Subtitle: Imagination taking power

About

Short biography

Rob Hopkins is the co-founder of Transition Network and of Transition Town Totnes, and author of several books including ‘The Transition Handbook‘ and most recently, ‘From What Is to What If: unleashing the power of imagination to create the future we want’. He is an Ashoka Fellow, has spoken at TED Global and at several TEDx events, and appeared in the French film phenomenon ‘Demain‘. He holds a PhD from the University of Plymouth as well as 2 Honoris Causas, and is a Director of Totnes Community Development Society. He hosts the podcast ‘From What If to What Next‘. In November 2022 he was made an Honorary Citizen of Liège in Belgium by the Mayor of the city. His website is robhopkins.net.

Longer biography

Rob Hopkins is a cofounder of Transition Town Totnes and Transition Network, and the author of The Transition Handbook, The Transition Companion, The Power of Just Doing Stuff, 21 Stories of Transition and most recently, From What Is to What If: unleashing the power of imagination to create the future we want. He presents the podcast series ‘From What If to What Next‘.  In 2012, he was voted one of the Independent’s top 100 environmentalists and was on Nesta and the Observer’s list of Britain’s 50 New Radicals. Hopkins has also appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Four Thought and A Good Read, in the French film phenomenon Demain and its sequel Apres Demain, and has spoken at TEDGlobal and three TEDx events.

An Ashoka Fellow, Hopkins also holds a doctorate degree from the University of Plymouth and has received two honorary doctorates from the University of the West of England and the University of Namur. In November 2022 he was made an Honorary Citizen of Liège in Belgium by the Mayor of the city. In 2020 he was a member of the Cambridge Sustainability Commission on Scaling Sustainable Behaviour Change. He is a keen gardener and a director of Totnes Community Development Society, the group behind Atmos Totnes, an ambitious, community-led development project. He blogs at transitionnetwork.org and robhopkins.net and tweets at @robintransition.

Publications:

The Transition Handbook: from oil dependency to local resilience. Green Books (2008)

Localisation and Resilience at the local level: the case of Transition Town Totnes. Rob’s PhD study. (2010). Download here.

The Transition Companion: Making Your Community More Resilient in Uncertain Times. Green Books (2011)

The Power of Just Doing Stuff: How local action can change the world. Green Books (2013)

21 Stories of Transition: how a movement of communities is coming together to reimagine and rebuild our world. Download here.

From What Is to What If: Unleashing the Power of Imagination to Create the Future We Want. Chelsea Green Publishing. (2019). 

In his spare time, he sometimes draws and makes drypoint prints and lino prints. Here is a selection:

Houses and trees above the beach at Pons Peron [pen and ink].
From the steps near the Cathedral, Angers, France (pen and ink).

Long grasses on the dog walk. [Pen and ink].
Number 13 [pen and ink].
Saint-Paul Asylum from the walled garden Vincent van Gogh painted 19 times from his bedroom window. Near Arles [drypoint print].
The Buttercup Field [lino print].
Grasses in light and shade [pen and ink – unfinished].
The woods by the road. Brussels [drypoint print].
 

Chez Marianne, Paris (pen and ink).
The cloister at Monastère de Ségries. Pen and ink drawing.
The Betty Boop towel. Pen and ink drawing.
The Lodge, Prussia Cove, Cornwall. Drypoint print.
Drypoint. Plaça de Lesseps, Barcelona. Drypoint print.
Beach near Roscoff, Brittany, France. Pen and ink drawing.
Trees and ivy at the edge of the sea. Lino print.
Pestle and mortar. Lino print.

 


© Rob Hopkins 2017-2024