Energy supplies are tightening. Persistent pollutants are accumulating. Food
security is declining. There is no going back to the days of reckless
consumption, but there is a possibility--already being realized in communities
across North America and around the world--of localizing, of living well as we
learn to live well within immutable constraints. This book maps the transition
to a more localized world. Society is shifting from the centrifugal forces of
globalization (cheap and abundant raw materials and energy, intensive
commercialization, concentrated economic and political power) to the
centripetal forces of localization: distributed authority and leadership,
sustainable use of nearby natural resources, community self-reliance and
cohesion (with crucial regional, national, and international dimensions). This
collection, offering classic texts by such writers as Wendell Berry, M. King
Hubbert, and Ernst F. Schumacher, as well as new work by authors including
Karen Litfin and David Hess, shows how localization--a process of affirmative
social change--can enable psychologically meaningful and fulfilling lives while
promoting ecological and social sustainability. Topics range from energy
dynamics to philosophies of limits, from the governance of place-based
communities to the discovery of positive personal engagement. Together they
point the way to a transition that can be peaceful, democratic, just, and
environmentally resilient.
