Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
are still few and far between, but in some parts of the world local materials are still
often the material of choice, such as the continued use of local granite as a favoured
building material in rural Galicia in North-West Spain which helps to maintain the
distinctiveness of the local landscape.
In social terms the 12 Steps Guide to the creation of a Transition Town illustrates
the way that many meetings are held to develop, discuss and publicize ideas and
progress, creating greater interaction between people in the community. Also there
is recognition of the importance of recreating old or developing new community
social events, such as festivals, while lecture series bring residents up to date with
the various schemes being promoted, as well as learning new ideas from experts
in sustainable practices. All these events are designed to draw people together in
the common cause of re-localizing practices and increasing sustainability. Making
Transition Towns more liveable places, as well as being more resilient and able to
withstand the probable changes that might occur in the short term from reduced oil
supplies and from climate change are key goals.
Apart from the various content areas of the sectors of transitions there is also a
strong desire in monitoring community progress. Table 7.2 shows an example of the
20 features that have been identified as being important in a local community recov-
ery project in Port Alberni, Canada and which has often been quoted approvingly
on the Totnes Transition Town website. These issues should be returned to regularly
to see if progress is being made. In Table 7.2 the principles have been grouped into
six broad categories from the original long list in order to improve comprehension,
with their original order shown in brackets. It again illustrates how the grass-roots
organization that developed this list of principles places value upon what amounts
to greater community interaction, diversity and consensus, in order to build better,
more liveable and sustainable futures for urban places.
7﻽5
EcoDistricts
In the last 2 decades there have been many examples of community organizations
springing up to improve conditions in their local area. One of these, EcoDistricts,
has moved beyond its home base and provides an example of more active and wider
forms of local initiatives than those devoted to impoverishment and ill-health reduc-
tion described in the Healthy Cities discussion (Chap. 13). This is a new name for
an organization whose ideas were initially developed in the Portland Sustainability
Institute in Portland (Oregon) a city that has been at the forefront in America of
measures to increase its sustainability. Its aim is to improve urban places from the
neighbourhood up. In the words of its website:
A Ecodistrict is a new model of private-public partnership that emphasizes innovation and
deployment of district-scale best practices to create the neighbourhoods of the future—
resilient, vibrant, resource efficient and just (ED).
Although there are parallels with the Transition Town movement in the empha-
sis upon grass-roots organization and sustainability, its scale is different, having a
within-city focus. This is unlike the whole town emphasis of most of the Transition
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