local economies

The Challenge of Re-localisation

Feasta's particular approach to sustainability economics is to focus attention on the inadequacies of underlying systems. The development of local economies suffers from two particular adverse systemic effects - the in-built transfer of wealth from those that need money to those that already have money via the servicing of debt; and the transfer of wealth from the locality to the centre as globalisation progressively centralises economies. Local currency developers need to develop strategies that mitigate these two effects or they will remain limited in size and influence.

The Ecology of Money

The Ecology of MoneyRead The Ecology of Money online

In The Ecology of Money, Richard Douthwaite argues that just as different insects and animals have different effects on human society and the natural world, money has different effects according to its origins and purposes. Was it created to make profits for a commercial bank, or issued by a government as a form of taxation? Or was it created by its users themselves purely to facilitate their trade? And was it made in the place where it is used, or did local people have to provide goods and services to outsiders to get enough of it to trade among themselves? The Briefing shows that it will be impossible to build a just and sustainable world, unless and until money creation is democratized. Richard says that it is potentially the most important thing he has written.

Short Circuit

Short Circuit: Strengthening Local Economies in an Unstable World
by Richard Douthwaite. Expanded online edition published June 2003 with updates by Richard Douthwaite, Joanne Elliott and Caroline Whyte. Read Short Circuit online in its entirety.
Download pdf version(6 MB)

The global economy can no longer be relied upon to provide the necessities of life. Even in wealthy countries, the vagaries of free trade and the unimpeded movement of capital pose a threat not just to job security but to food and energy supplies as well.

Short Circuit proposes that each community build an independent local economy capable of supplying the goods and services its people would need should the mainstream economy collapse. It details the financial structures necessary for self-reliance, and it describes the techniques already in use in pioneering communities across the industrialized world. These inculde local currency schemes and community banks that enable local interest rates and credit terms to differ from those in the world economy. Efforts to meet local food and energy requirements using local resources are also reviewed.

Seminar: ‘Strengthening the role of the Irish Higher Education community in support of sustainable development’


Date: 28 November 2001
Venue: The Development Studies Centre, Kimmage Manor, Dublin

A one day seminar presented by FEASTA, the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability,
Tipperary Institute and The Development Studies Centre, Kimmage Manor

Wednesday 28th November 2001, 09.30 to 15.30 at the Tipperary Institute, Thurles, Co Tipperary

Workshops and Speakers included:
Richard Douthwaite, author of The Growth Illusion and Short Circuit: Strengthening Local Economies in an Unstable World.

Read report on this seminar

Introduction
Earlier in 2001, the Higher Education and Training Awards Council (HETAC) issued a set of guidelines for course providers about contributing to the …