Building our Civic Imagination with the ‘Town Anywhere’ process
By Philipp Grunewald 13th September 2023
As community activists we know how hard it can be to envision a better future. We may have some good ideas that we are able to share but sharing those and bringing them into a coherent and shared vision for our community is a challenge. Yet, we also know that it is a critical practice if we want to build a more equitable world that functions within planetary boundaries.
Luckily, we can draw on experiences and processes from the Transition Movement. One such gem of the Transition Movement is the ‘Town Anywhere’ process. ‘Town Anywhere’ invites us to imagine and design a better future for all of us to thrive in. We (Philipp on behalf of Transition Network) have spoken to Ruth Ben-Tovim and Tim Taylor.
Ruth is one of the members of the artist team that created the Town Anywhere process about 10 years ago – Ruth specialises in designing and delivering tailor made participatory arts projects and processes in community, environmental, education and regeneration contexts. Tim Taylor from Korimako leads the Thriving Communities initiative, which is helping communities to create radical enough change to thrive in the 21st century, especially in SE Europe currently.
Tim and Ruth are working together to bring Town Anywhere to central Europe this September, with a session leading into Placemaking Week Europe.
What is “Town Anywhere”?
Ruth: Town Anywhere is a hands-on creative visioning process that brings potential community futures to life.
Using immersive future scenarios, large scale model-making and timed challenges the Town Anywhere process helps participants to play and practice community visioning, ideation and storytelling in a virtual, but tangible, environment.
Town anywhere is designed to help us to rebuild our civic imagination capacities, which we need for better shaping the thriving futures we are striving for.
How did “Town Anywhere” come about?
Ruth: The First Town anywhere took place at the annual International Transition Network conference in London at Battersea Arts Centre ten years ago with over 300 people from all over the world taking part. Transition Network commissioned me to work with a small art, design and facilitation team including Sophy Banks, Chrissy Godfrey, Jo Hardy, Rob Hopkins, Shane Hughes and Lucy Neal to dream up a large-scale visioning process for the heart of the conference.
Town Anywhere is an extraordinary exercise. It invites us to step into the future, to reimagine and rebuild the world, and to then inhabit it. One of the most magical things I’ve ever been part of.
Rob Hopkins, Transition Network
Who is involved/leading this work and why are they passionate about it?
Tim: A civic imagination crisis is blocking many of us from envisioning the future we want to strive for. At a community level we need to rebuild our collective imagination capacity, so that we can imagine a better future and design for it together. We were inspired by Rob Hopkins and Transition Network to try Town Anywhere as a process to help with this much-needed Civic Imagination Regeneration. Ruth is passionate about the power of collective and embodied creative participation to catalyse new ways of being and doing.
Why is Town Anywhere helpful in a transition context?
Tim: If we can’t imagine the future we want, then we can’t set a course to achieve it. Without a vision the tools we can bring to bear on helping radical change processes are useless – if there is no collective story or picture of what we are striving towards we will never get there.
Ruth:Town Anywhere brings people together to imagine, build and then inhabit a positive vision of how thriving communities could be in 2030 – places where all beings can genuinely live and thrive within planetary boundaries.
By the end of the workshop, the new residents of Town Anywhere 2030s have created a physical representation of the sort of thriving town that they long to live in. Collectively shaping and inhabiting this potential future strengthens our enthusiasm and resolve to go on and make it real.
Where do you want to take this work in future and how can people get in touch with you?
Ruth: I am keen to see a lot more communities using this process. I think people need to experience it first. Tim and I have talked about a training programme to help more people to go on and use the process with their communities.
Tim: I’d love to see a lot of communities using this process to help them get better at shaping those futures stories. I would really like to try a blending of a citizens assembly approach to ensure equitable participation/representation from a community, and a Town Anywhere process to help that group shape future stories for their community that then become a key part of the community’s development strategies.
Thank you Ruth and Tim for sharing with us about the Town Anywhere process and Thriving Communities.
If you like to find out more about Town Anywhere please follow the links above.
Right now there is a chance to experience the process as part of the Placemaking Week Europe 2023! The event will take place in Strasbourg on the 26th of September 2023.