Localization is way to redefine globalization

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Localization is Way to Redefine Globalization

Posted Nov 11, 2009 by Michael Shuman

[Excerpt] Madison residents love their farmers' markets, windmills, rural health cooperatives, credit unions and hundreds of other green businesses, appreciating how they simultaneously benefit the local economy, environment and civic life. Less appreciated, however, is the essential role localization plays in promoting global prosperity, sustainability and peace - the central theme of this weekend's Future Cities 2009 conference taking place in Madison.

Some skeptics, like Princeton University's Peter Singer, argue that Americans have a duty to avoid going local and to keep purchasing raw commodities from the global South, like plantation-grown bananas and coffee. Yet given how little of each import dollar actually winds up in the hands of the workers most in need - probably less than a penny - this is, at best, an extremely inefficient antipoverty strategy. It perpetuates domination of the poor by global corporations.

If we really want to help the poor, it's far smarter to help poor countries, poor communities and the poorest residents living in them to achieve the same level of local self-reliance we seek for ourselves. Mohandas Gandhi argued that the way to defeat British power was to restore self-reliance, especially in basics like textiles and salt. He did not suggest that India embark on a campaign to attract nicer British factories or to expand exports to London...

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Originally published November 5, 2009 in the Capital Times

Photo credit: Bonnie/flickr

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