Author archive: Helena Norberg-Hodge

Helena Norberg-Hodge is founder and director of Local Futures/ISEC. A pioneer of the “new economy” movement, she has been promoting an economics of personal, social and ecological well-being for over 40 years. She is the producer and co-director of the award-winning documentary 'The Economics of Happiness', and is the author of 'Local is Our Future' and 'Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh'. She was honored with the Right Livelihood Award for her groundbreaking work in Ladakh, and received the 2012 Goi Peace Prize for contributing to “the revitalization of cultural and biological diversity, and the strengthening of local communities and economies worldwide.”

From ‘Progress’ to an Economics of Happiness

If there’s one thing I’d love world leaders to think about in connection with the UN’s International Day of Happiness, it’s that their measure of progress actually goes up with unhappiness and unrest. GDP, or Gross Domestic Product, which is […]

Supply chain failures: another reason for localized economies

The mainstream media – television, print and digital – routinely cycle through the litany of crises gripping the world. One week they’ll tell us about the latest climate disaster. The next, the focus may shift to the war in Ukraine. […]

Putting technology in its place

Translated into Italian. The most recent topic explored by the thinkers and activists who make up the Great Transition Network was “Technology and the Future”. As writer after writer posted their thoughts, it was heartening to see that almost all […]

What Indigenous Wisdom Can Teach Us About Economics

This blog is also available in Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Russian and Spanish. The crises of the modern world verify what indigenous cultures have always known: that all phenomena are inextricably interconnected. As the Amazon – one of the […]

Resist Globally, Renew Locally

This blog is also available in Arabic, Dutch, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish. A recent discussion forum among the members of The Great Transition Network focused on “The Promise and Pitfalls of Localism.” My friend and colleague Brian Tokar started […]

Local is Our Future

[The following is an excerpt from the first chapter of Local is Our Future: Steps to an Economics of Happiness, a new book by Helena Norberg-Hodge, published by Local Futures in July 2019.] For our species to have a future, […]

Unlike a Globalized Food System, Local Food Won’t Destroy the Environment

This blog is also available in Arabic, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish and Turkish. If you’re seeking some good news during these troubled times, look at the ecologically sound ways of producing food that have percolated up from the […]