Local Futures believes that the solution to our current crises requires two different, but related kinds of actions: those that resist corporate globalization and the ‘march of the monoculture’, and those that renew local communities, economies and cultures. Here are some ways to get involved in our work:
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- Share The Economics of Happiness: This film is a fundamental part of our work. We encourage you to share the film online, host a community screening or organize an Economics of Happiness Workshop using our new DIY toolkit. Contact us if you would like to show the film in a library or classroom or are interested in purchasing an institutional copy.
- Organize a screening of one of our other films in your community. These include Paradise with Side Effects and Ancient Futures.
- Join our email list: Subscribe to receive updates about our events, projects and reports as well as relevant and inspiring news about localization efforts worldwide. We promise to only email you 1-3 times per month.
- Come to an event: Check our calendar or Upcoming Events page for events in your area.
- Volunteer & intern: Our volunteers and interns work from home, so you can take part no matter where you are in the world. Check and see what we need help with.
- Donate: Make a tax-deductible donation to support our work.
Join the International Alliance for Localization
The International Alliance for Localization (IAL) is a cross-cultural network of thinkers, activists and NGOs dedicated to exploring radically new visions of development and progress. Currently the IAL membership includes individuals and organizations from 58 different countries.
Join the IAL now
Invite Helena Norberg-Hodge to speak in your community
Author and filmmaker Helena Norberg-Hodge is a pioneer of the local economy movement. Through writing and public lectures on three continents, she has been promoting an economics of personal, social and ecological well-being for more than 30 years. She is a widely respected analyst of the impact of the global economy and international development on local communities, local economies, and personal identity, and is a leading proponent of ‘localization’, or decentralization, as a means of countering those impacts.
She is the author of Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh and co-author of Bringing the Food Economy Home. Her articles have appeared in numerous volumes and periodicals such as The Ecologist, Resurgence, and YES! Magazine. Helena is also on the International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture. She is a member of the editorial board of The Ecologist, and a co-founder of the International Forum on Globalization and the Global Ecovillage Network. See for complete biography: Helena Norberg-Hodge. Please contact us with speaking enquiries: [email protected].
Start a Roots of Change Study Circle
Roots of Change is our curriculum and study circle program. The curriculum, comprising voices of leading political, economic and ecological thinkers from around the world, lays out both how we’ve arrived at our present predicament and what we can do about it. The program seeks:
- to encourage a broad analysis of the origins and workings of the global economy;
- to promote discussion about the impact of corporate globalization on our own communities as well as communities around the world;
- to help generate effective strategies for local action and global partnerships.
The second half of the curriculum surveys a range of living examples that represent a powerful emerging movement towards localization. Readers are introduced to a diverse set of proven tools for the renewal of communities and local economies.
Meet us in Ladakh
Across the world, non-Western ways of living are under threat from the consumer monoculture. In both North and South, centuries-old skills and knowledge systems are disappearing and viable rural communities are collapsing. But you can make a difference.
If you are traveling to Ladakh during the summer, please join us at the Women’s Alliance of Ladakh centre in Leh for a screening of our documentary films (Ancient Futures, Economics of Happiness, Mindful Travel in Ladakh) at 2pm daily, followed by an in-depth discussion on ways to make a positive impact. Read more about our work in Ladakh.