With the economic crisis pointing to harder financial times to come, the need to build local resiliency is coming to the forefront of discussions among policy-makers on local, regional and national levels. Relocalization is about reducing consumption and producing locally — building community resilience as a response to climate change and energy uncertainty. It is also a way to preserve and promote local knowledge and culture. It’s about being self-reliant, planning for the unknown, and understanding the risks of putting all our eggs in one basket.
Take, for example, food. 2008 saw a massive swell of interest in local food and urban gardening. Food riots and e-coli scares demonstrated the vulnerability of our current food system. The concern that this caused, along with inspiration from a growing body of literature on the topic, resulted in community gardens and farmers markets cropping up in increasing numbers on abandoned strips and empty parking lots. More people are searching for local producers to source their basic needs, and have challenged themselves to eating a local diet. People understand the importance of supporting the local economy, but even more so it seems that people want to rediscover their sense of place. In an era of globalized culture, it’s in the local parks and markets and squares that people are connecting with the neighbours and strengthening their ties with the place in which they live.
There is no shortage of ways for people to get involved and take action to help their communities develop resiliency. Members of the Relocalization Network in 2008 engaged in all sorts of activities from working with local elected officials on policy development to getting their hands in the soil and transforming lawns into productive food gardens. Transition Initiatives have grown leaps and bounds and have laid down a lot of the groundwork in getting communities to think about relocalization and local resiliency. This diverse and integrated approach allows for the strategy of relocalization to be inclusive and action-oriented, whereby people of all backgrounds can contribute and be engaged. Here’s a snapshot of some of the Relocalization Network activities in the past year.
The current mix of political momentum and economic circumstances present us with the opportunity to think hard about the track that we’re on and redefine how we live our lives based on what truly makes sense. This shift is unique and unprecedented in that while the work ahead is to be done on a local community scale, globally we are more connected than ever before. Global campaigns are mobilized in a matter of days. Anyone with access to the internet can publish content and have it viewed by millions of people around the world. These tools are allowing us to leverage a collective body of knowledge and glean from it best practices and models for alternatives ways of making the local economy work. We are far from alone in this endeavor.
I feel very fortunate to be working with the Relocalization Network community and I look forward to seeing more projects grow, gardens tended, workshops held, and bicycles repaired in 2009!
Filed under: community, food systems, projects , Relocalization, transition
Dr. Vandana Shiva is a physicist, ecologist, activist, editor, and author of many books. In India she has established Navdanya, a movement for biodiversity conservation and farmers’ rights. She directs the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy.
