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28 March, 2012

Sustainable Economy: Keeping Wealth (Wellbeing)
In Our Families And Communities

By Bryan Innes

Before industrialisation, economy mainly referred to local economy and household economy, based on cooperative and competitive processes. How can we shift from today’s centralised and global economy to a resilient local economy?

On Being In Time For Transition
By Sharon Te Apiti Stevens

When our stories of urgency and the material conditions that accompany them keep us from “thinking like a mountain”, let us at least respect a pace of change that allows us to think like a tree, rooted and aware of the slight changes in the wind and the seasons. If we do so, we are more likely, not less, to plant an orchard

Sacred Economics With Charles Eisenstein - A Short Film
By Ian MacKenzie

Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity, destroyed community, and necessitated endless growth

05 March, 2012

Uneconomic Growth Deepens Depression
By Herman Daly

Does growth now increase illth faster than wealth? This is a threatening question, because if growth has become uneconomic then the solution to poverty becomes sharing now, not growth in the future. Sharing is frequently referred to as “class warfare.” But it is really the alternative to the class warfare that will result from the current uneconomic growth in which the dwindling benefits are privatized to the elite, while the exploding costs are socialized to the poor, the future, and to other species

25 February, 2012

A Conversation With Herman Daly
By Contraposition

We are grateful to Herman Daly for chatting with us on a range of topics from ecology to economics, policy to politics, relocalization to religion. He is Emeritus Professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, pioneered work on Steady-State and Ecological Economics, and has received more accolades and written more books than we can mention

21 February, 2012

The Ooooby Local Economic Model
By Pete Russell

Ooooby began in December 2008 on Waiheke Island, Auckland, as an online social network of food gardeners. An evolving project, it now also facilitates the distribution of locally grown food. Ooooby has (in May 2011) 3,600 members, 10,000 monthly visitors, 50 local suppliers and 150 weekly customers. Each month an Oooobyversity evening is hosted in Grey Lynn, Auckland, to share knowledge about food-growing and ways to enhance local production

18 February, 2012

The Criminalization Of The Localized Economy
By Peter Goodchild

Localized agriculture, as I learned first-hand a few years ago in Ontario, is increasingly plagued by pointless rules related to processing, packaging, labeling, and similar issues, to the extent that small-scale farmers are simply forced out of business. Much of this is done in the name of "health"

24 January, 2012

Local Economies For A Global Future
By Jason F. McLennan

This article is about a simple, singular idea, yet the significance of the idea to modern society is profound and far-reaching. Here it is: In the near future anything heavy will become intensely local while at the same time the limits to things that are ‘light’, ideas, philosophies, information will travel even further than today—literally and figuratively. This is a new paradigm for humanity and it has huge implications for the complete reordering of society

09 September, 2011

Shifting Direction: From Global to Local (PDF)
By Helena Norberg-Hodge

Economic localisation implies an adaptation to cultural and biological diversity; therefore, no single ‘blueprint’ is appropriate everywhere. The range of possibilities for local grassroots effort is as diverse as the locales in which they would take place

09 August, 2011

The ELP Plan: Economize, Localize And Produce
By Jeffery Brown

In this article I will expound on my reasoning behind the ELP plan, otherwise known as “Cut thy spending and get thee to the non-discretionary side of the economy.”

Design For Social Innovation: An Interview With Ezio Manzini
By Sarah Brooks

Ezio Manzini is an Italian design strategist, one of the world’s leading experts on sustainable design, author of numerous design books, professor of Industrial Design at Milan Polytechnic, and founder of the DESIS (Design for Social Innovation towards Sustainability) network of university-based design labs. His work over the past 30 years in sustainability and social innovation has coalesced around four watchwords: small, local, open and connected

What Could A Post-Growth Society Look Llike
And How Should We Prepare For It?

