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The Economics of Happiness

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        • Beyond Trump: The Path to Real Change Webinar
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        • A World Without ‘Free’ Trade: What it would look like and how to get there
        • Beyond ‘Free Trade’ – Alternatives to Corporate Rule
        • Education: Promises, Myths & Realities Webinar
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        • Insane Trade! & Factsheet Translated
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        • Planet Local Short Film Series
          • 1 – Introduction: The New Local Food Movement
          • 2 – Diverse Farming Systems
          • 3 – Local Food Webs: Exploring Systems of Distribution
          • 4 – Local Food Processors: AKA Making Delicious Food
          • 5 – Challenges & Solutions
          • 6 – Ecovillages & Networks for New Farmers
          • 7 – And Finally… Here’s a Little More Inspiration
      • Local Bites Podcast
        • Unpacking Global Empire from an Indigenous Perspective with Tyson Yunkaporta & Helena Norberg-Hodge
        • More than Just the Vegetables
        • Food Sovereignty in the Global Economy
        • Transition, Tradition, and Trade
        • Not-for-Profit Businesses
        • Love, Values, and Wellbeing Economies
        • Growing a Farmers Market from the Ground Up
        • Beautiful Places: A Conversation with Wendell Berry
        • Creating the Framework for a New Economy
        • From GDP to GNH
        • Rebuilding Healthy Communities: The Growing Ecovillage Movement
        • Seeds of Resilience, Seeds of Sovereignty
        • Why Local Ownership Matters
        • Local Alternatives to Globalized Development: A View from India
        • How to Feed the World? A Political Agroecological Approach
        • Helena Norberg-Hodge on how corporate ‘free trade’ deals threaten local communities and economies worldwide
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        • Experiences in Ladakh 2017
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      • The Film
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You are here: Home / Our Projects

Our Projects

 

Our wide-ranging projects highlight the root causes of today’s many crises — from unemployment to climate change, from ethnic conflict to loss of biodiversity — while promoting grassroots and policy-level strategies for ecological and community renewal.

We have worked in countries all over the world, including the UK, USA, Spain, Australia, India, Thailand, Bhutan, Korea, and Japan. We currently run projects under three main ‘umbrellas’: Global to Local Projects, Our Work in Ladakh, and The Economics of Happiness.

Global to Local Projects

The Global to Local label encompasses a wide range of projects, each of which focuses in a different way on the importance of localization to societies and economies.

Insane Trade
Short Film
& Factsheet

Global trade can be insane – it wastes resources, worsens climate change, and undermines the livelihoods of many small-scale producers worldwide. To raise awareness about this issue, we’ve produced a short film and a factsheet.

Read more

International
Alliance for
Localization

The IAL is a cross-cultural network of thinkers, activists and NGOs from 58 countries. It focuses on the impact of globalization while also encouraging the regeneration of healthy local economies, communities and ecosystems.

Read more

Planet Local
Grassroots
Initiatives

Planet Local is a constantly-growing library of inspiring grassroots initiatives from around the world. We have also put together a selection of short films featuring grassroots food and farming projects: Short Film Series on Food & Farming. 

Read more

Global to Local
Webinars

The webinars address key issues in the debate about the global economy. Many inspiring speakers have joined our webinars, like Charles Eisenstein discussing the topic of debt and speculation and Bill McKibben discussing climate change.

Read more

Local Bites
Podcast

Our podcast features interviews with inspiring local economy advocates. From transition towns to not-for-profit businesses to farmers markets, we cover the groundswell of localization around the world. You can subscribe through Podbean or iTunes.

Read more

Roots of Change
Study Circle Program

Roots of Change is a curriculum for hosting study circles featuring the works of leading political, economic and ecological thinkers from around the world. It lays out both how we’ve arrived at our present predicament
and what we can do
about it.

Read more

Our Work in Ladakh

Ladakh, also known as ‘Little Tibet‘, is a beautiful desert land in the Western Himalayas, with few natural resources and an extreme climate. Yet it has been home to a thriving culture in tune with nature for over a thousand years. When Ladakh was opened up to ‘modern development’ and the forces of the global growth economy, centuries of ecological balance and social harmony came under threat.

Local Futures was founded in Ladakh in 1978. Since then, we have been providing Ladakhis with information about the history and impact of conventional development in other parts of the world, while exploring more sustainable patterns of development in Ladakh itself based on the use of local knowledge and resources. 

