I ran into my friend Rick the other day in a small town near our homes in northern Vermont. He was just coming out of the bookstore, holding a pink plastic bag that, I would soon learn, contained a dozen […]
An Economy of Meaning – or Bust
It’s not often that a scientist gets to use the words love, creativity, and wisdom in a paper, especially when writing about economics. Perhaps that’s because economics, the dismal science, is obsessed with dismal systems – make that abysmal systems, […]
Inner Transition: an introduction
I recently took up the challenge to talk about inner transition in the garden of an eco-village project in Värmland County, Sweden. A lot of sun, beautiful place, no flip-chart or power points. Here is a short account of what […]
Adivasi Economics and Re-awakening the Indigenous Mind
When the East India Company set up in India, the commodities they originally traded included hundreds of unique artifacts made in India, including textiles whose quality has never been surpassed. As the EIC set up a subsidiary called the Government […]
The Paris Climate Talks: A Nepali View
Before the COP21 meetings in Paris, I had never attended an international negotiation of any kind. Perhaps as a result, I participated in the event without preconceptions. Based on my experiences at the talks, I brought back to Nepal new […]
Globalization and Terror
For people in the modern world, there may be nothing more difficult to comprehend than the group calling itself the Islamic State, or ISIS. The beheadings, rapes, and other acts of cruelty seem beyond understanding, as does the wanton destruction […]
Connecting over Soil
It’s no secret that there’s a divide between the global North and South. Most people know about the huge wealth gap between the industrialized and so-called “developing” worlds, and that rates of pollution, resource use, greenhouse gas emissions – and […]
Resisting the Technocratic Paradigm
Ever since the release of Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’, people in our circles have been waxing rhapsodic about its message: finally, a powerful global figure is explicitly calling for fundamental structural change. Unfortunately, the media has pigeon-holed the encyclical […]
Small Loans, Big Problems: The False Promise of Microfinance
Ever since Bill Clinton and the World Bank enthusiastically embraced the microfinance concept in the 1990s, we at Local Futures have been skeptical of its benefits, seeing it as part of a whole package of “market solutions” to our social […]
Mapping the Local Economy
I learned about cottonwood trees as a Master’s student in Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University. These riparian trees do extremely well on the riverbanks of North America, but the ecosystems in which they thrive require regular flooding […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- Next Page »