By Brian Davey

This was the theme of a massive congress held in Berlin last month. Brian Davey attended it and has written a report for Feasta in which he describes the role played by Attac and the Decroissance movement, Vandana Shiva’s critique of economic growth in India, the vision of “Buen Vivir” put forward by representatives of indigenous communities of Latin America and the new relationship being forged between the greens and the left in Europe

22 June, 2011

Why Localisation Is A Key Part Of The Answer
By Rob Hopkins

When something isn't working, it behoves us to question whether a different approach might be more appropriate. One such approach, spreading around the world with great vigour, is the Transition movement. It suggests that within the challenges of peak oil, climate change, and our economic troubles lies a huge opportunity

26 April, 2011

Living Economies: Learning From The Biosphere
By David Korten

How we humans can redesign our failing systems by turning back to nature—and learning to live by the rules of life

Cornerstones Of A Rooted Economy
By Robin Broad & John Cavanagh

Can the small fishers of Trinidad and Tobago become pillars of a new economy when the oil- and gas-based economy finally runs dry?

12 April, 2011

Feeding The World: It’s Not About Quantity
By Danielle Nierenberg & Mara Schecter

The resilience of our food supply is as much about the quality and diversity of our food sources as it is about how much we produce

30 March, 2011

Garden As If Your Life Depended On It,
Because It Will

By Ellen LaConte

Tremors in food supply chains and pricing will make gardening look like a lot more than a hobby, a seasonal workout, a practical way to fill your pantry with your summer favorites, or a physically, spiritually and mentally healing activity, or all four. Gardening and small-scale and collective farming, especially of staple crops and the ones that could stave off malnutrition, could become as important as bringing home the bacon, both the piggy and the dollar kind

16 March, 2011

The Coming Global Food Fight
By John Cavanagh & Robin Broad

As aggression mounts with the rise of food prices worldwide, small-scale farms rooted in local markets could avert international disaster—and lead the way to "food democracy."

08 March, 2011

The Future Is Organic: But It's More Than Organic!
By Dr. E. Ann Clark

The future, which is coming faster than most of us appreciate, will be organic.The sooner that academics and government policymakers acknowledge the implications of post-oil for the structure and function of agriculture - and education in agriculture - the easier it will be to design and educate for the future

21 February, 2011

The Transition Movement In The United States (And "Deep Transition")
By Alex Smith

Alex Smith of Radio Ecoshock interviews Michael Brownlee

19 February, 2011

“Localization Is The Economics Of Happiness”
By Brooke Jarvis

An interview with Helena Norberg-Hodge

14 February, 2011

If We’re Serious About Localisation,
“All Of Us Have To Go To Business School”

By Transition Culture

An Interview With Michael Shuman, author of Going Local and Small Mart Revolution

01 February, 2011

What Right Do You Have To Be Here On Planet Earth?
By William Kotke

We are now living out the last gasps of materialistic, industrial civilization and the dying away of the flesh of our planet, with its exploding population and dwindling resources. If there were any maturity in the human societies they would be glad to sponsor experimental communities such as ecovillages. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the death culture could push through a few surviving ecologically balanced human communities past the apocalypse to become the seeds of the new human culture based on the principles of life?

24 January, 2011

Rocky Times Ahead: Are You Ready?
By Sarah Byrnes & Chuck Collins

You must not face the future alone. Find your own “reality support group” (we’ll tell you how below). This year, make a resolution to deepen your relationships with people around you with whom you can face what’s coming down the pike

09 December, 2010

Transition: The Sacred, The Scared, And The Scarred
By Carolyn Baker

A response to Rob Hopkins’ critical response to Michael Brownlee’s November 26 article “The Evolution of Transition In The U.S.”

01 December, 2010

10 Skills Needed To Thrive In A Post-Collapse World
By Jeffrey Green

Remember, knowledge of and skills to produce human necessities will be the only form of wealth creation in a hand-made world. Knowledge is something that no one can take from you. It’s the eternal wealth that will help you thrive in a Post-Collapse world. Get Prepared Now!