Read more about our work in Ladakh

The Economics of Happiness

Our award-winning film The Economics of Happiness (2011) explains the social and spiritual impact of economic globalization on local communities and economies, and highlights the many benefits of shifting towards the local. A trailer for the full-length version of the film, plus a 20-minute abridged version, can be watched here.

As part of our commitment to supporting the growth of the localization movement, we invite individuals and groups to host a:

  • Community screening of The Economics of Happiness or one of our other films;
  • DIY Economics of Happiness workshop for activists and others who want to kick-start effective action in their community or within an existing group. The DIY Workshop Toolkit and the Discussion Guide and Companion (PDF 10mb) to the film are both free of charge.

International Economics of Happiness Conferences

Since 2012, Local Futures has also been organizing an ongoing series of international ‘Economics of Happiness’ conferences in the USA, South Korea, Italy, India and Australia. The conference series is focused on kick-starting broad critical debate about the global corporate economy, and exploring alternatives that benefit society as well as the environment.

Read more about our 'Economics of Happiness' programs
  • Global to Local
    • International Alliance for Localization (IAL)
      • Join the IAL
      • IAL Members
        • IAL Member Organizations
        • IAL Listserv
      • Video Project: Voices from the IAL
    • Webinar Recordings
      • Sacred Activism in a Post-Trump World Webinar
      • Talking Climate Webinar
      • People Power: Democracy and the Economy Webinar
      • Beyond Trump: The Path to Real Change Webinar
      • Bringing the Food Economy Home Webinar
      • A World Without ‘Free’ Trade: What it would look like and how to get there
      • Beyond ‘Free Trade’ – Alternatives to Corporate Rule
      • Education: Promises, Myths & Realities Webinar
      • Debt and Speculation in the Global Economy Webinar
      • A New Activism Webinar
      • Climate Change or System Change Webinar
      • Going Local Webinar
    • Animation: Going Local: the solution-multiplier
    • Insane Trade Short Film and Factsheet
      • Insane Trade! & Factsheet Translated
    • Planet Local
      • Culture
      • Eco Communities
      • Ecology
      • Health
      • Local Business & Finance
      • Local Energy
      • Local Food, Farming & Fisheries
      • Local Policy & Community Rights
      • Place-based Education
      • Sharing & Repairing
      • Planet Local Short Film Series
        • 1 – Introduction: The New Local Food Movement
        • 2 – Diverse Farming Systems
        • 3 – Local Food Webs: Exploring Systems of Distribution
        • 4 – Local Food Processors: AKA Making Delicious Food
        • 5 – Challenges & Solutions
        • 6 – Ecovillages & Networks for New Farmers
        • 7 – And Finally… Here’s a Little More Inspiration
    • Local Bites Podcast
      • Unpacking Global Empire from an Indigenous Perspective with Tyson Yunkaporta & Helena Norberg-Hodge
      • More than Just the Vegetables
      • Food Sovereignty in the Global Economy
      • Transition, Tradition, and Trade
      • Not-for-Profit Businesses
      • Love, Values, and Wellbeing Economies
      • Growing a Farmers Market from the Ground Up
      • Beautiful Places: A Conversation with Wendell Berry
      • Creating the Framework for a New Economy
      • From GDP to GNH
      • Rebuilding Healthy Communities: The Growing Ecovillage Movement
      • Seeds of Resilience, Seeds of Sovereignty
      • Why Local Ownership Matters
      • Local Alternatives to Globalized Development: A View from India
      • How to Feed the World? A Political Agroecological Approach
      • Helena Norberg-Hodge on how corporate ‘free trade’ deals threaten local communities and economies worldwide
  • Our Work in Ladakh
    • Past Work in Ladakh
      • Experiences in Ladakh 2018
      • Experiences in Ladakh 2017
    • Ancient Futures (book & film)
    • Local Futures’ History in Ladakh
      • Women’s Alliance of Ladakh
  • The Economics of Happiness
    • Economics of Happiness Conferences
    • The Film
    • DIY Economics of Happiness Workshop

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Local is Our Future now available in E-book

Latest Blogs

  • How to fix a food system that’s not designed to feed people

    January 19, 20211 Comment
  • Progress and the modernization of Ladakh

    December 18, 20202 Comments
  • How the World Bank helped re-establish colonial plantations

    December 2, 20202 Comments

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