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kindred – fields of experience, such as growing food, experimenting with new possibilities for relating to others (and nonhuman othernesses) in a mindful and attentive way, using a currency and starting an enterprise. It is on this insight that I then build on in Part II. Where I go deeper into an exploration of the dynamic process through which Transition unfolds as a form of life (as moving, rather than accomplished ‘movement’).
In the first chapter of Part II (ch. 7), I look at the practice of experimentation through tentative steps and projects. Experiments can become occasions where the whole of the phenomenon can be spotted in one individual part, disclosing its internal relatedness as well as its openness to further specification. In this sense, they are akin to those passages in a text that make one resonate with the style of the work as a whole, as it somehow seems to come alive in that particular paragraph. This quality, of aliveness and of enabling a glimpse into the whole, of modelling the whole through the parts, is what gives rise to what one interviewee referred to as ‘exemplars’.
In ch. 8, I then go on to focus on the dynamics whereby in-groups and out-groups sometimes emerge, when the cultural repertoire of Transition comes up against its limits in the face of unaccounted experiential encounters. The detail of how these divides – which typically come up as challenges – are processed in the moving of Transition is very interesting and it illustrates one more distinctive trait of this evolving phenomenon. Namely: the ongoing attempt to enable inclusivity, to keep the threshold low for enfolding in its moving further experiential possibilities.
In the last chapter of Part II (ch. 9), this aspect of inclusivity in the face of possible exclusions is explored further. Specifically, the last section is my most structured attempt at describing the moving of Transition as giving rise to a distinctive form of cultural politics, by allowing the unfolding of difference and the ensuing emergence of new forms of social relating, which give birth to a new landscape of moral and micro-political possibilities for personal and collective action.
My moving in Totnes
The chapters that follow are based on more than a purely textual study of Transition materials. From August to December 2013 I was, in fact, living in Totnes, which is where the first Transition initiative was ‘unleashed’. In many ways, therefore, this book is my attempt to make sense of that time, and of the unexpected realisations it has offered. Given that this particular experience marks the position from which I approached the writing of this book, it is important that I provide a few more details, so as to set any learning I will be sharing in context.
During my time in Totnes, I was based at Schumacher College, an educational establishment set on the Dartington estate. It might appear unusual that I ought to set the base for my explorations in the life of Transition in Totnes from an institution that is based several miles out of Totnes itself. There is, however, a special connection between Schumacher and Transition.
Schumacher College is part of a wider estate, Dartington, which was purchased in the early twentieth century by Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst. A wealthy couple, they subsequently went on to establish a number of institutions that were to have a significant impact on the cultural life of Totnes. One of these was the – now defunct – Dartington School of Arts. As it came up in several of the interviews I undertook, the presence of a school of arts has caused a slow but constant settlement of ‘cultural creatives’ since the early twentieth century,13 which – according to some – has played a crucial role in facilitating the development of Transition, by creating a background of activities, ranging from arts and crafts to bodywork to progressive spiritualities, that put Totnes on the map for individuals looking to live in greater alignment with ‘green’ values.14
In 1991, the Dartington Hall Trust that manages the estate went on to create an educational establishment under the name of Schumacher College. This came out of a suggestion advanced by prominent local environmentalist Satish Kumar,15 to create an experimental centre where a holistic approach to education could be adopted. This meant establishing a residential community, so that intellectual exchange could be balanced by practical activities: a model reminiscent of the Indian ashram tradition.16 The college, named after E.F. Schumacher – the author of Small is Beautiful17 – was meant to be a hub for the exploration of ‘new paradigm’ thinking.
This is shorthand for approaches that share a holistic, ecological and participatory outlook to the understanding and appreciation of life, typically in contrast to other ways of knowing that are characterised by oppositional categories, such as the Cartesian mind/body divide, and similar divisions between humanity and ‘nature’, between individual and society or between analysis and synthesis. The thinking that Schumacher College aimed to promote, and still promotes to this day, tries to address this rift. Of course, what ‘new paradigm’ thinking amounts to is an evolving notion, and any annotations have to be taken with a hint of caution. In my experience of it at the College, however, there seem to be a few pillars. These are the ecological ethics advocated by Arne Naess, which rely on the possibility of ‘deep experience’ as a source for the commitment to honour living ecosystems (thereby collapsing the descriptive/normative division in ethics).18 Deep Ecology also dovetails with ecopsychology, a form of inquiry that aims to broaden the concept of psyche to recognise its dwelling in the body, as well as in all the ecological systems through which the body is supported.19 There is also a philosophical prong centred on Goethean science, an approach to the observation of organic life that engages the world outside of an analytical mindset, in order to appreciate how life holds together in dynamic wholes, so that everything exists the way it is by a necessity stemming from the achievement of fittingness and harmony in the bodying forth of a whole.20 Other important contributions are complexity thinking, with its origins in the quantum physics revolution of the late twentieth century, and popularised through the writings of Fritjof Capra.21 Last, but not least, are ideas about human-scale economics. These are most clearly articulated in the work of E.F. Schumacher himself, and have been further developed in the life of the College through the writings (and the teaching) of Manfred Max-Neef22 and Vandana Shiva.23
Against this background, Schumacher College started offering a postgraduate course, known as the MSc in Holistic Science, in 1991, alongside other short courses on topics that fall broadly within the College’s purview.24 More recently, with the taking off of the Transition concept, the College has started offering an additional postgraduate degree, the MA in Economics for Transition. This is also the course I audited for a period of four months, during my stay there.
From previous contacts with the College I was aware that this course had been developed in co-operation with the Transition Network (the ‘outreach’ arm of the formal organisation of Transition). What this meant was that it would afford me the opportunity to get to know a number of individuals involved in various capacities with Transition, as well as to gain an overview of the main projects happening in Totnes through field visits.
Beyond the ‘formal’ connections between Schumacher and Transition, I was also able to take advantage of a number of informal channels. It is, for instance, not infrequent that alumni of the College remain in Totnes after their degree, and were able to direct me to contacts working on a number of Transition projects. Lecturers at the College also often doubled up as speaker invitees for a series of talks – with the name ‘Adventures in New Economics’ – that was organised by the REconomy Project, one of the projects initiated by the Transition Town Totnes. Last, but not least, Transition activists would cross paths at the College, either in the capacity of course participants or as occasional volunteers.
Therefore, Schumacher College does have a connection to Transition that allowed me to approach it from a position closer to that of an ‘insider’, making it easier for me to navigate. More generally, it has been brought up in interviews that Schumacher College and Transition are different expressions of a similar movement of ‘consciousness’, that is they articulate a common sentiment with slightly different bents: Schumacher being a centre of intellectual reflection, and Transition a site of solution-focused practical action, stemming from a common impulse to facilitate the development of a more holistic, embodied and sustainable mode of dwelling.
In my time at Schumacher College, I was what is often called a ‘participant observer’: a scholar in the position of taking part in activities, which are simultaneously being observed