What is Transition?

The term 'transition' has been chosen to describe the journey from today’s highly dependent carbon fuelled consumerist driven lifestyle to a simpler more rewarding low-carbon or carbon neutral future where great community and wellbeing are our desired objectives. That journey will take many shapes and forms and will be similar yet unique to each area we live in. Solutions and opportunities will be different from urban to rural and everything in-between.

Transition is an international social experiment. Based on the ethics of Permaculture; Earth Care, People Care and Fair Shares, it is an open toolkit of resources which communities can use for free. Transition doesn't prescribe what your community will do or look like, but instead it invites you to work with people in your area and to find a solution which is practical to your neighbourhood. Transition provides resources to help us take action and to structure how we engage with our communities, plan, deliver and connect with others.

There are already thousands of people in Scotland who are part of this network, and it’s growing all the time.

There’s a lot of information about Transition on the internet, in books, videos and elsewhere.
Rob Hopkins, co-founder of the Transition movement says: ‘What is Transition? It is merely a pulse, a suggestion, a catalyst, an invitation’  Recently he began a list of the qualities of Transition:
  • Viral: It spreads rapidly and pops up in the most unexpected places
  • Open Source: It is a model that people shape and take ownership of and is made available freely
  • Self organising: it is not centrally controlled, rather it is something people take ownership of and make their own
  • Solutions focused: it is inherently positive, not campaigning against things, rather setting out a positive vision of a world that has embraced its limitations
  • Iterative: it is continually learning from its successes and its failures and redefining itself, trying to research what is working and what isn’t
  • Clarifying: it offers a clear explanation of where humanity finds itself based on the best science available
  • Sensitive to place and scale: Transition looks different wherever it goes
  • Historic: it tries to create a sense of this being an historic opportunity to do something extraordinary – and perhaps most importantly of all
  • Joyful: if its not fun, you’re not doing it right
Picture
Transition Scotland gathering in St. Andrews

Our TS Bees!

By way of introduction to who we are, here's a list of some of the folks involved:
Eva Schonveld – PEDAL - Transition Portobello
Phil Revell – Sustaining Dunbar
Alan Brown – Transition Linlithgow
David Somervell – Transition Edinburgh
Luci - Towards Transition Glasgow
Ali Macleod – Transition University of St. Andrews
Martin Sherring – Transition Black Isle
Pat Abel – Transition Edinburgh South
Johanna Carrie – Transition Pentlands
Pamela Candea – Transition Stirling
xx - Musselburgh Transition Toun
xx - Transition Shetland
xx – Transition Kintyre
xx – Transition Forres
xx - Falkland and the Lomonds Transition Community

The journey so far...

In 2010? Scotland an organisation called Transition Scotland Support was formed with Scottish Government's Climate Challenge Fund and the staff helped to drive the transition community forward and produced a lot of the Resource content which is listed on this site along with videos and events. TSS closed as legal entity in 2013/14 and the remaining funds were used to maintain a web presence for Transition Scotland, supporting annual gatherings and un-conferences, bursaries and to explore links with the SCCAN, Permaculture Scotland, Nourish Scotland, Scottish Communities Alliance and other like minded groups in Scotland.

Right now, we are working through the process to become one of the official international transition HUBs. We aim to source some funding and provide local support for existing and new groups and encouraging inter-group connections to develop.