Transition Towns: An Intervention Method for Encouraging Pro-Environmental Behaviour Change

<p>Transition initiatives offer support for responding to potential environmental inconveniences, such as peak oil and climate change. As an alternative to the dominant approach of shocking people into helplessness and denial, transition towns seek to inform people of the issues and discover appropriate responses. To verify whether transition towns as a movement encourage pro-environmental behaviour change, three case studies (Aro Valley, Lower Hutt, and Nelson) were considered to determine motivations, barriers, and actions in transition town members. Nine face-to-face informal interviews as well as two focus groups were conducted to appreciate participant experiences. A thematic analysis of these case studies was conducted to determine the extent pro-environmental behaviour and encouragement from transition towns was having an effect. The aforementioned objectives were discussed against pertinent literature to determine whether transition towns empowered participants to change to pro-environmental behaviour. Transition towns offer practical behaviour change steps and a supportive social environment which empowers pro-environmental behaviour change and increases individual and community resilience for an uncertain future.</p>

Transition Towns: An Intervention Method for Encouraging Pro-Environmental Behaviour Change

<p>Transition initiatives offer support for responding to potential environmental inconveniences, such as peak oil and climate change. As an alternative to the dominant approach of shocking people into helplessness and denial, transition towns seek to inform people of the issues and discover appropriate responses. To verify whether transition towns as a movement encourage pro-environmental behaviour change, three case studies (Aro Valley, Lower Hutt, and Nelson) were considered to determine motivations, barriers, and actions in transition town members. Nine face-to-face informal interviews as well as two focus groups were conducted to appreciate participant experiences. A thematic analysis of these case studies was conducted to determine the extent pro-environmental behaviour and encouragement from transition towns was having an effect. The aforementioned objectives were discussed against pertinent literature to determine whether transition towns empowered participants to change to pro-environmental behaviour. Transition towns offer practical behaviour change steps and a supportive social environment which empowers pro-environmental behaviour change and increases individual and community resilience for an uncertain future.</p>

Degrowing circular cities: emerging socio-technical experiments for Transition

The circular economy applied to the urban context is linked to sustainability objectives focused on environmental performances overlooking socio-political implications, in order to achieve a circular balance within the neoliberal paradigm of business-nature-society in a continuous growth scenario. This paper discusses this criticality, articulating a counter perspective based on the debate of degrowth, circularity and technology through the analysis of three cases of socio-technical assemblages: Transition Towns; Repair Cafes; Community Gardens. The research individuates the effectiveness of urban practices in which the circularity is implemented beyond purely economic interactions or eco-efficiency parameters, defining the potentialities of a degrowing circular city based on inclusiveness, social justice and reciprocity.

Theme cities for health: are they the superior Healthy Cities?

Since the early 1980s we have witnessed a proliferation of 'Theme Cities' with the WHO 'Healthy Cities' networks a very early adopter, together with local government initiatives that focused on environmental health and sustainability. These days such networks range very broadly, from Citta Slow and Child-Friendly Cities to sustainable, resilient, festival, happy, garden, winter, safe, inclusive and many more theme-centered international networks of local governments and communities. We undertook a political analysis of the extent to which these networks formally recognise and address the drivers of inequity in societies around the world, and to which extent they are ready to act truly glocally. We found that 'Sustainable Cities' rank highly, with WHO/EURO and PAHO style 'Healthy Cities' a close second. 'Transition Towns and Communities' are in a category of their own and can be considered a potentially important political voice for glocal health equity. Key messages Healthy Cities are Theme Cities - but not all do well to promote health equity. Sustainability and health (as per the SDGs) have enormous glocal health potential.

Community Empowerment Through Grassroots Action: A Story of Building Personal and Local Resilience with the Transition Towns Model

Nils Palsson and Virajita Singh have partnered in telling Nils’ story of his personal and professional journey with the Transition Town movement – its thought leaders, philosophy, practices, and relationship to the partnership/domination paradigm shift. Through his participation in the grassroots Transition Town movement, Nils found, cultivated, and ultimately shared with others a sense of local empowerment. In his rural home in California’s Lake County, Nils found community, following great personal transformation in his life with the passing of his father. He learned about Transition Towns, permaculture, and other concepts dealing with local resilience, grassroots empowerment, and regenerative and holistic systems and lifestyles. He and others employed the Transition model, as described in Rob Hopkins’ Transition Handbook in transitioning Lake County. In 2015 he became Communications Director of Transition US. In this position, Nils has come to see that the world of Transition is much larger than he had imagined, with citizen-leaders and change agents in Transition Towns working toward environmental justice for all.