PLACE is Primary

Globalism is spurring on what might seem to be its opposite – localism.  The construction of a “new localism” varies from place to place, often based on perceived loss or perceived opportunity. For some, it’s remembering civic pride as an attribute of place, leading to a new civic pride campaign. For others, localism appears where people see what they value slipping away. Here community actors lobby that the corrosive imposition of ‘new’ be stopped or that decisions be made to ‘save the old’ (e.g. prioritizing certain land uses, preserving cultural identity). Often an increased interest in localism is identified with “local” foods. Localism may include citizens ‘putting down roots’ or seeking unique experiences or visitors finding what is uniquely local. It may include community leaders deciding ‘it’s up to us’ to solve the problems ‘here.’ Localism may find political support with leaders looking for a solution or a positive narrative to curry favor with particular interest groups. And localism may take a partisan side as political leaders struggle with the failure of institutions (including governments) to deal with the system’s effects in the global Digital Age.

What is an example of a systems effects in the global Digital Age?

OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) explains systems effects and resilience as it relates to COVID 19, “When we look in more detail at how this happened, we will probably find that a range of social, economic, and environmental changes contributed to creating the conditions where zoonosis could become so damaging – changing land-use patterns and agricultural practices for instance – but more immediately, legal and illegal wildlife trade. But we should not stop at the immediate interactions. We could argue that the 2020 health crisis was made far worse by the 2008 financial crisis, or more precisely, the austerity measures that left many health systems without the basic human and other resources needed to cope with a sudden, unexpected rise in the number of patients. Covid-19 also shows how subjective or cultural factors, such as trust in institutions and willingness to follow their advice and instructions, the sentiment of belonging to a community or the type of neighborhood, can influence how a disaster unfolds … systems thinking allows us to identify the key drivers, interactions, and dynamics of the economic, social, and environmental nexus…”

So globalism requires localism to effectively respond and localism is therefore more than a simple reaction, even if no one planned it?

Some of the gestures of localism described above may be reactions to local conditions. But it would be a mistake to think of localism as a simple reaction to globalism. And localism would be easy to dismiss if it were characterized as a power move in which the constellation of disorganized local places were mounting efforts to overthrow their foe, ungoverned and ungovernable globalism. It is different, not a simple reaction nor a calculated effort to restore power.  The new localism is an important part of ‘taking place’ into the Digital Age.

Understanding how systems work helps in creating a new balance between globalism and localism. In ‘systems speak’ new localism is an ‘emergent property’ of a place – a new property of place that did not exist in any part of the system before. Yes, there may have been local pride, or a local action to build a zoo, or solve a problem. But a new localism is more rooted in place and is focused on sustainability. Systems (places) have a unity, a whole. Localism emerging was entirely unexpected. It arose from the collaborative functioning of the place system but it did not belong to any one part of a system (place). For people in places, identity, meaning, values and emotions are emergent properties and powerful ones for systems change.

So did ordinary people in place create localism, or did their leaders, or was there some other mysterious process?

People, leaders and other processes in combination act in concert, creating the emergent property of localism. How systems work is a bit of a mystery, but it is both teachable and learnable. Since globalism is here, it’s important to embrace all that localism can deliver engage our needs for a more equitable, sustainable future and a better quality of life for all citizens.