The Transition Movement in Australia: an Analysis of the Progress, Challenges, and Future of Transition Initiatives
The Transition Movement in Australia: An analysis of the progress, challenges, and future of Transition Initiatives Goldwasser, Mia Academic Director: Brennan, Peter Advisor: Wallace, Sonya Brandeis University Environmental Studies Sydney, NSW Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Australia: Sustainability and Environment, SIT Study Abroad, Spring 2009 Abstract The threats of climate change and peak oil have roots in our society’s dependence on the availability of cheap fossil fuels for its function and design. In order to both decrease greenhouse gas emissions and significantly lower the demand on fossil fuels, our settlements –built when oil was cheap and abundant- must ‘relocalize’, or develop the systems which will enable the local production of food, energy, materials, employment, and goods. The Transition Movement has developed as a grassroots, community-based response to these challenges, grounded in the belief that a higher quality of life has the opportunity to emerge from a collaborative, community- directed transition to a lower-energy and locally-rooted future. In this study, I seek to explore the manifestation of the Transition Movement in Australia, through the development of four initiatives- Transition Sunshine Coast, Transition Blue Mountains, Transition Sydney, and Transition Bellingen. Through formal interviews with the active leaders of these Transition groups, I will document how the initiatives formed, their progress to date, their relationships with local community groups and councils, and the challenges they face. Through analysis of this data, I aim to identify the initiatives’ progress as related to the purposes they have evolved to fill within communities, their common challenges, and factors that could contribute to the continued spread of the Transition Movement in Australia.
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