Local

Life happens in community. These communities have locations. Healthy local communities are the cornerstone of a wellbeing economy. In order to achieve a Wellbeing Economy or Healthy Democracy, we need to make it personal and place based. In his book Dedicated, Democracy advocate Pete Davis, talks about the origin of the word Patriot. It means of the land, rooted in a physical place. And in the book he makes the case that being committed to Democracy means practicing it on a local level.

In this section, we cover techniques of building healthy communities and practicing Democracy in a local setting.

Small is beautiful. But a commitment to local wellbeing should not to be understood as an exclusion of the wider wellbeing of the whole. We need to invest in local communities, but not through a xenophobic tribalism that pits “us” against “them.” Likewise, we shouldn’t embrace a global identity in a sweeping colonialism that undermines local realities. Rather, as we build success on a small scale – with our family and friends, we can then extend out to the next circle of community – our neighborhood, then the city, state, nation and the whole world; a global community of communities.

Much of democracy reform is practiced on the local level before being adopted by the state level.

As we are realizing that choices made in our area affect the whole planet. Interconnected through nature and also how well we cooperate with each other.