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The Power of Just Doing Stuff – How Local Action Can Change the World

HJ Fantaskis | 18.06.13

A worldwide network of communities is pioneering a new economy in response to austerity, climate change and the energy crisis, says Rob Hopkins, co-founder of the Transition movement, in a new book launched today in Crystal Palace, London.

What can the work of the Transition movement, with more than 1200 initiatives now popping up in 40 countries, contribute to our thinking about how we create a sustainable, and more resilient future?

Rob recounts inspiring tales from across the Transition Network and the many great examples of tangible projects - the Totnes economic blueprint, the Brixton and Bristol local currencies, major community energy projects (e.g. Brixton and Bath) and rural projects like community grocers/bakeries, food growing initiatives, and collaborations with farmers to produce local food.

In the UK 390 Transition communities are pioneering new initiatives aimed at building resilient local economies, vibrant communities and creating wellbeing.

It is no surprise that Rob Hopkins, the founder of the Transition Town network has chosen Crystal Palace for the UK launch of his new book, appropriately called “The Power of Just Doing Stuff”.

Locally grown food might be something that rural communities are used to, but not exactly what you would expect to hear about in urban environments. A Patchwork Farm is taking off in Crystal Palace, where a network of community and private gardens are coming together to provide very local food for the new food market.

The Patchwork Farm stall at Crystal Palace’s new food market is only three weeks old and already has sold strawberry plants grown from a school garden, surplus seedlings from a local allotment, produce from local back gardens, foraged edibles from the surrounding area, and mixed salads and herbs from the community garden 200 metres away. Locals have started to turn up at the stall bearing plants from their own gardens. Money raised is either given back to the growers or used to fund more local growing projects.

In the Power of Just Doing Stuff, Rob argues that what we now expect from the future is very different from a few years ago. “The world is changing very fast, and the signs are all around. It’s in the rising cost of your weekly shopping, the fuel for your car or your energy bills,” he says.

“Transition proactively sets about creating a post-growth economy from the bottom up. It doesn’t just accept that we have to grit our teeth for five more years of ever-more-soul-crushing austerity before, magically, we return to growth,” he says.

“Who might be riding to the rescue of the economy in the place where you live? The stories I want to tell in this book are about what happens when ordinary people decide that they are the cavalry. They don’t wait for anyone’s permission. They just do stuff. Imaginative, playful, serious and world-changing stuff.”

“The Power of Just Doing Stuff - How Local Action Can Change the World”, explains the philosophy which has inspired thousands of people to take responsibility for the well-being of their community. It tells stories of food hubs, energy schemes and community enterprises which are transforming lives from Brixton to Brazil, and it explains how you can do it too.

Rob Hopkins says: “Transition is a new Big Idea for our times, the idea that by taking back control over meeting our basic needs at the local level we can stimulate new enterprises – new economic activity – while also reducing our oil dependency and carbon emissions and returning power to the local level.”

Just seven years after the first Transition Town was established in Totnes, Devon, ordinary people have formed more than 1200 Transition communities in 40 countries, setting up grassroots projects to stimulate their local economy, cut carbon and reduce their energy dependence.

Greenhouse PR is delighted to be working with the Transition Network team for Rob's book launch.

We expect a lot of positive coverage to be published over the coming weeks as Rob completes his Transition Thursdays tour around the UK, and some of the early coverage highlights include:

Local, self-sufficient, optimistic: are Transition Towns the way forward? - Guardian

Communities 'lead new movement' - Press Association

Thousands turn up for Festival of Nature - Bristol Post