Creating a Recipe for Local Transformation With our Community of Practice

On July 15th 2021, the Municipalities in Transition community of practice was invited to join a Deeper Dive Online Session, titled ‘Ingredients for Kickstarting a Municipalities in Transition Project’. he event offered participants a chance to connect with our newly-trained tutors, as well as with members of the core team and other practitioners.

On July 15th 2021, the Municipalities in Transition community of practice was invited to join a Deeper Dive Online Session, titled ‘Ingredients for Kickstarting a Municipalities in Transition Project’. 35 people accepted the invitation, joining us from France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, the UK, US, Canada, Mexico and Columbia. The event offered participants a chance to connect with our newly-trained tutors, as well as with members of the core team and other practitioners. 

When asked in a live poll how one’s work relates to the MiT project, many answered that they collaborate with municipalities and work to connect local government with civil society. ‘Working  with systems change’ was another popular answer. A good number of participants are still learning what this project is all about.

 

HOW IS YOUR WORK RELATED TO THE MUNICIPALITIES IN TRANSITION PROJECT?

WHAT IS YOUR CONNECTION TO MUNICIPALITIES?

It was no surprise to see that many attendees were actively involved in community groups. And while some of us have ambitions to be mayor one day, few actually work for a municipality. This imbalance serves as a reminder that more effort is needed to include municipal workers in our future events.

 

The online session went on to provide a refresher on how the MiT project has evolved since its 2017 inception and briefly outlined where we are now. One noteworthy development is that the project’s lead researcher, Pedro Macedo, has authored his final report on evaluating the impact of our work and possibilities for moving forward. Another important update is that the name of the MiT system has been changed to Local Transformation Toolkit (LTT). The name change was decided through a consent-based process and was done for several reasons that are briefly explained here

 

Municipalities in Transition System Local Transformation Toolkit

 

Finally, 5 essential ingredients for kickstarting a Municipalities in Transition project were presented by several tutors. The ingredients were discussed in breakout rooms and feedback was summarized in a shared harvest document.

Some additional ingredients were suggested by participants, including: a space that supports emotional awareness and maturity; gender and indigenous inclusion; and the capacity for effective communication. A question also emerged: What happens when these ingredients are missing? It would be valuable to explore this topic more deeply through specific case studies.

Interestingly, 3 of the 6 breakout rooms referred to the same Buckminister Fuller quote: 

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

The Municipalities in Transition project strives to provide such a model, through the work of our community of practice and evolution of the Local Transformation Toolkit. We encourage a way forward where local government and civil society groups face their complex challenges together to create a recipe for more equitable and sustainable futures.

You can watch the full recording of the session here:

 

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Pexels

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