As with all exercises in ‘what if’ thinking, there may be times when it looks like a flight of fancy too far – what if we replaced all the traffic police with mime artists? One boundary is drawn by the requirements of the natural world and the other by the collective imagination. People discovered other, slower ways to get around, or decided they didn’t really need to travel at all. He holds a PhD from the University of Plymouth, and is a Director of Totnes Community Development Society and of New Lion Brewery.

From What is to What If, by Rob Hopkins Book Review: From What is to What If, by Rob Hopkins

Among other things, it is blunted by an economic system that prioritises profits over people, by technologies that distract us and monetise our attention, and by a political system that insists there is no alternative to inequality and austerity. The education department’s decision to eliminate testing, to give ample space for unstructured play and to provide students with opportunities within the community to acquire meaningful skills that enable them to live happy and healthy lives by their own definition means that most kids here now love going to school.I’ve come to believe we desperately need stories like this – stories of How Things Turned Out OK – because if there is a consensus about anything in the world at this point, it seems to be that the future is going to be awful. The effort he is making needs plugging into the Transition movement as it’s clearly aligned with their principles but lacks funds and physical workers. From What Is to What If was printed on paper supplied by Sheridan that contains 100% postconsumer recycled fiber.

From What Is to What If by Rob Hopkins | Waterstones From What Is to What If by Rob Hopkins | Waterstones

And of course, we can already see the impacts of climate change (and other ecological destruction) in real time with extreme weather events, the loss of biodiversity and a food system dependent on the use of vast quantities of pesticides and herbicides to coax crops from the earth. Rob Hopkins is the co-founder of Transition Network and of Transition Town Totnes, and author of several books including ‘ The Transition Handbook‘ and most recently, ‘ From What Is to What If: unleashing the power of imagination to create the future we want’. There is even a brewery on the station; you can have a drink, surrounded by the fermenters, while you wait for your train. We do have the capability to effect dramatic change, Hopkins argues, but we’re failing because we’ve largely allowed our most critical tool to languish: human imagination. online events will be open to individuals and groups from across Great Britain, through our ongoing relationships with the Transition Scotland Hub and groups in Wales.Where once there were societies that served as models for a better future, grand plans, utopias, now there is distrust and dissatisfaction with any form of politics, a sense of powerlessness edging into nihilism. As Rob Hopkins eloquently shows in this powerful and passionate book, to survive and thrive we have to become more imaginative, not less, in how we live, work and connect.