Local Economies
McKibben doesn’t so much offer a clear and cohesive argument in Ch. 4, as he does give a long list of ways in which returning to doing things in smaller communities would help us to lead better lives. One thing we discussed in class is that what makes local “better” is not the same for each of the endeavors he mentions.
RADIO, MEDIA: In the brief book Republic.com, Cass Sunstein laid out an argument for why the Internet has the potential to polarize our political views because we are more likely to be ignorant of other people’s viewpoints. Likewise, mass media contribute to our ignorance of local issues and regional values. I strongly recommend Sunstein’s book, and you might be interested in Free Press, an organization that promotes media reform to strengthen democracy.
McKibben talks about the value of locally-owned and operated radio stations. Ours include:
DISTRIBUTED POWER GENERATION: As we discussed in class, distributed power generation might contribute to increasing the efficiency of our infrastructure and overall energy sustainability. There are many limitations working against it: some are physical and some technological; others are political, commercial, and cultural. This is certainly a problem that the engineers, technologists, and businesspeople that RIT graduates can contribute their creativity to.
COHOUSING: These are communities that are usually designed for increased environmental sustainability, but McKibben’s appraisal centered on the benefits of living in close-knit supportive communities. The EcoVillage in Ithaca is an example.
LOCAL CURRENCY: McKibben’s example was Burlington Bread, but again, the People’s Republic of Ithaca can be our example, with the first modern-day local currency in the US, the Ithaca HOURS. The support for local currencies seems to be primarily that it is in communities’ interests to keep money inside the community.
As a class, you developed the insight that what is missing from McKibben’s book is an analysis of how communities interact, and specifically how this advocacy for local communities and local decision-making and creative endeavors affects (and is affected by) globalization and global poverty.
I’ve written more about what I think the ethical implications of this chapter are here.
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I learned about three cohousing options in Rochester.
Two are “co-ops,” meaning that they are in rental houses with a number of roommates. They have rules about splitting chores, and they share the cooking. Most residents are University of Rochester students, alumni, or hospital interns. They are:
Ant Hill: http://ant-hill.org/
EcoHouse: http://rocwiki.org/EcoHouse
Another is a co-housing option called “Community Now” and is made up of a group of people who own neighboring homes but also use communal space and have group activities. This is more like the co-housing we read about–that is, it includes different kinds of people, including families, and not just youngish single people. I couldn’t find a webpage but here is a description:
“A few blocks down the hill between Caroline and Benton Streets, a more formalized group eats together every Thursday night and two weekend meals a month in a common house. Called Community Now, this group of nine families is Rochester’s first and only Co-Housing venture. Most members live nearby and eventually the group would like to connect the back yards of several houses on the same block to create shared green space as well.”
Interviewing someone in one of these (or sharing a meal at their co-op) would be a very interesting experiential project.
Posted October 17, 2008, 12:44 pm