Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Transition Town. In September 2013 the TT Network identified 462 places that had
been formally approved as Transition Towns, with another 654 described as 'mullers',
namely centres that had requested information about the movement and were think-
ing about joining the movement. Initially, most of the official TT's were relatively
small towns, but the movement now includes some larger centres, such as Bristol and
Eastbourne in the United Kingdom, as well as parts of big cities, such as Crouch End
in London, or the separate municipality of Fredericksburg, part of the Copenhagen
built-up area in Denmark. Locationally, however, most of the Transition Towns are
still in the U.K (45.0 %), with another large contingent from North America (32.9 %).
Places in Australia and NZ account for 11.2 %, while centres in Germany and France
provide 3.9 % of the total and Ireland another 1.2 %. Although the TT network notes
that there are representatives from 23 countries in the official list, its dominance by
English-language countries is obvious, for only 5.7 % of the official members come
from the other countries not mentioned in the list above.
73
Transition Town Organization
A review of the way that Transition Towns have been initiated and matured led to
the creation of a 12 Step Process of Development as an idealized guide to help other
communities develop their own organization (Table
7.1
).
This sequence illustrates how the movement can grow from a small group of
pioneers identifying some initial problems to wider action groups, and eventually to
public meetings to identify and discuss the problems associated with unsustainable
patterns and life-styles raised by the action groups. This, in turn, leads to decisions
taken by the community on solutions designed to solve the problems. However
rather than only depending upon their own actions to create change, the ninth stage
shows the practical approach of the TT pioneers. It stresses the importance of per-
suading local governments to produce actions to increase sustainability, as well as
identifying local practices that have been lost or marginalised, paralleling part of the
Slow City movement (Chap. 15). The process stresses the need to incorporate elder-
ly residents into the association, in order to make it more representative of the local
community and to draw upon their skills and knowledge. What is also notable about
this movement's desire to create greater local resilience and sustainability is the
rather self-effacing admission in its newsletters that the strength of the movement
comes
from
the participants, not from any directed source, meaning that the various
groups should establish their own ways of operating. In other words, the 12 Steps
are seen as only
guides
to the development sequence. Moreover, the various con-
tributors to the TT newsletters and organizational primers stress they do not claim
to have all the answers to developing the transition to a better future; rather the pio-
neers of the movement see themselves as individuals who are willing to help initiate
change. This desire to create change by members of the community is based on the
belief that it is taking too long for national or regional governments to act on the
problems posed by climate change or to anticipate problems of future oil shortages.
