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A Force in the Great Turning?

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A Force in the Great Turning? Transition: a force in the Great Turning? Clare Power Doctor of Philosophy University of Western Sydney 2015 Dedications To Mum, for your boundless love and support. To Dad, for your inspiration and your love. I miss you. To my beloved children, Zeb, Kyan and Naomi. To future generations, human and more-than-human. Acknowledgements I acknowledge and pay respect to the traditional Custodians of the land on which I wrote this thesis, the Darug and Gundungurra People and to all traditional Custodians across this continent. I also acknowledge the strength and inspiration I have drawn from the Blue Mountains – the trees, rocks, creatures, plants and flowers, creeks and waterfalls, awe-inspiring views, sunrises and sunsets, the seasons and the wonderful community. Thank you to my stellar supervisors, Debbie Horsfall and Rosemary Leonard for your generosity of spirit, your encouragement, your many insights and shared wisdom, your invigorating discussion, your time, and your forbearance. I have learnt so much from our journey together, and I am deeply grateful that you accompanied me the whole way. Thank you to my family, friends and colleagues who have believed in me and encouraged me in this rather lengthy and daunting endeavour. Thank you for your support and for waiting for me to re-emerge so that I can now engage with you fully. Woo-hoo! Thank you to my Transition compatriots, locally, in Australia and around the world. Thank you especially to the people who trusted me with their experiences through the interviews and the surveys. Thank you to my Heart and Soul group. Our gatherings and your deep sharing and support have nourished my being. I have had many incredible experiences as part of this doctorate including experiencing a ten day workshop with Joanna Macy, learning about Permaculture through a course in the Blue Mountains, and another with Starhawk on Vancouver Island, attending Transition training in Australia and Totnes, UK and a complexity course at Schumacher College, UK. Deep thanks to my teachers and my fellow participants. I also imbue the reference list at the end of the thesis with gratitude. I have spent many enriching hours engaged with these authors. Thank you Joanna Macy for your wisdom and joy. Thank you Sean Kelly for introducing me to complexity theory and to Edgar Morin, and thank you Dr Janice Catterall for setting me on this journey. Thank you to all who care for our awe-inspiring Earth. Statement of Authentication The work presented in this thesis is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, original except as acknowledged in the text. I hereby declare that I have not submitted this material, either in full or in part, for a degree at this or any other institution. ..................................................................... Table of Contents Chapter 1: The Great Turning ................................................................................ 1 A personal snapshot ......................................................................................................... 5 Ecological crisis ................................................................................................................. 8 A new era ..................................................................................................................... 11 The Great Turning........................................................................................................... 13 The three dimensions of the Great Turning ............................................................ 15 The Transition movement .............................................................................................. 17 Transformation ................................................................................................................ 20 Fractal fragments ......................................................................................................... 23 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 24 Chapter 2: Transition: a social experiment ........................................................ 25 In transition ...................................................................................................................... 29 Inner Transition ............................................................................................................... 33 Ways of knowing ........................................................................................................ 35 Permaculture roots .......................................................................................................... 37 Resilience .......................................................................................................................... 39 Organisational resilience ............................................................................................ 42 Transition and social change ......................................................................................... 44 Inclusion ....................................................................................................................... 47 Transition as a social movement ............................................................................... 49 Links with community development ....................................................................... 50 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 51 Chapter 3: Feminist lenses .................................................................................... 53 Fractured lenses ........................................................................................................... 57 A feminist genealogy ...................................................................................................... 57 Eco/feminism ................................................................................................................... 59 Hierarchical dualisms ................................................................................................. 61 The local in the global ................................................................................................. 64 Feminist research ............................................................................................................ 66 Reflexivity ........................................................................................................................ 68 Ethics and trustworthiness ........................................................................................ 69 Fractal fragments as reflexivity ................................................................................. 70 Social change ................................................................................................................ 72 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 73 (i) Chapter 4: Terzo Paradiso: engaging with complexity. .................................. 75 A complexity paradigm ................................................................................................. 80 Macro-concepts ............................................................................................................... 82 The dialogic principle ................................................................................................. 82 The recursive principle ............................................................................................... 84 The holographic principle .......................................................................................... 84 Emergence ........................................................................................................................ 86 Uncertainty ...................................................................................................................... 88 Self-organisation.............................................................................................................. 89 Networks and connectivity............................................................................................ 91 Communicative connectedness ................................................................................. 92 Co-evolution .................................................................................................................... 93 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 95 Chapter 5: Palimpsest ............................................................................................ 97 Designing the research ................................................................................................. 101 Research ethics .......................................................................................................... 102 Interviews ....................................................................................................................... 104 Interview questions .................................................................................................. 107 Interviewees ............................................................................................................... 108 Research Participant Demographics ...................................................................... 110 Transcription and initial interpretation ................................................................
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