From What Is to What If

From What Is to What If
Author :
Publisher : Chelsea Green Publishing
Total Pages : 242
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781603589062
ISBN-13 : 1603589066
Rating : 4/5 (066 Downloads)

Book Synopsis From What Is to What If by : Rob Hopkins

Download or read book From What Is to What If written by Rob Hopkins and published by Chelsea Green Publishing. This book was released on 2019-10-15 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Big ideas that just might save the world”—The Guardian The founder of the international Transition Towns movement asks why true creative, positive thinking is in decline, asserts that it's more important now than ever, and suggests ways our communities can revive and reclaim it. In these times of deep division and deeper despair, if there is a consensus about anything in the world, it is that the future is going to be awful. There is an epidemic of loneliness, an epidemic of anxiety, a mental health crisis of vast proportions, especially among young people. There’s a rise in extremist movements and governments. Catastrophic climate change. Biodiversity loss. Food insecurity. The fracturing of ecosystems and communities beyond, it seems, repair. The future—to say nothing of the present—looks grim. But as Transition movement cofounder Rob Hopkins tells us, there is plenty of evidence that things can change, and cultures can change, rapidly, dramatically, and unexpectedly—for the better. He has seen it happen around the world and in his own town of Totnes, England, where the community is becoming its own housing developer, energy company, enterprise incubator, and local food network—with cascading benefits to the community that extend far beyond the projects themselves. 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. As defined by social reformer John Dewey, imagination is the ability to look at things as if they could be otherwise. The ability, that is, to ask What if? And if there was ever a time when we needed that ability, it is now. Imagination is central to empathy, to creating better lives, to envisioning and then enacting a positive future. Yet imagination is also demonstrably in decline at precisely the moment when we need it most. In this passionate exploration, Hopkins asks why imagination is in decline, and what we must do to revive and reclaim it. Once we do, there is no end to what we might accomplish. From What Is to What If is a call to action to reclaim and unleash our collective imagination, told through the stories of individuals and communities around the world who are doing it now, as we speak, and witnessing often rapid and dramatic change for the better.


From What Is to What If Related Books

From What Is to What If
Language: en
Pages: 242
Authors: Rob Hopkins
Categories: Social Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-10-15 - Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

GET EBOOK

“Big ideas that just might save the world”—The Guardian The founder of the international Transition Towns movement asks why true creative, positive thinki
The Transition Handbook
Language: en
Pages: 242
Authors: Rob Hopkins
Categories: Business & Economics
Type: BOOK - Published: 2008-02-25 - Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

GET EBOOK

Move from feeling anxious about the oil crisis to developing a positive visions and taking traction action to create a more self-reliant existence with this gro
Towns in Transition
Language: en
Pages: 344
Authors: Neil Christie
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 1996 - Publisher:

GET EBOOK

The studies in this volume are based on new archaeological data and provide a full and convincing reassessment of the old image of urban decay and the impact of
Cities and Low Carbon Transitions
Language: en
Pages: 418
Authors: Harriet Bulkeley
Categories: Architecture
Type: BOOK - Published: 2010-12-14 - Publisher: Routledge

GET EBOOK

Current societies face unprecedented risks and challenges connected to climate change. Addressing them will require fundamental transformations in the infrastru
European Port Cities in Transition
Language: en
Pages: 355
Authors: Angela Carpenter
Categories: Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 2020-01-22 - Publisher: Springer Nature

GET EBOOK

Seaports, as part of urban centers, play a major role in the cultural, social and economic life of the cities in which they are located, and through the links t