Have you ever thought something might not be quite right with the economy?  

That may sound like an obviously dumb thing to be asking right now, but many people were asking this question when Transition was first getting going back in the more buoyant years of 2005 and 2006.  While we felt a lot more prosperous back then, many were concerned that our economy lacked resilience.  People were saying how the economic system on which we now depend was poorly equipped to deal with shocks such as sudden rises in oil price, or energy shortages.

In fact our economic growth, as it is widely understood, is utterly linked to increase in energy use.  It always has been.

Transition challenges the idea that we need to get back to economic growth, in conventional terms.  Transition proposes new ways to regenerate the economy by making things much more local again and really cutting down on how much our businesses and services depend on fossil fuels.  This could be hugely economically advantageous to our local communities, with significant potential for more local skills and employment.  

The local food education centre at Occombe Farm is built of low impact, local materials such as straw bales, local timber and car tires.  It was built by construction students at South Devon College.

The Totnes Pound is our complementary local currency.  For every Pound that is generated in an English market town, such as Totnes, 80 pence leaves the local economy within the first next transaction. This is due to the majority of firms having greater interests outside our local economy that within it, such as national and international chains, supermarkets, banks etc.  The Totnes Pound is exploring one way we might address that.  What if all wealth generated by goods and services that are produced and delivered locally, could remain in the local economy?   This project has been replicated in other Transition Towns such as Lewes, Stroud and Brixton, London.

What is beginning to emerge from Transition activity in Totnes and District is a network of projects and community businesses that can work together to build resilience and community cohesion within the local economy. Such a resilience framework might have the capacity to positively respond to external shocks from beyond our control, such as severe oil price rises and energy shortages.  While elsewhere we may be experiencing contraction, these could grow. 

For further information: Catalyst Projects.

Want more?  What about the debt?  What about equity?   What about ecology?   Why Transition workshop

How else have we been exploring the difficult terrain of our current economic predicament?  The short film below is from our Programme of Events, Autumn 2010 season. Tim Jackson, author of Prosperity without Growth, Ed Mayo, Secretary General of Cooperatives UK, and Naresh Giangrande of Transition Town Totnes begin with a trialogue in this open meeting event, facilitated by Sophy Banks and Rosie Bell of TTT's Heart and Soul Group and run in partnership with Schumacher College. You can see other films from our events on our video library.