Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age

by Shuman,Michael

• ISBN13: 9780415927680
• ISBN10: 0415927684
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2000-08-25
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

National drug chains squeeze local pharmacies out of business, while corporate downsizing ships jobs overseas. All across America, communities large and small are losing control of their economies to outside interests. Going Local shows how some cities and towns are fighting back. Refusing to be overcome by Wal-Marts and layoffs, they are taking over abandoned factories, switching to local produce and manufactured goods, and pushing banks to loan money to local citizens. Shuman details how dozens of communities are recapturing their own economies with these new strategies, investing not in outsiders but in locally owned businesses.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	1	(5)
No Place Like Home	6	(2)
The Perils of Mobility	8	(7)
The Triumph of Economists	15	(5)
An Emerging Countermovement	20	(6)
A Way Forward	26	(5)
Place Matters	31	(20)
Bad People and Bad Civics	33	(4)
The Science of Efficiency	37	(2)
Free Trade vs. Community	39	(6)
A New Economics of Place	45	(6)
Needs-Driven Industries	51	(32)
Import Replacement	52	(6)
Food Industries	58	(6)
Energy Industries	64	(7)
Natural-Resources Industries	71	(3)
Materials Industries	74	(3)
Beyond Necessities	77	(6)
Community Corporations	83	(23)
A Taxonomy of American Business	85	(3)
Engines of Self-Reliance	88	(10)
New Models	98	(6)
Empowerment Through Ownership	104	(2)
Financing the Future	106	(17)
Bankers vs. Communities	107	(4)
Community-Development Financial Institutions	111	(4)
Unconventional Loans	115	(2)
Locally Owned Equity	117	(3)
Pension Reinvestment	120	(1)
The Role of Public Policy	121	(2)
Pro-Community Local Governance	123	(29)
The Virtues of Localism	124	(4)
Local Reinvestment	128	(4)
Local Purchasing	132	(6)
Selective Privatization	138	(2)
Local Hiring	140	(4)
Local Taxes	144	(5)
A Question of Power	149	(3)
Bringing Home Power, Not Bacon	152	(25)
Real Home Rule	155	(3)
A New Approach to Trade	158	(9)
Rethinking Corporations	167	(4)
Neighborhood Banking	171	(3)
Community Lobbying	174	(3)
Making History	177	(28)
Ten Steps Toward Community Self-Reliance	180	(18)
The New Global Village	198	(2)
The Lilliputian Strategy	200	(5)
Appendix: Around the World Economy in 80 Ways	205	(80)
Notes	285	(22)
Index	307