A Lexicon of Transition Terms
The Great Unleashing: Engage in Optimism, by Judith Schwartz, Cascadia Weekly (page 8 of large pdf file)
...What follows is a lexicon of Transition terms, which will help explain the movement and where these ideas come from.
Transition: In Hopkins’ words, “Transition” represents “the process of moving from
a state of high fossil-fuel dependency and high vulnerability to a
state of low fossil-fuel dependency and resilience.” Transition “is not
the goal itself — it’s the journey,” he says. Specifically, it’s
seeing this journey as an opportunity to embrace rather than a calamity
to approach with dread.
“Transition” is predicated on the assumption that society cannot keep consuming energy and other
resources at our current pace and that we’re better off accepting this
reality and choosing how to adapt rather than letting ourselves get
backed into a crisis. The idea is that the adaptation process can
harness creative and even joyful possibilities that until now have laid
dormant in our towns and cities. As Hopkins has been known to say,
“It’s more like a party than a protest march.”
Resilience: A community’s ability to adapt and respond to changes, as well as to
withstand shocks to the system, such as disruptions in food or energy
supply chains. Resilience differs from “sustainability” in that the
emphasis is on community survival as opposed to maintaining the
structures and behavioral patterns that currently exist.
“Resilience is the new sustainability,” says Michael Brownlee, a member of the
Transition U.S. board and co-founder of Transition
Boulder County, the first Transition Initiative in North America.
“It’s been co-opted by almost everybody. Everybody is sustainable these
days.”
Marketing aside, Hopkins says the two are intertwined: “Sustainability only works if it has resilience embedded in it.”
Energy Descent: The directional change from being on the energy
upslope — designing our lives according to the wide availability of
cheap energy — to making the most with less. When an individual shifts
to lower energy use, this is known as “powering down.” Central to
Transition is uniting a community around developing and implementing an
“energy descent action plan,” or EDAP, sometimes
described as a 20-year “Plan
B” for keeping a place functioning and even thriving on a low-fuel
diet.
As with all Transition efforts, each EDAP — to date only been a few have been fully developed — reflects the circumstances and
flavor of the community it is to serve. Hopkins notes that Transition
Town Totnes, the South Devon market town where he lives, will
shortly be publishing its EDAP, which he hopes will serve as a template
for others.
Unleashing: A community breaking free from its dependence on fossil fuels. A “Great Unleashing,” which
takes place when an initiative has the momentum and organization to
implement the EDAP, is a big “coming out” party that announces the
group’s strategy, commitment and enthusiasm to the broader world.
The Great Unleashing for Idaho’s Transition
Sandpoint Initiative in November 2008 drew more than 500 people to
the Panida Theater for talks — including one by Mayor Gretchen Heller —
music and dance. “The event is designed to be seen historically as the
point at which the process began,” says Hopkins. “It’s a celebration
of local culture. It’s an event that the next generation will
commemorate by putting up a plaque.”
Reskilling: Reclaiming skills that previous generations took for granted but most
of us have let fall by the wayside. “The Great Reskilling” refers to
the community-wide mastering of skills that will facilitate the process
of “powering down.”
United Kingdom) or mushroom identification, and begin to question
aspects of a throwaway, shrink-wrapped culture.
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