Our first meeting this session will be in the Arts Centre (probably the mezzanine/cafeteria level) on Friday 11 October at 6pm. We’re going to read and discuss a set of essays on passing 400 ppm carbon dioxide in the atmosphere http://societyandspace.com/2013/07/26/400ppm-exit-holocene-enter-anthropocene/
At this meeting, we’ll also decide on what we want to read for future sessions
As a bit of updated background fro new readers, the Reading Group brings students and academics together with citizens and activists from the town and district. It began in 2008 as one element of a Transition Town project, a community venture which sought to build local resilience in the face of the perceived threats of climate change and peak oil. Ironically, the Transitions Reading Group remains active after the wider project has mainly run out of energy. Early in its existence the Group pluralised ‘transition’ to indicate an intention to read beyond the Transition Towns literature. So, we have read and discussed both academic and non-academic work which spans the eclectic range of topics that the term ‘transitions’ opens up. However, we retain a core interest in transitions to a more environmentally sustainable, just and non-violent society. Also central to the group’s ethos is exchanging relevant personal experiences and relating readings to local socio-economic and political conditions. We don’t confine itself to written material and listen to podcasts, watch films, view art exhibitions and attend theatre performances. We meet in cafes, bar-rooms and public space in the university complex. Future activities may involve reading fiction, listening to and discussing music, art and poetry, as well as inviting authors and artists to discuss their work.
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