Localism has been something I have been passionate about for several years now. The idea of developing local communities, helping people re-engage with their neighbourhood and preventing big corporate culture from dominating our high streets.
With a low carbon economy, these ideas begin to be more relevant as we look at restrictions on global travel, renewable energy production requiring smart grids to be effective etc.. But we still live in a planet challenged by resource deprivation, mass poverty and poor health care.
I have heard the saying charity begins at home all my life and I do agree that principle, but if we focus purely on our neighbour do we miss a chance to make real change.
In reality our neighbour has never been further away, whilst at the same time never closer. The communications era has lead to a shrinking world. Someone living in my village has never read my blog, but I know people as far away as South Korea have. Does the term neighbour redefining in our global network.
The skills and ideas that we generate in the UK are equally relevant in South Korea, Libya or Argentina. Whilst the Global mastodons will continue to grow and reach new markets so the challenge of localism becomes ever more important. Towns in the sub continent and Africa need the skills and ideas to become self supproting to create jobs and provide food for their families in the same way that we do.
We should not be focussed on localism solving local issues but localism and networks of locallities changing the global framework and reinventing how we live our life.
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