it is the case that the food growing or the preparation and consumption of food helps pre-assemble a space for social interaction, so that people may come together without having to negotiate discursively the entirety of the terms of their mutual engagement in ways that are reminiscent, for instance, of Occupy-style consensus-based assemblies (which have their merits for the cultivation of democratic practices of communication, but also present a higher threshold of engagement, as participants have to negotiate the structure of their mutual involvement). Food growing, while often undertaken through permacultural methods (and therefore a way perhaps to also get exposure to permaculture as a form of gardening), equally tries to nurture embodied dispositions towards dwelling communally by tending to a space together, by spending time alongside each other and exchanging views, by developing – together – ways to speak about the activities that are being undertaken (in such a way as to gradually build an awareness that is not a prerequisite for taking part in the first place). In this sense, engagement in food growing activities displays a tendency towards greater inclusivity that is distinctive of the moving of Transition vis-à-vis the phenomenon of permaculture. Food growing is undertaken not just for the sake of growing food in a particular way, such as to enable greater provision of local, seasonal and/or organic food. This is just the first layer of the story. Deeper down, food is one area of everyday experience through which the moving of Transition as a whole begins to shine. From community gardens and potlucks to community-supported agriculture initiatives down to the Food Hub, food within Transition appears always as an open invitation to get involved in something else and something more. This makes it an opening towards the development of new attachments and affinities, and new sensibilities – towards food, the ecology where the food growing takes place, the emerging sociality where the food is prepared and consumed – which all enable an orientation and a disposition towards undertaking even more ‘Transition things’ a part of one’s everyday life.45
One of the possible ‘next steps’ available upon having become involved in a common task, such as growing food, is the challenge of cultivating ways of relating to others in the common tending, so as to build into the life-world of Transition embodied and discursive responses to the tensions one may uncover in the process. These tensions pertain to the search for meaningful work, to the need for peer support and authentic human connection, and to ensuring resonance between the task tended to and the process by which the tending occurs, so as to prefigure in the doing the very qualities that the task is also meant to achieve.46 It follows from this that Inner Transition is a possible way ahead from here.
4. Inner Transition
Transition in Totnes started with a bang, in the form of an official ‘unleashing’ event. A longer process, facilitated by a small organising group, nonetheless preceded that event. The aim of that earlier awareness-raising stage was to spread the concerns prompted by the inaugural focus of Transition on peak oil and man-made climate change. Already during that process, it was possible to witness the incipient moving of Transition differentiate into kindred streams of activity set off in response to that initial disquiet. In other words, from its very start, the phenomenon of Transition began proliferating into a growing range of experiential possibilities.
One early concern that prompted internal differentiation within Transition stemmed from the gloomy/fatalist outlook on the human condition that seemed to surface whenever the scenario of peak oil would be introduced. This outlook would emerge from suggestions, for instance, that Transition might be ‘well and good’, but people would not change unless they were forced to. In response to observations such as these – suggesting an understanding of human nature whereby fear could be the only effective motivator to spark change – a group of psychological practitioners from Totnes were tipped into getting involved. They brought with them an aspiration to develop Transition so as to address dilemmas that were related – albeit occurring on a slightly different dimension – to the initial concerns about survival from peak oil. It is interesting to follow this incipient differentiation of Transition closely. This is because the point of engagement for these psychological practitioners was not so much a willingness to ‘add’ to Transition something it lacked, which would mean falling back into a summative approach to deconstructing a whole that holds together in inextricable fashion. Instead, it was as though they felt that there was an aspect of Transition that needed to be made explicit; a distinctive quality that needed dedicated tending to, to really make itself present. In this sense, Inner Transition stands out as an instance of differentiation and self-specification of an expansive form of life that discloses new folds from within itself, as opposed to the addition of previously unrelated and separately existing ingredients. This important nuance is conveyed in the written account offered by one member of that initial group of practitioners, which it is worth quoting at length:
[C]ould it be the case that a shift in consciousness and values, an emotional literacy, and some spiritual inspiration were already implicit in the very arising of the transition movement? To me, that was clearly the case.
There was, for example, a moving beyond our collective denial that fossil fuels will peak and decline, that climate change results from our use of them and must urgently be addressed, and that economic growth can be infinite on a finite planet. Facing difficult truths and rising to meet them with a positive vision is perhaps one hallmark of inner work. There was a strong emphasis on the positive, on coming together as a community, and on dreaming out a vision for the future that would support human and other than human life, based not on greed, inequality, power-over or increasing material wealth, but on practicality, sharing, creativity, and celebration. The implicit values, in short, were not other than those embraced by spiritual teachings throughout the world.1
Prentice completes her account thus:
[M]uch of how business was conducted had clearly been influenced by various ways ‘inner work’ has come into culture. Meetings were often begun with sharing ‘go-rounds’, for example, or silence. Creative, open formats for events such as ‘world café’ [...] or ‘open space technology’ [...] were often used.2
It seems, from Prentice’s words, that certain practices and discourses that gave form to the incipient moving of Transition resonated with a group of individuals who were acquainted with them from within the wider milieu of ‘inner work’. To reiterate my initial point, therefore, the spiralling of Transition from a focus on ‘outer’ strategies for change to one also on ‘inner’ work need not so much be looked at as an addition, but rather as the bringing forth and explicit naming of a quality that had been brewing all along.
At this point, an analytic orientation towards Transition might then demand a definition of what ‘inner work’ or ‘inner change’ means. What is, in other words, the ‘inner’ in Inner Transition? (‘Inner Transition’ being the designation that accompanies the appearance of Transition into this yet-to-be-defined domain of experience.) My suggestion here is to sidestep the urge to cling to something as hard as a definition. In my own meandering through Inner Transition I have found that questions of definition mattered little to my ability to engage effectively with it. Instead, I find it easier to begin with a foray into the uses of the word ‘Inner Transition’ that I came across. This is because my conversations with various interviewees disclosed an interesting flexibility. ‘Inner Transition’ was widely understood to be more than just the name of a dedicated workgroup within the Transition initiative. Instead, it is also the quality displayed by a person – an ‘Inner Transition-type’ of person – or by an activity, as an ‘Inner Transition-type’ activity. The flexible and metaphorical character of this term demands therefore a different approach if we want to get a sense of what sets of experiences and possibilities for engagement ‘Inner Transition’ directs our attention to.
A sample of the inclinations that seem to matter for the purpose of denoting an ‘Inner Transition-type’ person are offered once again by Prentice, who describes the audience of Inner Transition initiatives as comprising of:
Counsellors, Buddhists, ecopsychologists, dance and movement teachers, people who have
