Building Community

Transition Dogville

by

In Lars von Trier’s 2003 film Dogville there is almost no set. Buildings in the town are represented by a series of white outlines on the floor. Dogville was a to-the-limit exercise in what von Trier calls “pure cinema” a commitment to use only real locations, and no special effects or background music, when making a film. I was reminded of Dogville during a this year’s Transition Conference in London. There were talks and workshops, of course, but our main task was to create the working physical model of a town centre, a few years ahead, in which the services needed for a resilient community would be in place — and open for business. We had four hours to do it.

Heroic Endeavor: NRDC Community Fracking Defense Project

by

Abandoned by the state of Pennsylvania and drilling company Rex Energy after the state’s testing found no evidence of groundwater contamination, distressed residents (whose well water is discolored and reeks, and whose families have suffered rashes and other ailments) had nowhere else to turn for clean water but their community. That’s when a group of area churches, including the Presbyterian church where my dad is a pastor, joined together to supply jugs and bottles of clean drinking water to affected families.

A healthy (and profitable) oasis in Philly’s food deserts

by

Want proof that the goals of business and the needs of the most vulnerable can align? Meet Jeff Brown, fourth-generation grocer and owner of the 10-store ShopRite regional chain based in Philadelphia. By mixing old-fashioned customer service with innovative new approaches, Brown is chipping away at the nation’s jobs challenge, starting in the communities hardest-hit by the financial crisis.

For real change, conversations not debates

by

People around the country have been forming small groups like Resilience Circles and social action affinity groups. These groups are a way to relearn skills of mutuality, consensus-building, story-sharing, and real listening. They form an essential piece of the architecture of social movements built on solidarity and relatedness.

But pulling together a small group can be a real challenge.

A tale of two sustainabilities: Comparing sustainability in the global north and south

by

The definition of sustainability, like many definitions, depends upon one’s viewpoint. One’s experience and geographic setting heavily influence the way one sees the world. In this paper, we examine sustainability from two distinct locations, a highly urbanized and suburbanized island setting in the global north, and a remote island archipelago in the global south. Both locations have distinct cultural and geographic heritages. Each provides an interesting way to explore the meaning of sustainability within our current era.

HOMEGROWN Life: A Word on Efficiency (and Productivity and Sustainability)

by

Here’s the rub…Is it really more efficient for me to shovel goat manure, let it age, plant some lettuce in it, and truck it to local consumers? Or is it more efficient for Missourians to keep buying lettuce from California that was picked by migrant workers in unsafe conditions who were likely paid poorly, and with said lettuce robbing the withering Colorado River of its flow? There are people who try to figure these things out, but a lot of it centers on the pivot of what one means by efficiency and productivity and measurement.

Reflections on Co-Cycle, Worker Co-ops, and Hope

by

A curious shift occurred as Co-Cycle made its way through the Midwest. We have begun to articulate what exactly it is we’re learning–we’re asking more in-depth questions as we meet more co-ops; we are beginning to make connections between different models, whether consumer or worker owned; and, on the flip side, more people are asking us in-depth questions about our model, process, and how we began and what we’ve learned. Our identity is still forming, but, as compared to the first half of the tour, Co-Cycle is beginning to grasp the impact and importance of its own mission.

In praise of anarchy, Part I

by

Peter Alexeyevich Kropotkin is our prince’s name, and he eventually became a renowned scientist who advanced the understanding of the history of glaciers, an historian of revolutionary movements, foremost theoretician of anarchism, and, because of his lifelong burning desire to do something to help the plight of the common man, something of a revolutionary himself.

Scarcity, shame and flapping arms in Athens

by

Since February 2010, the crisis in Greece is being addressed with austerity measures as prescribed by the troika of EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. At present, the government is negotiating yet more austerity, even if past measures failed to produce the desired results. On the contrary: their consequences are already devastating.

Why the language of the commons matters

by

As the corruption of the market/state duopoly has deepened, our very language for identifying problems and imagining solutions has been compromised. The snares and deceptions embedded in our prevailing political language go very deep. Such dualisms as “public” and “private,” and “state” and “market,” and “nature and culture,” for example, are taken as self-evident.