Politicophobic, perhaps?

While reading about community economic development (CED) this week in Roseland's book, I enjoyed rethinking the conventional model of economic development that seeks to attract big businesses. It seems clear now that human interests can be served much more effectively by focusing on strengthening local economies rather than pursuing further globalization and growth at the cost of fair wages, safe working conditions, community capital, etc. To learn more, I followed up on the work being done by a Minneapolis-based non-profit called the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (mentioned p. 218):

For 40 years, ILSR has been advocating for human-scaled institutions that foster environmentally sound and socially equitable communities. Largely, they focus on research and policy as key drivers of progress in these areas. ILSR leader, Stacy Mitchell, delivers a thought-provoking (you guessed it...) TED talk, encouraging environmental and community visionaries to think beyond the actions of individuals. She explains that we need to focus more on changing the policies that influence economic development in our communities. She speaks to the common tendency to focus on isolated, individual action only:

"I put a lot of my making-the-world-a-better-place energy into thinking about how I can be a better consumer. You know, fair trade coffee, recycled toilet paper...the primary and often exclusive way we think about our agency in the world now is as consumers. But as consumers, we are very weak. We are operating as lone individuals making a series of choices and the most we can do is pick between the options that are presented to us."

She goes on to compellingly illustrate that we (individual activists) are, "swimming upstream against a powerful down-current of public policies that are taking our economy in exactly the opposite direction."

She concludes, "...how do we begin to see our trips to the farmers market and to the local bookstore, not as the answer, but as a first step? How do we transform this remarkable consumer trend into something more? How do we make it a political movement?"

These are questions I need to think more carefully about. As much as I detest politics, I know Stacy is 100% correct in her assertions. More active political involvement should be my next focus if I want to affect real change. With some polite prodding reminders to register back in September, I did manage to turn out to the polls last week...a good start, right? But far from the end of the line.

Here are the policy items that ILSR recommends for equitable and sustainable community economic development:

1. Stop subsidizing the corporate economy (AKA amazon needs to pay taxes too)
2. Restructure the financial system to operate at a community scale (AKA four giant banks should not hold more than 40% of assets -- as they do currently)
3. Adopt planning policies that create great habitat for local businesses (AKA walkable cities!)
4. Enforce strong competition policies (AKA one dairy company shouldn't process 40% of the nations milk supply -- as it does currently) 
5. Shift spending by public institutions (AKA public purchases should reflect our community values)
6. Make targeted local economy investments (AKA help communities fill resource gaps when/where possible)

Still, the path forward remains somewhat unclear. Am I the only one who feels intimidated by political involvement? There is so much to learn! Friends, where do you turn to educate yourself and how have you joined a political movement for a cause you are passionate about? Are you in any type of advocacy group focusing on changing policies? Do you write letters to your representatives? How often do you think Barack checks his Twitter? Just kidding on that last one, but I really do need to make a plan for engaging in the political sphere...so help a girl out!