30 November, 2010

But What Is "Community"?
By Yevgeny

It seems to me that Russia and other former Eastern Block countries have already gone through hell and are now on the way to recovery, while the USA and other formerly rich countries are yet to go through this hell, and nobody knows what it will look like. The take-home point is simple: to survive in a third world country, you have to know who your people are, and who are the strangers. The more of your people there are, the better, but it is absolutely unacceptable if everyone beyond the confines of your family nest is a stranger. Then there is simply no chance that you will survive

The Evolution Of Transition In The U.S
By Michael Brownlee

The emergence of the Transition movement in the last four years or so is one of the most hopeful signs in the early 21st century, and Transition may yet turn out to be one of the fastest-growing, most inspiring, and most significant social change movements we have ever seen

A Circle Of Gifts
By Charles Eisenstein

Wherever I go and ask people what is missing from their lives, the most common answer (if they are not impoverished or seriously ill) is “community.” What happened to community, and why don’t we have it any more? There are many reasons – the layout of suburbia, the disappearance of public space, the automobile and the television, the high mobility of people and jobs – and, if you trace the “why’s” a few levels down, they all implicate the money system

Education And The New Story
By Arnold Greenberg

There is a new story emerging that is replacing the old story of human existence. The new story is urging us to learn who we are as humans and how to live so we do not destroy the planet. What is the old story and why is the new story so essential to our existence?

The Transition Town Movement’s Initial Genius
By Craig Comstock

Can we get beyond denial about peak oil, climate change, and economic troubles as long as we don’t find forms of action open to us?

18 November, 2010

Enough Is Enough
By CASSE

Enough is Enough is the single most complete collection of policy initiatives, tools, and reforms for an economy that makes enough its goal instead of more. The report is generated from the inspirational ideas of the Steady State Economy Conference

26 October, 2010

Embrace The Cooperative Movement
By Carlos Perez de Alejo

In the midst of mounting economic insecurity, fueled by widespread unemployment, foreclosures and budget cuts, many people are seeking alternative models to business as usual. From community gardens to bartering networks, grassroots efforts are sprouting up across the country. One of the main pillars of this growing trend is an international institution with over 160 years of experience in local, sustainable economic development: a cooperative

20 October, 2010

A Day In The Life Of A BerkShare
By Bill McKibben

What’s it really like to deal in regional currency?

13 October, 2010

Economics Of Needs And Limits
By Frank Rotering

An introduction to the Economics of Needs and Limits, or ENL

12 October, 2010

Soils And Souls: The Promise Of The Land
By Robert Jensen

While evil lurks in many places, it is most concentrated in fossil fuels. Perennial polycultures can deliver us from that evil

11 October, 2010

The Concept Of “Living Well” - A Bolivian Viewpoint
By Bolivia Delegation at The UN

Faced with so much disproportion and wealth concentration in the world, so many wars and famine, Bolivia proposes Living Well, not as a way to live better at the expense of others, but an idea of Living Well based on the experience of our peoples.In the words of the President of the Republic of Bolivia, Evo Morales Ayma, Living Well means living within a community, a brotherhood, and particularly complementing each other, without exploiters or exploited, without people being excluded or people who exclude, without people being segregated or people who segregate

05 October, 2010

In Kenya, Farmers Grow Their Own Way
By Heather Day & Travis English

Thousands of grassroots, African-led efforts are building locally rooted alternatives to the chemical agriculture promoted by the Gates Foundation and Monsanto

29 September, 2010

Transitioners: Leading The Way To A Smarter Future
By Janet Redman

People living in "transition" cities and towns are working together to make their communities more resilient to economic and environmental uncertainty

26 September, 2010

Localism vs Globalism: Two World Views Collide
By Michael McCarthy

Lyon: Stop economic growth in its tracks, start living locally, at a slower pace, and share more - that was the remarkable demand yesterday at the beginning of the Sustainable Planet Forum, a three-day international conference on environmental issues in the French city of Lyon, which The Independent is co-sponsoring

