The digital shift creates threats and opportunities.
Information technology, artificial intelligence and big data have the ability to greatly accelerate business-as-usual, which could mean more inequality, surveillance and overconsumption. But the intelligent use of digital technology can also coordinate, mobilise and speed up progressive change.
Big issues are who owns and controls the digital economy, what its priorities are and who has access to it. The potential of ‘open source’ software and hardware, and whether the technologies and sector themselves are environmentally sustainable, are just two of the big questions. But there are communities, groups and enterprises around the world who are taking the best that the technology has to offer and turning it to the task of rapid transition.
Story of change
No’ way back for petrol and diesel cars – how Norway flicked an electric transport switchIn 2021, the oil-rich Scandinavian nation of Norway hit a critical point in its rapid transition: 60% of all new cars sold so far have been fully battery...
Story of change
Milking it: cleaner climate, non-dairy milk alternatives go mainstreamUsing cows to produce milk for human consumption is a massive industry. But it’s also a very inefficient, polluting one. Making dairy milk takes far more...
Story of change
A new roof for rapid transition – building low-carbon, affordable housing for communities with new ownership modelsAll across the world new approaches to home-building are emerging in response to the multiple crises of climate breakdown, unaffordable housing, deprivation...
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Story of change
Converting industry – how rapid transition happens in crises and upheavalsA brewer of ‘craft’ beer starts making sanitising hand gel and a car manufacturer converts one of its factories so it can make medical face masks. Just...
Story of change
Rethinking work – the sudden end of the regular 9-to-5 working day?For millions of people around the world working lives have been suddenly turned upside down. As offices, shops and other workplaces close in the face of a...
Story of change
Pandemic lessons for the climate emergencyPandemics change business-as-usual overnight. Governments mobilise huge resources to tackle the problem and compensate for its impacts. At the same time,...
Commentary
The business of rapid transitionBusiness represents the great paradox of rapid transition. On the one hand, much is expected of business in terms of technological innovation, new models of...
Story of change
Transition Towns – the quiet, networked revolutionThe Transition Network began in 2006 in the small rural UK town of Totnes, Devon. It was initially a response to the twin threats of climate change and peak...
Story of change
From financial exclusion to financial revolution: the story of mobile moneyUpdate Since publishing this story of change, we have seen an interesting critique of the original paper that underpins much of the narrative, ‘The...
Story of change
Make do and mend: the rise of repair cafesThe relationship with ‘stuff’ in high-consuming, wealthy economies is set to change. From the European Union to the United States new laws are being...
Story of change
When overnight, flying becomes impossible: the volcanic revelationAt the end of 2018 reported sightings of drones near a runway of the UK’s second most busy airport, Gatwick, led to the grounding or redirection of all...
Report
How did we do that? The possibility of rapid transitionA booklet which collects stories of rapid transitions to show what we can learn from history and the present day about how people adapt to rapid change.
