The many faces of relocalization

Relocalization, which can be defined as a movement to retool our communities to a more local orientation in order to develop greater self-sufficiency, resilience, security, and vibrancy, has made a cultural comeback and is a popular, growing phenomenon again. Groups small and large, urban and rural, with wide ranging ideological perspectives in many countries, wealthy and impoverished, are finding answers in relocalization to long sought questions related to improving their communities and their lives.

Conceptually, relocalization has the opportunity to avoid the short shelf life of social movements because it has such a broad appeal to potentially address such a wide range of critical issues. The fact is that relocalization is a simplified sustainability formula that is not beholden to a systems analysis framework or to traditional sustainability indicators-based data heavy monitoring. That is not to say that those features of sustainability are not without value or merit. It just means that you can pursue sustainability on a shoestring without those complexities, if you must. The beauty of relocalization is that the solutions are simple, time-tested, and possess a number of interlinking benefits. If your local environmental or sustainability group is having difficulty reaching out and growing the group and expanding your roster, perhaps a reframing based on relocalization could help. Because without a very broad local base of support and participation, which relocalization has the capacity to provide, local action plans focusing on energy and climate change may not receive any more consensus than a standard master plan.

Relocalization can address peak oil, climate change, damaged ecosystems, loss of community, the economic crisis, the externalities of globalization, loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs, sprawl, loss of quality manufacturing and craftsmanship, and a host of other things we've jettisoned as the price paid to implement the industrial revolution and blindly embrace technology. This excessively complex and unsustainable system we've built, fueled by petroleum, has broken our lives and communities and widely scattered the remains across the landscape. There would seem to be no better time to begin implementing relocalization tasks due to the current economic challenges that we face. Such efforts could be based on the permaculture model as espoused by David Holmgren in his book Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability, or other models of sustainable living and community building such as The Natural Step, the ecovillage model, and others.

Local groups working with a relocalization or transition model are attracted by the energy and enthusiasm that these movements exude that are fostered by their inclusiveness, community focus, and practical exercises for team-building, participatory democratic process, and perhaps most important of all, efficiency of idea generation and consensus building. Also important for these efforts is the initiation of projects without being too focused on process or administration. Many movements and organizations can become bogged down in developing bylaws, structures, hierarchies, and leadership models. While this can be important for organizational purposes, many members become frustrated by the minutiae and stop coming to meetings or move on to other groups. I have found in working with volunteer groups in Massachusetts that a key to success is unleashing the project-oriented people to begin working on what they feel is important, and letting process and organizational people work, in parallel, with the organizational model of the group. As long as each group begins with an overall organizing principle and end goal, say an energy descent plan, this freedom of member pursuit of interests works well to keep people engaged.

Once an organizational model is developed and an administrative structure is in place, planning should be focused on the ultimate development of a plan and each project and subcommittee should have some role to play in the development of the plan, which could have a variety of names in addition to energy descent plan. I tend to favor calling the plan a master or comprehensive plan as a city planner would be apt to do. This is primarily because such a plan should take the place of the traditional comprehensive plan in stature in the community. As long as groups do their due diligence in establishing close and cooperative ties with the municipal authority, this should be fairly easy to accomplish if not necessarily quick.

Regardless of the organizing principles and specific projects a local group chooses to engage in, the key is to develop activities that energize the membership. The wider range of activities will draw in a wider range of participants. A key challenge for locals is finding that you have too narrow of a membership roster. Ideologically, if the group maintains an narrow focus and does not reach out and attract diverse peoples who might be interested in specific aspects of local organizing such as alternative energy or independent businesses development, the entire initiative might not succeed. Again, the beauty of relocalization is its potential to attract a broad range of participants due to the wide array of projects and initiatives that can be developed (and the wide range of potential problems that can be addressed). If the experience that I have had with transition groups and locals in New England is any indicator, pursuit of a sustainable future may indeed be more than just a Utopian dream.