Author archive: Local Futures

Local Futures’ mission is to protect and renew ecological and social well being by promoting a systemic shift away from economic globalization towards localization. Through its “education for action” programs, Local Futures develops innovative models and tools to catalyze collaboration for strategic change at the community and international level.

World Localization Day is back!

June 20th 2021 marks the return of the international WLD campaign, which aims to galvanize the worldwide localization movement into a force for systemic change. This movement is made up of myriad initiatives and groups on every continent working to […]

After Paris: Climate Change or System Change?

In the wake of the Paris climate talks, Local Futures has released a 16-page action paper entitled Climate Change or System Change? In this paper we argue that globalization – that is, the deregulation of trade and finance through an […]

Mental Health and Globalization: An Alternative Theory on the Mental Health Crisis

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a sick society.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti I have a secret that I usually keep locked up inside of myself, hidden from even those who know me well: I suffer […]

An Eco-Farm in Myanmar (Burma): Saving the World with Organic Agriculture

The sun has risen over a misty, damp plain where, not long ago, wild elephants roamed. We have walked home through fallow paddy fields after a hot cup of tea at the little teahouse on the road to the monastery. […]

Big Picture Activism

This piece is excerpted from Localization: Essential Steps to an Economics of Happiness, a new publication from Local Futures. Despite the countless grassroots projects already under way, the global economic juggernaut can seem too powerful to stop. But because […]

Loving Local: Place, Economy and Community

A block of brownstone row houses in West Philadelphia became my place in the world – a place where I aspired to start a business, raise a family, and help build a strong and joyful community. Making a commitment to […]

Stories and Seeds: Excerpts from Seedtime

The third article in our series by the speakers of Voices of Hope in a Time of Crises, a one-day event, which will explore localized solutions to our global problems and launch the International Alliance for Localization. Join the discussion […]

Permaculture and the Myth of Scarcity

This is the second article in our series by the speakers of Voices of Hope in a Time of Crises, a one-day event, which will explore localized solutions to our global problems and launch the International Alliance for Localization. Join […]

Ice Cream, Shamans, and Climate Change

In the summer of 1969, I was 18 years old with a job driving an ice cream truck in a small New England town. One July afternoon the weather was hot and humid – ideal for ice cream – but […]

#Occupy Happiness

Occupy Wall Street has captured the imagination of people all over the world with the prospect of a more participatory, people-powered future. We at ISEC are particularly excited that the Occupy Movement is focusing its critique on corporate control. We […]