Ministry of Imagination Manifesto released as the world goes to the polls.
Ministry of Imagination Manifesto released as the world goes to the polls.
Author Archives: Rob Hopkins
Community resilience from the future
During my talks, I often invite people to time travel in their imagination to a 2030 that’s not utopia, or dystopia, but rather is the result of our having done everything we could possibly have done in those intervening years. We do it because, as Walidah Imarisha puts it, “we can’t build what we can’t […]
Stories from the movement: Transition Toronto
Food Up Front, TreeMobile and more.
Talking Radical Imagination with Max Haiven
“Radical imagination isn’t something that individuals have, but something that people do together.”
What if young people reimagined the education system?
Rob Hopkins was joined by Yumna Hussen and Lottie Cooke to discuss what a reimagined education system could be like.
How the ‘From What If to What Next’ podcast came to be.
Rob Hopkins shares the story of how his podcast series was born, and shares some of his highlights from the journey so far… It all started with the first lockdown. All of a sudden, weeks of work that lay ahead of me, travelling here and there to give workshops and talks, evaporated. I needed to […]
Hide Enomoto on his new book about the story of Transition in Japan.
“If we change, the community changes. If the community changes, the world changes.”
What Happened at the What Next Summit?
Rob Hopkins tells the story of how it unfolded, with videos of the sessions and some reflections. Between March 3rd and 20th 2021, the Transition: Bounce Forward team hosted the ‘What Next Summit’, billed as “building community power through imagination and action”. While its focus was on Britain (due to the funding that enabled it) […]
Drucilla Cornell on the Power of the Public Imagination
Rob Hopkins interviews Drucilla Cornell – professor of law, women’s studies and political science at Rutgers University
The Tale of the Camden Future Journal
How a community co-created a vision of 2030 on the front page of their local newspaper.
Reflections on my French Digital Transition Tour
“…a deep commitment to meaningful and ambitious transition is growing across France”
This Good Earth – film review
Launching today, for online streaming, Rob Hopkins offers a review of This Good Earth.
Some reflections on the difference between ‘Yes, but’ and ‘Yes, and’
I allowed myself to imagine how our political debates might look if they had ‘Yes, and’ at their heart.
Transition: Bounce Forward – ‘What Is’ webinars
Last month Transition Network took a dive into ‘What Is’, an inspiring, fascinating, and at times challenging immersion in the Transition movement and the challenges that lie ahead for us.
Transition Days and Nights in Luxembourg and France
News, articles, interviews and stories from Rob Hopkins’ recent tour.
The Imagination Sundial
The Imagination Sundial could be used effectively over a range of scales, from small community groups to organisations, to movements to institutions, to the basis of a national imagination act.
Rob Hopkins reviews ‘Human Kind: A Hopeful History’ by Rutger Bregman
So many times, in conversations with friends reflecting on things we see happening in the world, someone will say “well, basically we’re all shit aren’t we?” Or “human beings are basically vile aren’t they?” Or words to that effect. This belief in a selfish, destructive, greedy, violent core to our being is deeply pervasive and […]
The Secret of Change – review
In 2015, Zoe Moyden and Chris Bettles set off on a journey to visit Transition groups in the UK, Canada and the US to document them for a film. They were welcomed by Transition groups in towns, cities, villages and deserts, who hosted them, shared their stories, their projects, their hopes and fears, their learnings. […]
My Pandemic Experience
US Transitioner Beth Lively shares her reflections on what lockdown looks like for her. I’ve had a lot of uncertainty in my life over the last six years. Now everyone on the planet is feeling it too and, despite the public health and financial hardships we’re all facing, it’s comforting to have the company. I […]
For without creativity, what is our existence?
Inspired by our recent post by Rob Hopkins, Sebastian Gahan of Transition Town West Kirby shares some reflections on what lockdown looks like for him. “Build positively and be ready for the next challenge!” he writes. Being lucky enough to live in close proximity to natural woodlands and beaches, I was about to set off […]
“The sun will never shine as it does today” – some reflections from lockdown
These days of the coronavirus lockdown have been, to paraphrase Charles Dickens, the best of times, and the worst of times. My intention in this piece isn’t to share my thoughts on what should come next, on how society might be rebuilt following all of this. Rather I want to give you a snapshot of […]
What the Transition movement can teach us about how to ‘bounce forward’
The Tale of the Camden Think & Do
The declarations of ‘climate emergency’ by almost 70% of UK local authorities is creating intriguing opportunities for municipalities to work alongside community groups. Debbie Bourne and Farhana Yamin share the story of the Camden ‘Think and Do‘.
Returning Land Back to the Commons
Graham Truscott tells the story of how Melbourne Area Transition bought a redundant cabbage field and turned it back into biodiverse, fruitful, community-owned land.
‘Pop Up Tomorrow’ (London): voices of those who were there
Imagining future towns and communities at ‘Pop Up Tomorrow’ in London
Why I spent Christmas on the Moon
I spent most of this festive break on the Moon. I wandered amongst its vast craters, scaled its gently curving hills to get better views, sat on top of Moon boulders, left my footprints upon its fine grey dust. I sat and watched the Earth rise from behind the horizon, a green and blue marble […]
Why ‘Pop Up Tomorrow’?
Given the scale and urgency of the climate emergency, why are we are proposing an activity which supports dreaming, imagination and creativity?
Totnes Declares a Climate & Ecological Emergency – What Next? Event report.
On July 13th in Totnes, an event was held which brought together local Transition, XR and other local groups to ask how best to respond to local government ‘climate emergency’ declarations. Rob Hopkins reports on the day, on its learnings, and how you might run your own.
