Central Organizations Can Promote Localization Through Capacity-Building

This article (“Active networks for global-to-local rapid transition” by Henry Coleman) explores some examples of relatively large-scale, central organizations that are helping to promote localizations. This may seem like a paradox, so how are they doing so?

The answer is that the various examples discussed in the article are engaged in capacity-building with local organizations—expanding their capabilities, so people can more effectively take actions at the local level. Rather than exercising top-down command and control, the central organizations are at the center of a horizontal network, working to empower other members of the network.

There are two main ways of doing this that the article discusses:

·      Popular education: Some of the discussed organizations, like Bhoomi College in Bangalore, India, are providing education to local groups so they can more effectively engage in things like agro-ecology and environmental conservation.

·      Networking: Some of the discussed organizations, like EcoUniversidade in São Paulo, Brazil, help build networks between activists and organizers in different localities, letting them learn from each other.

What is striking about this is that localization and central organization are often treated as in conflict with each other. But these examples show that certain forms of central organizations playing certain types of roles can actually boost local empowerment.

Such localization play an important role in creating a better world in a number of ways:

·      Ecological sustainability, which is what the linked article emphasizes. The more self-sufficient people are, the less ecological impact there is from long-distance production chains and transportation.

·      Democracy and political empowerment: Building up local democratic institutions and empowering them to make more decisions gives people more avenues for civic participation. This can empower them not only on the local level, but at higher levels as well, as people are already mobilized and politically knowledgeable.

·      Wealth and economic empowerment: Fostering local economies gives people more control over their livelihood and means more wealth remains locally, instead of being removed from the community where it was created by distant corporations.

All three of these benefits can be mutually reinforcing. As we work to create a better world, we should be thinking more in depth about ways central organizations like governments and universities might engage in local capacity-building, not for its ecological benefits, but for its democratic and wealth-building benefits as well.