22 September, 2010

"Good Food": A Movement, Not Just A Movie
By Carolyn Baker

In their landmark documentary "Good Food", Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin are not merely offering the viewer just a few more hundred facts about our food supply, but rather, sharing an intimate portrait of an emotional, perhaps even spiritual movement that is burgeoning in the United States in search of heartfelt connections around a fundamental human need: eating. I highly recommend viewing this documentary and sharing its message and mandate in one's local community

20 September, 2010

Local Economy, Locavore, Loca-cology, Call It What You Will…It’s Swadeshi
By Morgana d’Wessington

I truly believe that the answer has been in front of us, well, for centuries, but most boldly, at least since the life of the Mahatma - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. His ‘swadeshi” movement was the answer - ok, maybe not all the world can sit and spin - BUT: local craft, local food, local - local - local. That is the true revolution which I believe needs to take place

The City That Ended Hunger
By Frances Moore Lappé

A city in Brazil recruited local farmers to help do something U.S. cities have yet to do: end hunger

15 September, 2010

"Globalisation - Use It or Lose It?"
An exchange between Helena Norberg-Hodge & George Monbiot

The exchange was initiated by the editor of the Ecologist, and published in the Ecologist magazine in September 2003

10 September, 2010

Stories Of Belonging
By Helena Norberg-Hodge

Around the world, people are demonstrating incredible wisdom, courage and perseverance and have shown me that feelings of fear, of isolation, of discontent are actually a natural reaction to a system gone awry. From these feelings springs the search for what is real, healthy and essential for life. They give us the inspiration to work together with those who have already started the journey to reclaim their contentment, security and joy

06 September, 2010

Why Learn Permaculture?
For The Children And Ourselves

By Chuck Burr

Permaculture is one of the only ways home for humanity. If one believes in modernism, industrial agriculture and better living through chemistry read no further. However, if you feel something is not right about the way we live, read on

28 August, 2010

To Walk Is Human
By Alan Wartes

Walking is how we belong to the world. It’s how we belong to each other. It’s how we see best what’s coming—for us, not for people half-way across the country or the world—and how we know what to do about it. It’s how we begin tuning ourselves to the frequency of a post-oil world

New Work Centers And High-Tech Self-Providing
By Juliet Schor

The high tech self-providing economy is one that has a great deal of initial appeal, but also raises many questions. Is it really possible that people could go back to doing so much for themselves? Is it a viable option for the unemployed? What can be done to promote such a model?

24 August, 2010

Community Economic Laboratories (CELs)
By Richard Heinberg

As America adjusts to the New Reality of tight credit, chronically less-affordable energy, high unemployment rates, rising levels of homelessness, and steeply declining tax revenues, new strategies will be needed to help swelling ranks of low-income people adjust and adapt.One strategy worth exploring is the seeding of a loosely coordinated national network of locally-based Community Economic Laboratories (CELs)

21 August, 2010

3 Pillars Of A Food Revolution
By Anna Lappé

As marketers learn to fake climate-friendly food, how do we spot the real thing? Anna Lappé says it's a question of values

20 August, 2010

Food And Farming: The Hub Of Planetary Transformation
Carolyn Baker Interviews Michael Brownlee

For several years, Michael Brownlee and Lynnette-Marie Hanthorn have pioneered relocalization in Boulder County, Colorado. Their latest project is the Boulder County Eat Local Campaign beginning August 28 through September 4. Last week Carolyn Baker caught up with Michael who generously gave an hour out of his packed schedule to talk about the desperate need for promoting local food and farming in our communities

10 August, 2010

10 Common Sense Principles For A New Economy
By David Korten

It’s time we the people declare our independence from the money-favoring Wall Street economy

Cob
By Brian Kaller

For hundreds of years, people built their own homes in Ireland, and some of these were built using the most common, simple and inexpensive building material on Earth -- earth itself. A few “cob homes” are still standing after hundreds of years, as are similar homes in the Middle East and China

