From food distribution to energy systems, Transition Network is developing projects that will help people thrive in times of crisis.
T
he idea of “resiliency” has been one of the core tenets of the U.K.-based nonprofit Transition Network since its inception in 2006. “The way we use resilience is
as a term to describe the ability of a system — which could be an economic system, or a human entity, or a society — to withstand shocks from outside and maintain a healthy level of equilibrium,” said Ben Brangwyn, Transition Network’s co- founder and one of the main organizers of its UK Conference. While that might sound like a group of people preparing
for doomsday, members of Transition Network are really concerned with making sure that people have the ability and the resources to withstand crises created by the interruption of cheap and abundant energy sources such as oil. Brangwyn cites an example of a non-resilient food system — the U.K.’s supermarket system, which functions very much like that in the United States. When U.K. truck drivers, protesting a proposed tax increase on diesel fuel, blockaded oil refineries throughout the country in April 2012, supermarkets were found to have only four-and-a-half days’ worth of food in stock throughout the entire system, and only swift action by the government to withdraw the proposed tax increase pre- vented an imminent food crisis. How can people be resilient to these types of crises?
How will they fare if (or when) there are major events that threaten economic or food systems? Transition Network, made up of movements all over the globe, seeks to help people develop strategies to become more resilient — and to reduce their CO2 emissions in the process. Transition events and projects range from a group in Hainaut, Belgium, teach- ing people how to heat their homes in the case that the era of cheap oil ends, to a community wellness project in California that, according to Transition Network’s website, combines “outreach/networking to local sustainable health-care prac- titioners with a forum to provide sustainable health practices to the local community.” And while there are hundreds of meetings and events involving Transition Network–affiliated groups throughout
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the year, Transition headquarters also puts on an annual con- ference in the U.K. Last year’s theme, “Building Resilience in Extraordinary Times,” stemmed from the movement’s belief that there are “potential opportunities that large discontinui- ties in things like economics and politics can afford us, if we move quickly and adventurously enough together,” Brang- wyn said. Held on Sept. 14–16 at the Battersea Arts Center (BAC) in London, the 2012 conference drew approximately 350 attendees, including a large international presence. In fact, 40 to 45 percent of attendees were from outside the U.K., which Brangwyn said was “way more than double” the break- down in previous years. The BAC, which typically is used for performance art
and theater, offers four rooms for meetings and events — although much of the Transition Network UK Conference took place in the Grand Hall, an approximately 1,600-square- foot space with high arched ceilings, a large stage, and a glass- domed marble foyer. The conference was divided into five distinct events that could be attended either individually or as a series over the course of the weekend. Main conference workshops included presentations on topics such as “How to Make Happy Healthy Human Culture, and Why We Some- times Don’t” and “Good Lives Don’t Have to Cost the Earth.”