Community
Multi-sectoral localization
Nearly everything must change about the current corporate-consumerist globalization model in order to secure a livable future for people and the biosphere. This is a tall order, but for localization initiatives to most meaningfully challenge the destructive global economy and create viable, joyous alternatives, they must strive for such comprehensive, holistic, multi-sectoral change. Here we share actions, guides, and inspiring examples of such initiatives from around the world, reclaiming local food, energy, finance, dwellings, business, and community.
Multi-sectoral localization Actions
Join and spread the word about the global movement for localization.
Join and spread the word about the global movement for localization.
Localized economies are created by and for the people who live there. Rather than subscribing to a global monocultural model, localized economies respect local cultures and needs, while allowing for the free exchange of knowledge and ideas across borders. In fact, localization requires international cooperation and collaboration to address global problems like the climate crisis, and to forge agreements to scale back the rapacious power of global corporations and banks. For this reason, a strong, globally networked movement based in international solidarity is needed, somewhat counter-intuitively, to enable localization.
Take action
- Connect with organizations working on both resisting corporate globalization and rebuilding local economies on our Organizations for Change page.
- Join a global community such as Local Futures' online network, the International Alliance for Localization, to connect with like-minded individuals from around the world, share ideas and success stories, and celebrate the sheer number of wonderful initiatives that are flourishing against all odds.
- Host a community screening and discussion of the Economics of Happiness and other related films.
- Host a do-it-yourself Economics of Happiness workshop and toolkit, designed by Local Futures for people who want to kick-start effective global-to-local action in their community or within an existing group. During the day-long workshop (approximately 6.5 hours), participants are guided through a reflective process that culminates in the elaboration of a personal Global to Local action plan.
- If you can’t find the kind of localization-oriented group you’re looking for, consider setting one up. You may be surprised at how many other people in your area are interested!
Get inspired
- Local Futures' Maps of alternatives page links to many international and regional trans-local networks working towards local, ecological and solidarity economies. Find projects around the world spanning a variety of localization-related initiatives: food, energy, local currencies, tool sharing, solidarity economies, and more.
- Local Futures' Planet Local, also linked above, is a library of dozens of inspiring grassroots localization projects across the world.
Transition your community.
Transition your community.
The Transition Network is a global movement of communities coming together to reimagine and rebuild our world – one town at a time – by changing every part of the currently destructive and extractive economy and replacing it with localized, sustainable, just alternatives.
Take action
- Find and join an existing Transition initiative with Transition Near Me, a global map showing the huge spread of the movement.
- No Transition initiative near you? Start one with The Essential Guide to Doing Transition: Getting Transition started in your street, community, town or organization.
- Start a neighborhood-scale initiative with Transition Street with the Transition Streets Handbook from Transition US, loaded with 100+ pages of actions, tips, and facts that empower neighbors to improve household energy efficiency, reduce waste and water use, explore alternative transportation options, and eat healthy, local food.
- Make the case for community-led economic relocalization by mapping existing local economy actors and opportunities with the guide How to Do a Local Economic Blueprint from the Transition Network's REconomy Project.
Get inspired
- Transition Town Totnes in the UK has carried out a variety of projects including affordable housing, skill sharing, the Totnes REconomy Project, and community gardens.
- Transition founder Rob Hopkins writes about Liége en Transition in Belgium, one of the most successful, exemplary Transition initiatives, comprising numerous direct farm-to-consumer projects, shops for small producers, 14 interwoven co-ops doing mushroom-growing, cargo bicycle distribution, seed saving, beer brewing, and more, and a local currency.
- Greyton Transition Town in South Africa organizes swap shops, trash-to-treasure initiatives, local vegetable exchanges, community composting, school gardens and other education initiatives, and eco-business mentoring, and runs an eco-lodge, among numerous other activities.
Get guidance on multi-sector localizing.
Get guidance on multi-sector localizing.
Multi-sector localization refers to efforts that strive to change multiple elements of the economy – food, energy, livelihoods, shelter, transportation and planning, etc. – all together, from the high-energy, globalized, corporate system to low-energy, locally-owned and produced economies of care. A number of organizations have put together excellent guides to holistic localization, listed below – and we hope that this Localization Action Guide as a whole will fulfill that role, too.
Take action
- Resilience: Building Thriving, Resilient Communities is "a collection of books, online resources, trainings and courses assembled by members and allies of the Thriving Resilient Communities Collaboratory (TRCC), who share a vision of a world that is sustainable, just, compassionate, and healthy."
- The series of how-to guides Think Resilience, from Shareable and the Post Carbon Institute, "can help you save money, reduce waste, and build community through sharing."
- The Center for a New American Dream's Guide to Going Local is a concise, clear tool for helping build stronger, healthier, and more vibrant communities.
- The Community Resilience toolkit from BayLocalize covers food, water, energy, transportation, housing, jobs, economy, social services, and civic preparedness.
Get inspired
- Cooperativa Integral Minga in Portugal was founded "to reverse a process common to many rural Portuguese towns: population loss, the abandonment of agriculture and the decline of local commerce." The cooperative does this by promoting agroecological farming and connecting local farmers and consumers, managing a community space and local currency, and encouraging principles and practices of slowing down, consuming less, sourcing local and seasonal food, and reintegrating people with nature. Read more on the Lush Spring Prize 2021 website.
- Building a Local Economy (BALE), in the White River Valley of Vermont, US is a holistic local economy initiative, building the capacity of communities in the region to thrive in the face of ecological and economic turmoil. Their work includes community solar projects, resilience hubs, a local food network, a time exchange, and a local investment club.
