Where Do the Transition Environmental Movement and The Social Justice Movement Intersect?

January 28, 2015

NOTE: Images in this archived article have been removed.

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Resource depletion and climate change effects various demographic groups in vastly different ways. Recovery within historically disenfranchised communities from hurricanes and Superstorms Katrina, Irene, Lee and Sandy looked radically different than that of communities which typify the overall Transition Town demographic. Transitioners tend to be predominantly white, educated, post materialist, middleclass, small community people. 

How does that Transitioner demographic reality impact the reach and relevance of our work in the Mid-Atlantic region which incorporates one of the most highly diverse and population-dense corridors on the planet?

This question prompted Thursday’s (1/29 @7:00pmEST) eco-justice – social-justice teleseminar conversation, during which the Mid-Atlantic Transition Hub (MATH) invites guest speakers to explore:  

·         how we can skillfully work with various levels of vulnerability and competing interests within communities,

·         how we can fold local community power dynamics conditioned by ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic stratification that shape relationships into our work,

·         the intersection of the Transition environmental movement with social justice movements. 

Pamela Boyce Simms, Convener of The Mid-Atlantic Transition Hub (MATH) welcomes: Yasmin Stewart, a community activist with the Call to Action Long term Recovery Group in Superstorm Sandy-devastated Far Rockaway, NY. Yasmin bears personal witness to the pre-storm isolation and demographic stratification of Rockaway, "the forgotten New York," profound personal loss in the storm, and the life-shattering bureaucratic abuse of the Far Rockway community in its aftermath; Dr. G. Modele Clarke, a social justice advocate and senior pastor of the New Progressive Baptist Church, a hub of "End the New Jim Crow," and "Undoing Racism" social activism work in Kingston, NY; and Joanie Freeman, an initiator with Transition Charlottesville Abelmarle,  who has tried multiple approaches to bridging the racial divide prevalent in Charlottesville, fostering diversity in Transition and in the Ecovillage where Transition is headquartered in Charlottesville.

Click here to learn more and register for the MATH teleseminar on 1/29: "Diversity & Social Justice: Transition for whom and to what end, "Transitioning for All?"

Blog Post by Pamela Boyce Simms, Mid-Atlantic Transition Hub (MATH) Convener

Pamela Boyce Simms

Pamela Boyce Simms is an evolutionary culture designer who convenes the Mid-Atlantic Transition Hub (MATH), ─a six-state network of environmental activists. She is a veteran of local, regional, and national resilience-building with the Transition environmental movement, and currently works with international Quaker, Buddhist, and African Diaspora Earthcare networks. Her full bio and CV can be found here.

Tags: building community resilience, Social justice, Transition movement