ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how a collaborative new-energy project in the industrial town of Stocks-bridge, South Yorkshire, enabled us to construct our working definition of trans-disciplinarity. The most serious of these is the uncertainty of the steel industry and of employment striking at the very identity of Stocksbridge: the place, its history and its future. There is a shift in power dynamics when communities, or the citizen generally, wanting to think about new buildings, suddenly feel they have an understanding of space or place. The town’s history is all about power, water, energy and industry. More than other tools and processes, collaborative visioning, in this case of local energy systems, can enhance social learning and the social capital of communities. Some values and principles emerged that were instrumental to the way we worked with our tools and ideas. They were important and enabled the changes and the transfer of power from the academics to the community.
