The International Oral History of the Transition Movement
The International Oral History of the Transition Movement: Project born at an Oral History Society (OHS) conference two years ago returns to showcase its findings.
Voices from the Transition Movement
Whose Voices’, OHS Conference 2025
6 – 7 June 2025 at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
Since 2023 when the idea for this collaborative project was first discussed at the OHS conference, members of the OHS Environment and Climate Crisis Special Interest Group (ECC-SIG) have been recording the experiences of volunteers involved in the Transition Towns movement in 3 countries.
Two years, 18 online meetings, over 40 audio and video oral history interviews, a collection of stunning photographs and one shining new website later, we were back at the OHS conference, this time in Glasgow, to share the results of our joint efforts.
Speaking on behalf of project partners who could not attend the conference, we presented the achievements of the teams in Appalachia, USA (Jessica Taylor and Serai’ya Crawley), South West France (Simona Tobia and Andrew Milne), and Wellington, UK (Anita Roy and Anita Corbin). It was also a great opportunity to launch the new website which brings together all the material collected so far.
Our presentation started with an introduction to the global Transition Towns Movement and our project’s aim to document the voices of its grassroots activists ‘doing the everyday work of change by volunteering’. Photographs, audio clips and video helped illustrate the common themes emerging from the interviews, while also highlighting the different challenges the teams faced that were specific to their local contexts. The video from the USA team explained the making of the joint website, supported by their university, Virginia Tech.
We received a very positive response from an engaged audience and the lively Q&A session raised several interesting issues which could form future conversations at ECC-SIG meetings. An audience member drew our attention to a collection of interviews on transition activities in SW England and offered to connect us with the group and other regional researchers working in this field.
Post conference, we continue to receive interest in the project and favourable comments about the website. This is very encouraging and supports our aspiration to expand the project to include more partners.
Rib Davis and Padmini Broomfield
Oral History Society ECC-SIG (Environment and Climate Change Special Interest Group)