[Futurework] Local living economies

[Karen Watters Cole]

Last weekend I attended the first national gathering of a group formed to promote local living economies, partly as a personal growth exercise and for writing research.  The group’s name, BALLE, stands for Business Alliances for Local Living Economies (http://www.ballenetwork.org/BALLE/) and includes mostly small local entrepreneurs trying to remain vital in their communities, centered around sustainability themes and a strong desire to promote local business first.  Some of these good people are unabashedly anti-global, anti-multinationals but most of them simply want to succeed in the places where they live, raise their children and pay their taxes.  These are not provincial people insisting everyone be of the same color, creed or cloth, otherwise I would not be interested in what they are trying to promote.    This is a lot more than a new version of the old Lions clubs or even a New Age Chamber of Commerce, although they are forming affiliations to promote and market local ownership business first rather than Big Box retail dominating consumer choice.  This is a new group, attracting the support of community and economic development professionals, government officials and those interested in sustainability and local, place-based economies.    This group is trying not to be a political organization but they do want everyone to know that despite current perceptions, most small business owners in this country are not all Republican diehards espousing Reaganism and a monoculture.    What they are suggesting is that if we spent as much time and money practicing economic development of local talent and experience instead of wooing foreign and/or out of state corporations there would not only be a lot of tax revenue saved but fewer jobs sacrificed.    Studies show that Wal-Mart, the world’s largest corporation and supplier of most consumer goods in the US, including food, displaces 3 local jobs for every 1 it creates, and their profits go to one centralized place in Arkansas.  For many, this behemoth symbolizes the power and corruption of the current free market system, which deprives people in their communities with choice and independence, not just threats to regional variety and culture.    Some of you might be interested to know about this alliance because of the free market and globalization conversations we have on FW.  Some of you will be intrigued by the commitment of small businesses asserting themselves under the growing big foot of giant corporations.  Others like me will hear the human spirit reasserting itself, as it will, because no matter what sociopolitical and economic theories and institutions do, the human spirit will continually strive to be heard and felt, to thrive.    There are many websites and groups working in this arena, locally and regionally, to collect data, promote and support local entrepreneurship.  I am going to list a few, but if anyone would like more details and links, please contact me offline.  Names that some might recognize include Judy Wicks, David Korten, author of When Corporations Rule the World and The Post-Corporate World: Life after Capitalism and Michael Shuman, Going Local.  Korten uses the phrase “suicide economy” to describe what we are currently practicing (see http://www.pcdf.org/living_economies/).  - Karen   Institute for Local Self-Reliance @ http://www.ilsr.org White Dog Caf� @ http://www.whitedog.com/foundation.html Positive Futures Network @ http://www.futurenet.org/aboutPFN.html Rudolf Steiner Foundation @ http://www.rsfoundation.org/home.asp Bainbridge Graduate Institute @ http://www.bgiedu.org/BGI-index.html