Interview with Cameron Tonkinwise

In this interview with Paul Graham Raven, Cameron discusses Transition Design, prefigurative politics, dramaturgy, narratology, imagination, and urban cycling

The Transition Design Institute is launching Dialogues in Transition, an online discussion series bringing together researchers, educators, and practitioners working in transitions and systems-level change. The first session, featuring Transition Design co-founders Gideon Kossoff, Cameron Tonkinwise, and Terry Irwin, will take place on May 20 (EST) / May 21 (AEST) and reflect on the origins, evolution, and future of Transition Design.

In March 2024, Fritjof Capra, one of the most important and widely published authors on systems thinking, led a workshop at the Transition Design Institute, in which he discussed his latest paper, The Principles of Life, with doctoral students, faculty, and alumni. The four principles that Capra has identified, after decades of research, are that ‘life organises itself in networks’, ‘life is inherently regenerative’, ‘life is inherently creative,’ and ‘life is inherently intelligent’. These principles inform all living systems and are of vital relevance to societal transitions.

This conference brings together researchers, experts, and their community partners, creating a blend of theory and practices and case studies that lead to systemic changes. The four conference themes are Bridging and Bonding, Disruptive Change, Transformative Culture and Learning, and Democracy and Multilateralism.

Sustainability transitions research, which addresses the challenges of transitioning large socio-technical systems, has been very influential in transition design, design for transitions, and related fields. The IST conference, hosted annually by partners of the Sustainability Transitions Research Network (STRN), is the leading event for this global research community, attracting hundreds of researchers from over 30 countries. This year’s conference will focus on the complexities and contradictions involved in sustainability transitions.

Recovery and regeneration of the commons and commoning is one of the most important leverage points for sustainability transitions. The International Association of the Study of the Commons (IASC) is the leading professional association in this field, bringing together researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to improve governance and management of the commons, and to develop regenerative commoning practices. The conference theme is “Regenerating the Commons: Addressing Pressing Concerns Through Learning about the Past and Innovating into the Future.”

The city is the focus of many complex, wicked problems. The 3rd International Re-City Conference explores how such problems can be addressed through radical care, justice, democracy, and collective responsibility. The conference includes four themes: 1) care theory and ethics, 2) urban transformation, 3) social and spatial justice, and 4) urban democracy and activism. It encourages interdisciplinary contributions from fields such as architecture, arts, education, human geography, law, management, philosophy, social sciences, and urban planning.

The 6th International Degrowth Movement Assembly, organized by the International Degrowth Network (IDN), fosters collaboration, knowledge-building, and action for degrowth transformations. Designed for inclusivity and effectiveness, it provides space for both IDN members and newcomers to connect, share experiences, and strengthen the movement.

Stephan Harding, an ecologist and one of the five founding faculty at Schumacher College, Devon, UK, passed in August 2024. He was a leading authority on the Gaia hypothesis — the theory that the earth as a whole is, or behaves as if it were, a self-regulating organism. This implies that living beings create the conditions through which life can flourish on Earth, and that
we need to take collective responsibility for the well-being of the planet as a whole. Stephan integrated rigorous science with with a belief in the sentience of the natural world. He inspired hundreds of students at Schumacher College, and has been an important inspiration for transition design, specifically for the theory of cosmopolitan localism.

An important new book by Arturo Escobar, Michal Osterweil, and Kriti Sharma argues that at the root of the contemporary crisis of climate, energy, food, inequality, and meaning is a certain core presupposition that structures the ways in which we live, think, act, and design: the assumption of dualism, or the fundamental separateness of things. The authors contend that the key to constructing livable worlds lies in the cultivation of ways of knowing and acting based on a profound awareness of the fundamental interdependence of everything that exists—what they refer to as relationality. This shift in paradigm is necessary for healing our bodies, ecosystems, cities, and the planet at large.