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278 JUDIT FARKAS
the optimism so often emphasized by Hopkins and a can-do attitude. Another
special trait of the Transition Towns movement is its focus on building coalitions
with other similar grassroots movements and groups and also tries to cooperate
with local governments and political actors (Aiken 2012: 92; cited in Boudinot
and LeVasseur 2016: 382).
The Transition Towns Movement fits into the theories of terrapolitan citizenry and
biocultural evolution also appearing in contemporary ecological discourse.
The vision of the terrapolitan citizenry has its roots, among other sources, in religious
studies scholar Bron Taylor s Gaian Earth Religion category and in his assumption that
a terrapolitan earth religion could evolve (Taylor 2010: 195 — 199) and spread worldwide.
This theory displays close contacts with Manuel Castells’ identity concept of the global
green self. In Castells’ view, the environmentalist movements engender the birth of a
new socio-biological identity — the culture of the human species of biological identity
as the components of nature — which also acknowledges the cultural authenticity fed
by diverse traditions. “This is the only global identity that is formulated on behalf of
every human being irrespective of their concrete social, historical or gender identities,
or of their religious faith” (Castells 2006: 232).
The notion of biocultural evolution is linked by F. Garrett Boudinot and Todd
LeVasseur to the Transition Towns Movements. They claim that the movement could
be an excellent example of the tendency that “in the course of organizing their
communities and forming the surrounding natural environment, people increasingly
rely on the theory of biocultural evolution, and as a result, the functioning of the
communities become more resilient, adaptive and ecologically just” (Boudinot —
LeVasseur 2004: 380). The notion of biocultural evolution comes from biological
anthropology and means the mutual, interactive evolution of human biology and
culture. The core of the theory is that our biological existence influences our culture,
while the development of culture influences the direction of biological evolution
(Jurmain et al. 2012: 7). A researcher of biocultural evolution, the paleoanthropologist
Aaron Jonas Stutz, contends that this theory helps us understand and re-interpret our
place in the world: “it captures the tension and the intimate proximity between our