About 350 people attended the conference organized by Transition Network. Unlike the urban setting of Battersea this year we were in a most relaxing rural Devon. On offer again a plethora of workshops, films, music, dance, Open Space sessions, Heart & Soul and visioning events – even the England USA football match was timetabled in.
One of the conference’s peak moments was Nicole Foss’s talk: Making Sense of the Financial Crisis in the Era of Peak Oil. (Available: http://transitionradio.posterous.com/tag/nicolefoss)
In summary Nicole explained how our energy inheritance (energy rich fossil fuels) has made it possible to create an enormous financial ‘bubble’ – in effect a huge Ponzi or Pyramid scheme – which has now imploded. Bubbles like this are nothing new but the most recent one is unprecedented due to the extreme interconnectedness and highly speculative nature of our global markets. We thus have entered a time of financial deflation, but this time also coupled with energy depletion. The latter might not manifest in the short term – however no technology on earth can make up for the condensed resource that fossil fuel is and neither is our energy infrastructure e.g. the electrical grid – capable of delivering the renewable energy to the places where it is needed. We are thus in transition from a culture fuelled by an energy inheritance, to one fueled by energy income.
Rob Hopkins and Peter Lipman commented on her talk and re-emphasise the urgency of making the Transition and the importance of community as compared to money. Have a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2lx3ZLmQj4)
It seems Transition is now taking on board not only Climate Change and Peak Oil but also the financial crisis and the development of social enterprises is seen as one of the routes forward in building future economic stability.
Rob Hopkins also introduced a new way to perceive Transition: as a Pattern Language. As Rob explained Transition is multi-layered and complex and the 12 steps or ingredients (see: http://www.transitionnetwork.org/community/support/12-ingredients) – though a very useful blueprint – do not capture the complexity of what is going in the initiatives. The basic idea of using pattern language – as I understand it – is to map more of this complexity and to reevaluate and apply some of the tried-and-tested solutions to human problems which display a certain universality – in other words: there is no need to reinvent the wheel – yet also we to develop new solutions to deal with our contemporary issues. Rob is keen for people to contribute to the next Transition Handbook which will involve the application of pattern language. (See: http://transitionculture.org/2010/06/04/rethinking-transition-as-a-pattern-language-an-introduction/)
A short film on the T – conference is YouTubed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-Gmh2cePNk
(Spot the guy with the NHTT T-shirt.)
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY:
Scottish National Gathering
Friday the 19th November ?South Hall, Pollock Halls, Edinburgh
Transitions: diverse routes to belonging November 20th and 21st 2010?John McIntyre Conference Centre, Edinburgh.
