Transition Research Network
= We aim to support research that is mutually beneficial for Transition Initiatives (part of the Transition Towns movement) and academic researchers.
URL = http://www.transitionresearchnetwork.org/
Description
"The Transition Research Network (TRN) is a self-organising peer group of academics and community activists which aims to: Help advance understanding and practice in Transition; Support Transition groups to address their research needs Help transform the crisis in our universities into an opportunity for positive change in research culture, making research relevant, fulfilling, and fun.
The TRN is currently coordinated (in alphabetical order) by: Michelle Bastian, Ben Brangwyn, Naresh Giangrande, Tom Henfrey and Larch Maxey. The Network grew out of an interest group on researching transition that met for the first time at the 2010 Transition Network conference in Newton Abbot, Devon, then at the 2011 conference in Liverpool. The meeting at the 2011 conference agreed to seek funding to develop a network of academics and transition activists interested in collaborating on research. It also encouraged steps towards addressing specific issues concerning the relationship between Transition and academic research that remained unresolved ever since researchers first started to contact Transition Network in 2007. In September 2011, as a direct out come of steps taken following the Liverpool conference, Transition Network, in partnership with academics at Durham University’s Centre for Social Justice and Community Action, along with Bradford, Glamorgan and Manchester Universities, were awarded a £78,000 grant in the AHRC’s Connected Communities programme for a project entitled, “Connection, Participation and Empowerment in Community-based research: the case of the Transition Movement”. This will support a study on experiences of researching transition, the development of improved protocols for collaboration between researchers and transition initiatives, and pilot studies on the documentation of transition initiatives’ activities and evaluation of their impact on their communities.The project runs from February 1st 2012 until January 31st 2013.
Alongside this, the North East and Manchester Beacons for Public Engagement agreed to fund two meetings of the new Transition Research Network (TRN). The first of these, at the Quaker Meeting House in Manchester in November 2011, was organised and hosted by Michelle Bastian of Manchester University and Transition Liverpool, Ben Brangwyn and Naresh Giangrande of Transition Network and Tom Henfrey, former Beacon North East theme leader in energy and environment at Durham University and Transition Durham. For the Plymouth meeting, Larch Maxey of Plymouth University and Transition Town Totnes joined this core team. The meeting was held at the Transition Hub, which Transition Plymouth kindly made available for the day, on February 29th 2012." (http://www.transitionresearchnetwork.org/about-us.html)