We will delve into each topic a bit deeper and explore them, as well as suggest some exercises that can help and you can approach them in any order.
Dreaming - Observing where the energy flows
If you have read this far, you probably have some dreams and goals about what you would like your university to look like. Sometimes we can get very locked in our way of approaching what is possible, so it is important to take the time for dreaming.
If there were no constraints, what would your university look like?
This does not necessarily mean that you have to produce a formal vision statement or anything like that, but it is a reminder to open up space for dreaming, both within you and around you.
What kinds of events and projects do your friends and colleagues always get excited about? Which topics or structures always get criticised over the lunch table?
How do people tend to finish sentences they start with “If only…”?
By being open to and aware of this form of dreaming, and listening to it, you will probably be able to get a feeling for where interest and motivation lies in your university.
If people are passionate about food waste and recycling, you will probably have an easier and more enjoyable time doing, say, a composting project, than convincing people that they actually should be engaged in something different, such as bike maintenance or house insulation. Conversely, you may also want to consider the local challenges and problems that need to be solved and represent a priority: if student housing is damp, or people are struggling to pay their energy bills, perhaps a good project to start with would be low-cost energy efficiency projects and an education programme on behavioural changes which will lower energy use.
This we call going where the energy is, and it is so much more fun, thriving, and stimulating, than forcibly trying to create energy around something that isn’t capturing to people.
Identity - Defining your Transition University community
Transition projects identify and harness the energy that is found when groups of people come together in some form of community.
Community is about forming relationships, creating identity and maintaining partnerships. A sense of community is often defined as being when people feel they belong, they can influence decisions, their needs are at least partly met by the community and they feel a shared emotional connection, through place, purpose or experience. Having a sense of core values and a shared mission holds community together.
Communities enable synergetic relationships to occur, where the sense of belonging and nourishment induced by the community can help motivate and drive the projects of the group to a further extent than the sum of all the involved individuals. As a consequence it is probably an important step in your Transition journey to reflect on who is part of your community.
If you wish to go further in But the university community is not as easily defined or obvious as a town based community.
29