05 August, 2010

The End Of Capitalism? What Lies Ahead?
By Alex Knight

We are getting smarter at creating approaches that integrate both ecological justice and social justice. More and more people are beginning to see that economic growth is not the goal. The capitalist economy is large but poor – it does not meet the needs of the majority of humanity or the needs of the planet. We can create an economy that is smaller but richer

Leaving It Up To Them
By Shannon Hayes

Even in radical homes, children don't always follow their parents' path. How some families are dealing with their children's choices

03 August, 2010

How A Community-Based Co-Op Economy Might Work
By Dave Pollard

It’s entirely possible, if we have the will to do it. I see it starting to happen already in some progressive communities that have Transition Initiatives underway. But I have a sense that it will take a few more economic, energy and ecological seismic shocks before many will wake up to the need to find a better way to live and make a living. I’m not sure it won’t be too late by then, but, if we’re in time, we’ll have some models and communities to show us the way

28 July, 2010

Collecting Rainwater Now Illegal In Many States In USA
By Mike Adams

Many Western states, including Utah, Washington and Colorado, have long outlawed individuals from collecting rainwater on their own properties. Laws have been on the books for quite some time in many Western states. Only recently, as droughts and renewed interest in water conservation methods have become more common, have individuals and business owners started butting heads with law enforcement over the practice of collecting rainwater for personal use

27 July, 2010

The Story Of Soil
By Rob Avis

Lucky for us that new paradigm exists! It is a branch of soil science that is called the Soil Foodweb. Nature wants to come back, we just have to help her out a bit. Best of all, permaculture gives us all of the design tools to make this a reality

22 July, 2010

A Review Of ‘Local Money’ By Peter North
By Jeremy

The Transition Towns movement is all about resilience – preparing towns for the challenges of climate change and peak oil. What’s money got to do with it, you may well ask, but money is a valuable tool in relocalisation

Permaculture Ethics: Why Permaculture Is Different
By Chuck Burr

The Prime Directive of permaculture is The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence. The corollary to this is It should be our responsibility to put the plants that we use where we are and leave nature alone!

21 July, 2010

Eco-logical vs. Eco-mythical: The Edenism Manifesto
By Zarakyah Ben Ahmadiel

We now have the opportunity to ensure that our children do not harvest the hybrid growth of our ancestors' ignorance, our oppressors' impudent iniquity and our cowardice. To this end, I propose a new standard beyond the binding clichés of environmentalism or greenness. The end to the confusion will be Edenism—the reclamation of our responsibility, the acceptance of the wholesale destruction of this world, and our willingness to build anew

Sustainability: From Excess To Aesthetics
By Lyle K. Grant

The purpose of the present paper is to examine the behavioral challenges and opportunities we face in creating a sustainable culture. Sustainability is initially defined in terms of a steady-state economy. The growth economy in the developed world is described as one of overconsumption of resource-intensive reinforcers and underconsumption of resource-free and resource-light reinforcers

19 July, 2010

The Emergence Of Localism
By Richard Moore

At this darkest time, promising new initiatives are emerging. While the environmental movement may have faltered, environmental consciousness has spread throughout the society. And in the face of government ineffectiveness, activists are turning their attention toward grassroots solutions to the crisis

Transition Towns: Local Networking
For Global Sustainability?

By Jonathan Balls

The Transition Model has advanced a pathway towards ‘local sustainability’ distinct from previous sustainability models in a clear and important way: it is a grassroots, non-governmental model and also a networking movement. Still in its infancy, and with little academic attention so far having specifically focused on it; there is a clear gap in understanding of the Transition Model’s role in relation to (local) sustainability, which this research has sought to bridge

16 July, 2010

Revolution: The Wrong Kind And The Right Kind
By Carolyn Baker

An appropriate revolution is one that is relevant to what is actually needed in the light of human and planetary evolution. It is not primarily political but rather informed by what the earth community is asking for