge. Not surprisingly, their efforts produce identifiable projects that make the issues visible and create tangible examples of practical success. While focusing on all the above, the Transition movement has learned the importance of taking time to stop and celebrate each accomplishment and each participant. They’ve learned that no matter what the issues faced, when people come together in an atmosphere of inventive playfulness and shared visioning, their combined creativity knows no bounds.
Rob Hopkins, one of the founders of the Transition movement in the UK writes, “While Peak Oil and Climate Change are understandably profoundly challenging, also inherent within them is the potential for an economic, cultural, and social renaissance the likes of which we have never seen. We will see a flourishing of local businesses, local skills and solutions, and a flowering of ingenuity and creativity. It is a Transition in which we will inevitably grow, and in which our evolution is a precondition for progress. Emerging at the other end, we will not be the same as we were: we will have become more humble, more connected to the natural world, fitter, leaner, more skilled, and ultimately, wiser.”
If you’d like to explore the Transition Movement in greater depth, come play with us.
You can network with Transition Towns throughout the US at http://transitionus.ning.com and find out more about the origin of the movement in the UK at www.transitiontowns.org.
Transition Town Ashland, a fledgling addition to the movement, meets twice monthly. An introductory talk is offered the first Thursday of every month at Peace House at 7pm. TTA community planning group meetings take place the third Thursday of every month in the Gresham Room of the Ashland Public Library, also at 7pm.
TransitionUS is offering a two-day workshop called “Training for Transition” August 15 & 16 in Ashland, Oregon. To learn more, or to be added to the email list, contact Shaktari Belew at Shaktari@AshlandHome.net.
Shaktari Belew holds an MSc degree in Organizing Learning for EcoSocial Regeneration from Gaia University, where she offers her skills as a Process Advisor and Internal Reviewer. She is the author of the book Honoring All Life - A Practical Guide to Exploring a New Reality (2005). Her workshop, “Deep Perception,” has been offered in the USA and Europe, and provides an in-depth exploration of personal perceptual filters and new ways of perceiving the possible. Her greatest passion is to empower herself and everyone to experience their own core magnificence—and thus that of all life.
