Decentralization: Reasserting Local Authority and Countering the Negative Aspects of Globalization
Centralizing solutions whether they come from corporate globalization or from a macro level government institution will only lead to folly and a jaded sense of reality for the people of that society. Despite massive PR efforts on the part of these centralizing institutions to convince people otherwise these top-down solutions are oligarchic, unsustainable and unworkable. The dominant social reality of contemporary society is held together by sophisticated systems and power structures that represent the needs of a relatively minute section of the population.
New Economics and Decentralization
A sustainable, steady state economy based on the assumption that economics should function as if people and the natural environment matter, must exist on the most fundamentally human scale, where people can relate to each other on a personal level-- in an intense and tightly knit urban space. The basic building block of all urban configurations from the most basic to the largest conglomeration of people is the neighborhood unit.
Activities within this small-scale economy should take advantage of emerging appropriate technologies such as bio-remediation, composting, recycling, renewable energies, organic/health foods and healing/therapy. The emerging vision of the eco-community is the practical agent of social, economic political change within the society. As the community develops and becomes more specialized, it fans out into the surrounding area to colonize new areas creating a larger conglomeration called a community. The community by way of its size does things that the neighborhood cannot. And so this process continues until we have the cosmopolitan nature of the full fledged urban city. Yet maybe what makes the city of the future different is its insistence on the cultivation of distinctive autonomy within its many political social and economic subdivisions so that the city is truly a celebration of human diversity.
Decentralized Economics and Distributed Power
The idea of decentralized off the grid or independent renewable energy system is important to the idea of a sustainable community or ecovillage. There are various technologies that could emerge as the significant renewable energy source that will replace conventional fossil fuel based systems.
Developing more decentralized socioeconomic systems may be one solution that involves decentralized energy grids, mass transit, community supported agriculture, and more self-reliant communities and cities that embrace not centralizing planning but grass roots empowerment to the people who live in these spaces. These products and services (solar panels, fuel cells mass transit system bikes and green building materials as well as the consulting and contracting companies who will help install them) that are vital for a sustainable society. In the future there will be an increasing need integrate these appropriate technologies into new plans and designs for more sustainable urban areas that are moving towards closed loop economies (where all waste is recycled).
Driving Values of the Decentralized Economics Movement
Sustainability will become the backbone of not only economic and social policies but our foreign policies as well by putting forward more enlightened ways of getting things done:
Meet future needs without compromising future generations
Actively direct our development in favor of the world's majority the poor.
An open and diffuse community of people dedicated to social justice within a flexible market based system that allows for wealth accumulation but encourages residents and participants to live a simple life in terms of material things and to not judge people by their economic worth.
Primary focus of wealth creation is towards developing the economic resources to promote sustainable business concepts and to help others to realize the same dreams and goals.
Deeper meaning is embedded in life's experiences and interactions. These experiences are much more important than how much one has in the bank or what one owns, etc.
We come closer to realizing a sustainable vision that encompasses the above values, by not only embracing and experimenting with new technologies and rediscovered old technologies, but by interacting with the world around in a more functionally positive way. Such communities of people can represent a new and potent force for change, the nuts and bolts of massive socioeconomic transformation in the way we live and function on this earth. This involves the development of distributive power networks. While the early technologies of industrialization seemed to distance us from the processes of production as well as from the decision making processes that governs our production systems, the distributive power concept is a reversal of the excessive economic social and cultural and political centralization that has resulted from the modernization process.
Community supported organic agriculture
Distributed electrical power generation
Music/video/book Production
Industrial ecology
Channel resources towards environmentally and socially innovative projects.
Creating a Marketplace that Works for People
Our focus should not be against the marketplace but in looking at how it evolved and how we may reexamine and rethink this evolution. Instead of obsessing about the immense wastefulness and corruption of this society and waiting for a dismal endgame scenario to shake the people out of their slumber, we should work to create a system that can function within the marketplace and begin to influence it in a positive way through practical, grassroots, small scale and decentralized measures. Such a system of thinking should be based on getting people empowered economically on the local level so that they can take advantage of the fact that the present socioeconomic apparatus is really not that effective or efficient at sustaining real and authentic human needs and aspirations. The tremendous waste the modern society produces cannot be justified because it is not making us happier or more enlightened but is simply sustaining a bankrupt way of thinking and doing things that is undermining the ecological foundations that sustain life on earth at the present level.
If we can make products that require less energy and resources to make and last longer and are more efficient in what they do, this will save us money. These dividends could be reinvested--instead of just spending it piecemeal on renewable energy projects--in bold new urban renewal and development projects. An increasingly vocal group of leaders all over the world are starting to think about the creation of more densely populated cities and communities, where consumerism and the auto are discouraged, and where creativity, spirituality, political participation and intellectual discourse are encouraged. The way to finance a more ecologically sustainable, community oriented project is to work with government, businesses and non-profits to create a showcase of energy-efficient and green building technologies that are consistent with a vision of a sustainable society.
Sustainable Habitats and Non-Exploitative Workplaces
One way to take advantage of the wastefulness of mainstream society is to demonstrate how we can convert its waste products into energy and useful materials, products and services that can be sold at a generous profit. Seeing waste as a resource and not simply a waste gives one a comparative advantage over the conventional throwaway mentality.
The massive piles of waste that the throwaway society creates can be used to create an alternative economic system that is focused on creating sustainable habitats and Non-exploitative workplaces where the people can
Have a say in the decisions that affect their lives
Live prosperous and fulfilling lives
Exist in harmony with nature
Education
We need to develop more effective ways of not only educating people about alternative perspectives but getting them convinced about the compelling need for change and the exciting ways in which people are now putting forward a new vision of economics that can change the way we live. Through education and economic development an alternative economic system can begin to emerge that offers viable alternatives to the throwaway society, rampant suburban development and its mindless consumerism that is so destructive to the environment and to human consciousness and happiness also.
Sustainable, renewable or appropriate technologies will not in themselves reverse the negative social and economic trends of the industrial society. Evolution towards a enlightened state of being--as defined by the evolving personal transformation of individuals, who seek truth and a state of personal balance and harmony within life itself-is the necessary core, for a massive social transformation in which people begin to affect others by creating systems that are consistent with their genuine striving for higher moral and ethical values in life.
Reference
The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) is a nonprofit research and educational organization that provides technical assistance and information on environmentally sound economic development strategies. Since 1974, ILSR has worked with citizen groups, governments and private businesses in developing policies that extract the maximum value from local resources.