Introduction

Transition Network was set up in spring 2007 to support Transition Initiatives around the world.

This Who We Are and What We Do document (now also in in Italian!) gives what we hope is a clear picture of our intention, principles and practices and how the wider network of transitioners is developing. This document will be updated from time to time - it reflects an organisation that is evolving in world that's in somewhat of a state of flux. It'll be an interesting ride...

Here's what we focus on.

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The mission of our embryonic charity is:
  • to inspire
  • to encourage
  • to connect
  • to support and
  • to train
communities as they consider, adopt, adapt and implement the transition model in order to establish a Transition Initiative in their locale. The transition model emboldens communities to look peak oil and climate change squarely in the eye and unleash the collective genius of their own people to find the answers to this big question:
for all those aspects of life that this community needs in order
to sustain itself and thrive, how are we going to:
  • significantly rebuild resilience (in response to peak oil)
  • drastically reduce carbon emissions (in response to
climate change)?
Typically, self-determined solutions will involve some flavour of relocalisation.

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We're building a range of materials, training courses, events, tools & techniques, resources and a general support capability to help these communities.

It's early days, so we have a long way to go. But we understand how massive the task is, and we're giving it everything we've got. Recent funding from Tudor Trust and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation has given us a firm platform for our work.

We're hoping that through this work, communities across the world will unleash their own collective genius and embark on an imaginative and practical range of connected initiatives, leading to a way of life that is more resilient, more fulfilling and more equitable, and that has dramatically lower levels of carbon emissions.



Cheerful disclaimer!

Just in case you were under the impression that Transition is a process defined by people who have all the answers, you need to be aware of a key fact.

We truly don't know if this will work. Transition is a social experiment on a massive scale.

What we are convinced of is this:

  • if we wait for the governments, it'll be too little, too late
  • if we act as individuals, it'll be too little
  • but if we act as communities, it might just be enough, just in time.

Everything that you read on this site is the result of real work undertaken in the real world with community engagement at its heart. There's not an ivory tower in sight, no professors in musty oak-panelled studies churning out erudite papers, no slavish adherence to a model carved in stone.

This site, just like the transition model, is brought to you by people who are actively engaged in transition in a community. People who are learning by doing - and learning all the time. People who understand that we can't sit back and wait for someone else to do the work. People like you, perhaps...
 

Who's looking at this site?

This clustermap is accumulating hits from July08.