By Vicki Robin, Resilience.org
Stacy Mitchell is co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a national research and advocacy organization that fights corporate control and works to build thriving, equitable communities. She addresses the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?”
By Morgan Florsheim, YES! magazine
The co-founders at the Nashville Black Market know it takes a community to cultivate change; that it’s less about what they alone can do and more about how they can empower the people around them.
By John Pattison, Strong Towns
If you follow those steps, find a group of people, start dreaming together, start educating yourselves, start listening and identifying gaps in the community and assets in the community, then I think you're at that point where you can actually start thinking seriously about, "Okay, which of these Community Economic Development toolkit strategies do we want to take on first?"
By Nithin Coca, Shareable
By keeping your spending local, you can also help your neighborhood, town or city recover from COVID-19 impacts more quickly.
By Pamela Haines, George Lakey, Waging Nonviolence
But without a bold vision that’s inclusive and down-to-earth enough to make intuitive sense to the great majority of Americans, not even the best of strategies will be enough to carry the day.
By Lucia Monje-Jelfs, Sustainable Food Trust
So, if you’re planning on celebrating this Christmas – albeit unconventionally – here are some of the reasons why, now more than ever, independent businesses need your support.
By Stefan Cristoff, Uneven Earth
Highlighting the term careful is important here: we can view the response of the state to this pandemic with care, we can be careful to see the gaps and address the ways that the state response is lacking. Careful in this context also means taking care and directly engaging with the crisis on a community based level in a safe way.
By Gwendolyn Hallsmith, Great Transition Initiative
Perhaps we need to embrace a different kind of power on all levels to provide a timely, effective transformation. Maybe we need a compendium of strategies and practices on all levels to guide an organic and multifaceted cultural shift.
By Kester McLennan, Bristol Pound blog
8 years on, the Chiemgauer attracts over 600 businesses and 3000 users, turning over 5 million per year. And this is only the start. Its whopping growth of over 100% per annum means its significance is only likely to grow in the near future.
By Thomas H. Greco, Jr., Open Democracy
The prosperity, resilience and self-determination of a community is greatly dependent on its having an adequate supply of payment media to connect available supplies with basic needs, so the usual scarcity of conventional money needs to be overcome.
By Russell Arben Fox, In media res
Well, however one construes it, keeping in mind that rebuilding a sense of place will probably also mean rebuilding a sense of mutual obligation between different types of places is an important lesson, I think.
By Annah MacKenzie, Project for Public Spaces
Why are cities like Barcelona and London investing in markets as critical infrastructure? Because they recognize their ability to strengthen local economies, promote physical health and sustainability, and foster deep social connections in the communities they serve.