Customer Reviews

Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age

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This book cuts through all of the conventional public discussions on the economy and society to make a clear, convincing case for reviving local communities. Pundits, politicians, and intellectuals are always bemoaning the collapse of "community," but their analyses are usually coiled around morality, or the need for "better education," or some equally superficial issue. But as Shuman points out, all the civic involvement and moral uprightness in the world is useless if our towns and cities are being held hostage by globe-trotting corporations and ultra-mobile capital. "Community" is only possible if people control their own lives; and this is possible only when there are thriving, viable local economies. This is not a book that calls for a complete retreat from the global forces that are shaping our world -- that option is impossible with the current levels of technology. But what Shuman does outline is a way for communities to reestablish a balance between the local and the national/global, in the areas of production, finance, and government. And unlike many other books, which never get past the critique to make any positive prescriptions, this one is brimming with concrete proposals. It also has the most extensive list of groups, organizations, and resources that I have seen in the area of decentralized economics and community self-reliance. This is a must-read.

Every year on the anniversary of Walt Disney Worlds settling in Orlando, Fla., its a sure bet some newspaper will carry a story about my late uncle, Paul Pickett, and his opposition to the project. As a county commissioner when Disney first proposed bringing its giant entertainment complex to the city, he argued that the project would unleash a monster that would forever change the quality of life for residents. Tell the mouse to stay in California, he snapped.

As a person who embraces -- make that relishes -- change, Im not sure I fully agree with his assessment. But as a person who has lived for most of my adult life in an area that was decimated in the 1980s when the all-important steel industry fell on hard times and today struggles with the threat of losing still another industry on which we have become economically dependent -- car production at the General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio -- I understand the point my uncle was trying to make.

So does Michael H. Shuman, attorney and author of Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age. In his book, he advocates that local communities must regain control over their own economies by a variety of means including investing not in outsiders, but in locally owned businesses like credit unions, municipally owned utilities and community development corporations and focusing on import-replacing rather than export-led development. Doing so, he maintains, will reduce or eliminate the need to offer excessive tax abatements and other incentives to entice huge corporations upon which the communities stand to become dependent. The growing power and will of corporations to move without notice or warning has presented many communities with a terrible dilemma: Either cut wages and benefits, gut environmental standards and offer tax breaks to attract and retain corporations or become a ghost town, Shuman writes. Almost every U.S. town or city has learned that capital flight is not just a hypothetical danger.

Urging cities to be just as friendly with rootless corporations as with its home-grown businesses, Shuman says, is like telling a loyal wife to accept the inevitability of philandering by her husband and to appease him by buying more sexy lingerie and cooking nicer dinners. If a community is reduced to a link in a global chain, it will be dragged wherever the corporation controlling the chain wants.

As long as corporations are free to move from place to place, the author argues, No jurisdictions efforts to target production toward basic needs, or protect its work force or environment, can succeed. Once regulations become onerous, a profit-maximizing firm will move on.

This does not mean, however, that communities should circle the wagons and lock the gates. It means nurturing locally owned businesses which use local resources sustainably, employ local workers at decent wages and serve primarily local consumers, Shuman writes. It means becoming more self-sufficient and less dependent on imports. Control moves from the boardrooms of distant corporations and back to the community where it belongs.

All things considered, Shuman offers a point of view thats worth considering by government and economic development leaders throughout the country.

Great information and background for understanding the impact of 'going global' on our everday lives. Lacks solid implementatable plans for going local but does provide frameworks. Overall a good read - easy to understand and sufficiently technical to keep advanced readers entertained.

He presents well the case for locally-owned business being better for a community's economic well-being than are chain and franchise stores, and provides lots of different examples of ways that businesses can be community oriented. I found particularly interesting the part about the Green Bay Packers, who were saved out of bankruptcy by a group of fans who sold "stock" to the community to raise the cash. You can't sell the stock to a non-GB resident, you can't own more than 1 (I think) share, and you can only sell shares at the same price you bought them for: $25. Really, sounds a lot like the ICC's shares, and it guarantees that the Pack will never leave Green Bay.

