Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
that would allow the town to change or to
transition to a new future
, with new
types of functioning. Unlike the community activists from Alinsky's critical con-
flict approach in poor and impoverished areas, a far greater cross-section of the
town population was involved in Totnes, with perhaps a majority of the people
who were middle income and educated individuals, including a high percentage
of women. Many were individuals disillusioned with the failure of elected of-
ficials or governments to listen to their worries about the effects of ecological
issues, especially climate change, environmental destruction, and the inevitable
problems that they envisaged being caused by higher oil costs and shortages.
What became known as Transition Town Workshops provided a focus for many
previously unrelated people to share their concerns and search for ways of ensur-
ing a better future, not simply as individuals, or within their groups, but linking
with existing organizations. The Totnes town council was soon persuaded to sup-
port the principles behind the policies advocated, and voted to become the second
formal Transition Town after Kinsale.
Lectures by Hopkins and experts in specific sectors affected were given to in-
terested groups in other towns, not simply on the issues of peak oil, climate change
and various sustainability initiatives, but also on the need to re-build relations with
each other and the natural world, through community interaction, countering the in-
creasing individualisation or atomization of society. One of the key ideas of the TT
movement is to create more local community capability to counter or adapt to the
changes taking place, so that the community would have greater resilience against
these trends. The growth of the movement has been helped by the creation of a
regular internet Transition Town Newsletter designed to share ideas, a promotional
film about the ideas in 2007, and recommendations to other communities about
various topics and films that supported the idea of reducing carbon footprints and
encouraging local production, re-use and consumption. In addition advice about
how to build community support through individuals, other organizations, busi-
nesses and governments, have been provided. The creation of a formal Transition
Town Primer or Manifesto (TTP 2006) has been regularly updated and extended,
which has helped formalise the process by providing an overview of the ideas and
organizational guides for the movement.
The Transition Town movement spread rapidly from its beginnings in Kinsale and
Totnes. By the end of 2007 50 places had been formally recognized as Transition
Towns, four of which were in New Zealand and Australia. The growth continued, with
Fujino in Japan becoming the 100th member, followed by Kreuzberg, an area in Berlin
long known for its alternative and artistic life-styles. The organization of the approach
was helped by the establishment of a Transition Town Network which was registered
as a formal charity in the U.K. in 2007 in order to obtain funds and to disseminate
ideas and was soon supported by grants from the Tudor Trust and Fairbairn Founda-
tion. This network has provided finance for speakers and promotional materials to
develop and spread the principles behind the movement to other interested groups and
towns. The development of this formal organization, together with the need to report
on the expenditure of funds, means that interested groups within other communities
do have to get approval of their work to date before they are recognized as an 'official'
