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Localism as used here is about local needs met locally.

What communities can do

  • develop Community currencies
  • develop community energy schemes
  • encourage local and collaborative enterprise
  • encourage local purchasing, recycling and sharing via for example skill-sharing schemes and other community resources
  • local directories and maps
  • ownership surveys and websites promoting local and independent shops and suppliers
  • promote local food, via
  • local food challenges such as a 100 mile diet
  • local food directories and maps
  • local food weeks or other food events
  • supporting local farm shops, farmers' markets and pick your own schemes, perhaps encouraging car sharing to these
  • support local crafts, such as basketmaking, or crafted (non-plastic) shopping bags which can replace plastic bags
  • support local markets, including farmers' markets and WI (Women's Institute) markets
  • surveys of the local economy to find out what proportion of spend is local

Why it matters

A vibrant, diverse local economy is a healthy and resilient economy. Meeting local needs locally can mean less pollution and CO2 emissions from unnecessary transport, as well as providing economic opportunities. Some have tried to argue that this approach is anti-trade, whilst its supporters contend it is just anti dependence on trade.

Quotes

"...the best hope for transition to a ‘post carbon’ — or, better, a sustainable society (a much broader goal) — lies in a process of radical societal reconstruction, focused on the building, in the here and now, of self-governing and self-reliant settlements, starting at the micro-local level. Jonathan Rutherford, summarising from Ted Trainer [1]

“Every increase in local capacity to grow food, generate energy, repair, build and finance will strengthen the capacity to withstand disturbances of all kinds. Distributed energy in the form of widely disbursed solar and wind technology, for example, buffers communities from supply interruptions, failure of the electrical grid, and price shocks. Similarly, a regionally based, solar-powered food system would restore small farms, preserve soil, create local employment, rebuilt stable economies, and provide better food while reducing carbon emissions and dependence on long-distance transport from distant suppliers. The primary goal in rethinking development and economic growth is to create resilience – capacity to withstand the disturbances that will become more frequent and severe in the decades ahead”. David Orr, ‘Down to the Wire’ [2]

Resources

Citizens data initiative

Studies show that people at farmers’ markets have as many as 10 times more conversations, greetings, and other social interactions than people in supermarkets. [3]

Research

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Reclaiming Public Services, How cities and citizens are turning back privatisation tni.org, Jun 2017

Video

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News and comment

2017

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Localism UK: Forget nimbys. Yimby housing policy can transform the UK – with the political will, Aug 11 [4]

A Just Future Starts at the Local Level, Jul 10 [5]

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Localism UK: “I’m welling up just talking about it”: the marvel of Totnes LEF6, May 16 [6]

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Localism UK: How ‘Grown in Totnes’ are reimagining the local food economy, May 2 [7]

2015

Why White Dog Café Founder Judy Wicks Believes in the Power of a Local Economy, Dec 15 [8]

The 8 Paradigm Shifts at the Heart of REconomy, May 6 [9]

2014

How to transform your local economy in one day, July [10]

Five ways to bring money and investment into your local area, May 22 [11]

See also

Interwiki links

Wikipedia: Localism (politics), Localist activism, Local community, Local purchasing, Fiscal localism, Positive aspects of peak oil, Transition town, Community development corporation

YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard) wiki

External links

Creative commons

  • REconomy, Helping you transform your local economy. Part of the Transition Network

Other

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  • Local Futures (formerly the International Society for Ecology and Culture) is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to raise awareness about what it identifies as the root causes of contemporary social, environmental and economic crises.
The group argues that focusing on single issues – saving whales, blocking nuclear power plants, feeding the hungry, etc. – only overwhelms people and ultimately fails as a strategy. Instead, Local Futures believes that the focus must be on changing the fundamental forces that create or exacerbate all of these problems. Among those forces are economic globalization, corporate power, and conventional notions of technological and economic "progress". As a solution, Local Futures promotes economic localization and other locally based alternatives to the global consumer culture, as a means to protect both biological and cultural diversity. W


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