A Transition Utopia with a certainty of Failure?

[Eric de Haas]

That's right, the first day of the Livable Cities workshop triggered a lot of thoughts and inspiration. The speakers of day 1 were; Rob Hopkins, Eleanor Saitta and Liam Young. After an introduction to the Livable Cities project, as seen through the 'probes scope' by Clive van Heerden, Rob Hopkins started with an inspiring talk about the Transition Town movement, followed by a very interesting talk on networks and especially what catabolic effect they can have when they fail and how we can learn to fail in the right way. Liam Young gave a nice presentation on the importance of utopian visions, not as a feasible 'state of happiness', but as a method to explore future possibilities. Three completely different insights and approaches that kicked off the first day of the workshop.