- Tosepan, in Puebla, Mexico, is comprised of three civil associations and eight cooperatives, which together cover basic needs including: organic agroecological farming both for sale (primarily to local markets) and for the community’s subsistence; small-scale, community-based eco-tourism; natural building using local resources like bamboo and adobe, incorporating features like water harvesting, solar dehydrators, ecological cookstoves, and renewable energy; local health-care, focusing on prevention and traditional herbal remedies; decentralized renewable energy with a goal of total energy sovereignty; and local finance to support the functioning of the entire ecosystem of cooperatives.
- Farmer's Share in Kerala, India, is a space for promoting human-scale local economies centered on dignified rural livelihoods. Their activities cover hand-crafted goods, local food production and preservation, vernacular building, rethinking education, and more.
- Local Futures' Maps of alternatives links to many international and regional trans-local networks working towards local, ecological and solidarity economies.
Start or join an ecovillage.
Start or join an ecovillage.
Ecovillages are rural or urban communities that are, according to the Global Ecovillage Network, "consciously designed through locally owned, participatory processes in all four dimensions of sustainability (social, culture, ecology and economy) to regenerate their social and natural environments." Many traditional villages and new planned communities alike identify with the ecovillage movement. By building localized alternatives communally, ecovillages tackle both social isolation and the ecological crisis simultaneously, providing members with a sense of belonging and positive purpose.
Take action
- Visit the website of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN), the hub for the worldwide ecovillage movement:
- Find, connect with, and visit an ecovillage through GEN's Map of ecovillages.
- Start an ecovillage with the resources on GEN's Frequently Asked Questions page (scroll down to "How can I start my own ecovillage?")
- Learn about the various aspects of ecovillage planning, design, practice and more with GEN's Online courses.
- Browse the Diggers & Dreamers website for resources on communal living and intentional communities in the UK.
- Find an intentional community with the Online Communities Directory maintained by the Foundation for Intentional Community. While centered in the US, the directory includes communities around the world.
Get inspired
- Read descriptions of the hundreds of ecovillages comprising the Global Ecovillage Network on their Ecovillage Projects page.
- Pejeng Village, which lies in a region of Bali, Indonesia beset by mass tourism and overdevelopment, has adopted a mission of achieving water, food, energy, and economic sovereignty.
- Qiandao Ecovillage, China, combines Taoist and Buddhist philosophy with natural farming practices and a zero-waste lifestyle. The village produces its own toothpaste, soap, shampoo, and fertilizer, in addition to growing its own food and getting drinking water from a fresh spring. And residents have a lot of leisure time, too, participating in community singing, dancing, calligraphy, and more.
Voices from the field
- The Economics of Happiness, a film by Local Futures, spells out the social, spiritual, and ecological costs of today’s global economy while highlighting the multiple benefits of economic localization. The film showcases the steps people are already taking worldwide to rebuild their local economies and communities. Featuring Vandana Shiva, Bill McKibben, David Korten, Samdhong Rinpoche, and other inspiring thinkers and activists.
- Tomorrow is a documentary that "sets out to showcase alternative and creative ways of viewing agriculture, economics, energy and education. It offers constructive solutions to act on a local level to make a difference on a global level."
- In Transition is a documentary about the Transition movement, showcasing "communities around the world responding to peak oil and climate change with creativity, imagination and humour, and setting about rebuilding their local economies and communities... In the film you'll see stories of communities creating their own local currencies, setting up their own pubs, planting trees, growing food, celebrating localness, caring, sharing."
- The Call for a New Economy, a podcast by Upstream, explores the movement for a new economy "From energy co-operatives in Spain that are literally bringing power to the local level, to a small school hidden deep in the English moors that is redesigning the study of economics, to a vast coalition in North America that is challenging domination by the 1%."
Policy
- Manifesto for Local Economies by the Centre for Local Economic Strategies in the UK details many policy solutions that "build local economies where wealth is harnessed and works for all."
- The Municipalities for Transition project helps municipalities and local governments "connect with their communities and respond to the great challenges of this historical period adopting a systemic view and methodologies inspired by the Transition Towns movement approach and learnings."
Resources
- The Commoner's Catalog for Changemaking, by David Bollier, delves into 25 thematic sections exploring the "commonsverse" including relocalized food systems, community land trusts, time-banking, collaborative finance, gift economies, local currencies and more.
- The Local Series, by Green Books, includes guidebooks on Community Energy, Local Sustainable Homes, Local Money, and Local Food.
- The report 21 Stories of Transition: How a Movement of Communities is Coming Together to Reimagine and Rebuild Our World profiles some outstanding projects of the global Transition movement that are "driven not by think tanks or political parties, but by communities. It signposts a global movement towards resilience at a local level....Grassroots movements are literally growing the foundations for a more positive, fairer, inclusive future that begins within the local context."
- Transition founder Rob Hopkins writes about Liége en Transition in Belgium, one of the most successful, exemplary Transition initiatives, comprising numerous direct farm-to-consumer projects, shops for small producers, 14 interwoven co-ops doing mushroom-growing, cargo bicycle distribution, seed saving, beer brewing, and more, and a local currency.
- In the journal article Community, commons, and degrowth at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, Joshua Lockyer describes how Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Missouri, US is forging models of "prosperity without growth" by "cultivating cooperative cultural values and behaviors, recreating the commons, and sharing their experiences and lessons with broader publics."
- In her book Ecovillages: Lessons for Sustainable Community, Karen Litfin embarks on a global journey to document how, in the global ecovillage movement, "Not only is another world possible, it is already being born in small pockets the world over."