City-Level Decoupling-Case Studies

CITY-LEVEL DECOUPLING: URBAN RESOURCE FLOWS AND THE GOVERNANCE OF INFRASTRUCTURE TRANSITIONS

To-date approximately 3,000 people have attended training courses provided by TN. It is estimated that, 1900-2500 transition initiatives have sprung up around the world (mostly in the global north). Many of these initiatives have started of their own accord with little or no direct contact with TN. There are approximately 400 officially endorsed initiatives, and 800 listed on the TN website. 212 TN is funded from grants, donations and revenues from selling training resources. TN has thus far not conducted any formal research on the impact of the various initiatives on local resource use and infrastructure transformations. As the transition ethos and practice spreads, it becomes increasingly difficult to monitor impacts. For TN the exponential growth of interest around the world is a positive sign of a growing network of locally appropriate and relevant responses. The individual initiatives are better equipped to assess the impact of their activities on urban sustainability. TTT, for example have detailed statistics on the impacts of their various projects. 213 • TN’s emphasis on the importance of local communities defining their own responses to environmental and resource pressures. TN encourages the duplication of its efforts around the world without seeking to control outcomes. • TN’s emphasis on global pressures as a catalyst for community-building rather than just as a threat. The TN training courses expose people to innovative, energising ways of working democratically and productively in groups, drawing on principles of collective visioning and decision making that for many is transformational. • The promotion of incremental responses. TN encourages small steps that allow working groups to gradually build confidence and cohesion. 214 Looking to the future, the Transition Network faces the challenge of finding ways for more disadvantaged communities to access and make use of the transition resources in order to make meaningful improvements to their urban lives. To address this, TN has hired a Diversity Coordinator who is helping to develop strategies to maximise inclusiveness and address the needs of a broad spectrum of people within the various transition communities. A further challenge is that as local projects grow in scale they inevitably begin to interface with government policies and plans for infrastructure investment. 215 At this level there is a need for a new form of engagement and partnership. Without the support of local government, the extent to which transition initiatives are able to influence the reshaping of existing, publically owned infrastructures is limited. These initiatives are then at risk of having to bypass existing infrastructures – creating their own collectively-owned infrastructures, or focussing their efforts on projects that do not rely on urban scale infrastructures. Both of these limitations would reduce the potential impact and reach of the transition initiative and also risk reducing equity of access. Reasons for the success and popularity of the transition movement include:

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