Bee Roadzz
Transition Marlborough wanted to help save the bees so they started joining up landscapes to connect pollinators and people.
‘So you’ve declared a Climate Emergency, now what?’ event review
A review of last week’s event in the Alumni Auditorium at the University of Exeter, hosted by the Global Systems Institute, called ‘So you’ve declared a Climate Emergency, now what?’
Why the Climate Emergency needs a National Imagination Act
‘Imagination Taking Power’: my Transition Tour de France
I’ve written this so that when my grandchildren ask me where I was when the great rebellion was sparked, when the great Transition began its inevitable momentum, I can show them this blog post capturing a remarkable week in France. I set off for France on what came to be known as the ‘Transition Tour […]
Grey Lynn 2030 new publication celebrates 10 years.
Have imagination, will travel: 2 days in Brest
Last weekend, Transition Network’s Rob Hopkins and Filipa Pimentel travelled to Brest in France to take part in an event called Village Climate Déclic (which according to Google Translate means “Climate Village Click”). It was a weekend event organised by Brest Metropole and Ener’gence (local energy and climate agency), who had created an amazing weekend celebration […]
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) take-away: Imagine. Take Action. Repeat.
Rob Hopkins looks at the impact of the most recent IPCC report through the lens of imagination. For those who care about the world and the people and creatures we share it with, the last 6 weeks has offered a barrage of dire news. The new IPCC report called for “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented […]
New thesis explores early days of Transition in Kinsale
One of the questions we are often asked at Transition Network is “how did it all start?” The story of the emergence of Transition in Kinsale in Ireland has been explored in the past, for example in ‘The Transition Handbook‘ or in blogs, but never in great depth. It is a delight therefore to be […]
New thesis explores the Transition experiment in Ungersheim
A fascinating new piece of research on Transition has just been published, entitled Transitioning towards Sustainability: What are we waiting for?. It is the work of Keigo Arai, Kristopher Le Ray Armstrong and Fernanda Pia of the Blekinge Institute of Technology, Karlskrona in Sweden. The Masters thesis explores Transition in Ungersheim, a fascinating village in the Alsace in France which is […]
Drew Dellinger: “If we had more imagination, we could have less capitalism”
This is one in a series of blogs exploring imagination that you will find at Rob Hopkins’ website. Listening to Drew Dellinger‘s poetry regularly gives me goosebumps. Very shortly it will give you goosebumps too. He is a US-based writer, poet, speaker and teacher whose passions revolve around ecology, social justice, cosmology, social change and transformation. He […]
“Always the same, always different”: a response to Ted Trainer
The late John Peel once said of The Fall that they were “always the same, always different”. The same could be said of Ted Trainer’s critiques of Transition. He just published another one, many of the points in which he has made before, and I have already responded to here and here. But there are […]
A visit to Urinetown (no, really)
Finding creative, playful ways to get people thinking about ecological issues is one of the things that always fires my curiosity. So, when I was in Brussels recently, I was intrigued to be invited to attend the final dress rehearsal of a musical called ‘Urinetown’ put on by Brussels Light Opera Company (BLOC). Yes, odd […]
’21 Stories of Transition’ now available to download, in English and French.
‘21 Stories of Transition‘, the book we published for COP 21 in Paris in December 2015, is now available here as a free download, both in English and in French. The book, comprising stories harvested by Rob Hopkins from many Transition groups around the world, and designed by Jane Brady, has been out of print […]
Hilary Powell and Dan Edelstyn on ‘The Bank Job’
When I was recently at the #CTRLshift conference in Wigan, one project that many people were talking about was Hilary Powell and Dan Edelstyn’s ‘The Bank Job’, currently underway in a former bank in Walthamstow. It had just been featured in The Guardian under the headline ‘The rebel bank, printing its own notes and buying back […]
A report from #CTRLshift2018
This beer kills pipelines
The Transition Hubsters gather in Santorso, Italy.
Podcast: “I’m welling up just talking about it”: the marvel of Totnes LEF6
“You only get so many Mays in your life”: why our imagination needs the dawn chorus.
Rob Hopkins gets up at the crack of dawn to hear the dawn chorus, and reflects here on why it matters for our imagination, our curiosity, our empathy. [Originally published at robhopkins.net].
Resilience, Community Action and Societal Transformation: Christopher Lyon
Resilience, Community Action and Societal Transformation: Juan del Río
Podcast: How ‘Grown in Totnes’ are reimagining the local food economy
Rob Hopkins reflects on what it looks like when the economy begins to turn in favour of the local. [Originally posted at RobHopkins.net].
Resilience, Community Action and Societal Transformation: in Portobello – Justin Kenrick
Meet the Transition Pinball Wizards!
‘Tomorrow’ reaches the US!
Essential Guide to Doing Transition now published in Russian
Resilience, Community Action and Societal Transformation: in Peterborough
To mark the release of ‘Resilience, Community Action and Societal Transformation’, the new book edited by Thomas Henfrey and Gil Penha-Lopes, we hear from some of the book’s contributors. For the first one, Andrea Connell, Cheryl Lyon and Dave Sumner of Transition Town Peterborough in Canada discuss their chapter. This interview is published with thanks to Gesa Maschkowski, […]
Book Review: ‘Reclaiming Conversation: the power of talk in a digital age’ by Sherry Turkle.
Lush Spring Prize showcases great regeneration projects
Rob en France: 6 jours de rencontres fascinantes (6 days of fascinating encounters)
Why we need The Yellow House more than ever
[Originally posted at robhopkins.net] Rob Hopkins visits Arles, and reflects on what Van Gogh’s painting ‘The Yellow House’ can teach us about Transition.