On presenting options for ownership, though, Shuman seems to go a little overboard.

When trying to decide how to promote the kinds of business he wants, Shuman starts reasonably enough, but quickly moves into the implausible. Suggestions such as using zoning law to encourage local business (by discouraging development in the locations and of the scale that WalMart likes to build) and implementing local currencies to encourage patronage of locally-oriented business are useful, and have been successfully used in many places. However, when we get into suggestions about tearing down the WTO and replacing it with something that supports local business, we're getting unreasonable. While it may be possible that the WTO would become less multinational- and more local-friendly, I'm betting that it will only do so when its member states do so, and not as a first step which will encourage its members to do so. Shuman seems to realize this to some extent, as he proposes pro-local legislation in the United States Congress, but this too is unuseful.

Fun to read, but not practical at all.

I already believe in the tenants behind "going local". I was looking for detailed case studies on how to get it started in my community. This book is more superficial; trying to convince you that going local is a good thing. The case studies are few and barely more than mentioned. The book contains a disappointing number of "things the government should do" to force or subsidize going local - which seems anathema to me. Part of going local should be _not_ depending on the government.

Michael Shuman has written a superb book on how we can begin to realize a sustainable, stable and self-sufficient local economy. While just over 200 pages, this book packs an array of insightful information and reference material. It is a handbook on how to revive what we have in part lost - local power to determine our economic and community destination. While fundamentally rooted in democratic principles, it provides a clear vision through experimental examples of what's needed in the 21st Century. It is neither anti- nor pro-capitalism, but clearly Mr. Shuman has a deep understanding of the damage and danger of global corporate capitalism as it is and has been practiced.

Going Local is not about isolationism, but grass-roots empowerment and how to make municipalities work. The treasure chest of tools to regain local self-determination through community is wonderfully explored with examples that reverberate. If you are running or thinking of running for city or state government or are an activist looking to create living democracy and to rebuild our economics where it really matters to people, then you can find no better handbook then Going Local.

As a companion, I strongly suggest the works of Henry George, who is mentioned in GL. His Progress and Poverty, once one of the major American works on sustainable economics through land value tax, has been slighted over the years. Considered one of the greatest thinkers by some of the worlds greatest thinkers, Progress and Poverty is one of the most beautifully written books on a topic not known for beauty - how progress creates poverty and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. Our cities live this reality today and both Shuman and George show us a new way.

Shuman is one of several thinkers who has extended E.F. Schumacher's powerful work on human-scalability and provides a real hands-on set of tools to realize the important vision of a sustainable world.

For those who feel like DC and even state power centers are too remote and disempowering, Shuman breaths new life in the power of going Local.

I am a journalist who writes a blog about how and why to buy local. This book is the most helpful resource I have found to date. It is easy to read, well-researched and highly informative.

The chapters are divided logically and can easily stand alone. Shuman refers to a wide variety of credible sources when making his arguments: history, government statistics, economists and sociologists. The Appendix includes an extensive list of helpful organizations, businesses, non-profits, etc., complete with phone numbers, websites and email addresses. The Notes section contains a complete bibliography of all of the books referenced.

Shuman not only points out what is wrong with the practice of globalism, but also what is right about the practice of localism. What surprised me even more is that he actually makes realistic suggestions for how to practice localism.

My favorite quote from this book is in the Introduction and reads:
"Going local does not mean walling off the outside world. It means nurturing locally owned businesses which use local resources sustainably, employ local workers at decent wages, and serve primarily local consumers. It means becoming more self-sufficient and less dependent on imports. Control moves from the boardrooms of distant corporations and back into the community where it belongs."

EVERYONE should read this book. It is very well thought out and very convincing. Change is possible by sticking together and empowering ourselves as self-reliant communities. The appendix takes up no less than a third of the whole book and is a gold mine in and of itself.

Economies of scale, comparative advantage, specialization? Shuman ignores all these things. There are gains from specialization and trade that most people can't conceptualize, so they resort to fuzzy feeling concepts like sustainable communities. Going Local is going backwards.