One of the pioneers of the worldwide movement for economic localisation, Helena Norberg-Hodge, who is based in Byron Shire, has recently finished writing a new book and is soon heading off for a busy program in Europe.
Author of Ancient Futures and director of the documentary film The Economics of Happiness, Helena’s new book Local Is Our Future, released this month, is the summary of key learnings from a lifetime of international experience and deep engagement with change-making. Postulating that economic localisation is the most fundamental shift we need to build a better future for both people and the planet, the book proposes a path that she believes will get us from here to there. She tackles big questions and challenges deeply rooted assumptions by presenting inspiring, real-world examples.
Local Is Our Future is ‘a potent conceptual lens… to reverse the ruin of culture, nature, and place,’ comments Charles Eisenstein.
‘The argument for economic decentralisation, powerfully and passionately presented in this fine book, is one that we can no longer ignore,’ adds David Suzuki.
Later this month Helena will head to Europe, where she will teach on a number of courses, speak in various countries, and engage with other innovators from the localisation movement. In Madrid and Ibiza she will be helping to establish a farmers market.
Helena will also present in the heart of the economic beast – at the Brussels Economic Forum. The Forum, hosted by the European Commission, brings together prominent voices from the world of international economics, such as the chief economist of the IMF and Spain’s minister for Business and the Economy. Helena, as an outspoken critic of conventional economic development and corporate globalisation, will represent an oft-marginalised, grassroots, and ecological perspective.
‘It’s fantastic that, even within the establishment, more and more people are open to hearing the localisation message’, explains Helena. ‘It really fills me with hope, and is a sign of how clear the need for fundamental systems change is becoming’.
Helena will also travel to India, South Korea and Japan to continue the series of international Economics of Happiness conferences.
One of the Indian conferences will take place in Ladakh in the high Himalayas and will be a significant landmark both for Helena and her organisation Local Futures, whose work began in Ladakh.
