Localism- the new world order

As the new pandemic conquers the world and new words like Corona and Social Distancing take the place of Glasnost and Perestroika of the 80’s, a new world order is imminent.

Localism existed and probably still exists in many rural areas in different parts of the world. Localism has the power to cater to the needs of the society naturally and spread without the influence of external agencies, countries, universities or corporate that forced many of the other ‘isms’ on the world.

I have tried to understand this scenario from my experience as an Urban & Regional Planner, personal experiences, observations & understanding of a new comfort zone. Being a Chartered Planner of the Royal Town Planning institute, I have also tried to do a brief desktop survey of literature available through institutes like RTPI, RIBA, AIA & RAIA and a detailed analysis of the potential of Localism. I intend to keep this series of write ups very simple (without much historical references, jargons or renowned theories by world thinkers) purely because of the very meaning, essence and nature of Localism.

During the past few years we realized that the ‘World is Flat’ but never embraced this concept into our own villages or towns which had a self-sustainable system centuries ago. Though Covid caused advancement of this realization, the need for this change was always there. I visualize that though Localism will now take precedence, it will not eliminate other ’isms’ but rather coexist with support of socialism & regionalism on a regular basis and  globalism &  liberalism when essential, within the established capitalist societies.

This series intends to discuss the influence of this theory in the order of preference namely Localism, Regionalism, Nationalism and last the Globalism in the succeeding writings. These influences will be analyzed on basis of demand periods, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and its impact on various industrial & service sectors. We will also discuss the influence of Localism on the very concept of ‘the City’ and the urban-regional migrations. The attempt of capitalism in desperation to milk the opportunity with advanced IT solutions and the interruptions that will cause to third world countries unless they are checked in time by the respective governments will also be discussed.

Though the concept of Localism looks pretty straight forward and simple, it will be revealed how Localism is likely to conquer each of the needs and related industries, services and products. On a wider perspective Localism also promotes herd immunity and social, economic, environmental sustainability for a healthy community.

Impact of Localism in 2020 & Beyond.

In the aftermath of the colonization and triumph of neo liberalism and globalization the world was slipping in to the hands of few conglomerates who had no borders. The Corporates who head them, came together after a series of take overs and chose to cooperate instead of competing in order to milk all the opportunities together, forced wars & treaties and thrived this long.

Even though localism existed in many forms in many places and people understood its advantages, there were no facilitators for the same. Nature, through pandemic like the Covid-19 is now accelerating the spread of localism as it became a natural alternative.  Since the world is not yet ready to move ahead with localism, there will be continued dependence on regionalism, nationalism and globalism as well. There will be efforts to combine regionalism and localism with nationalism for better control, efficiency and equal opportunity within the country with an underlying motive to centralize power. Systems like the GST, removing control of state on agriculture, land & labour aspects are some examples.

1.0      Localism

The general understanding is that Localism is an idea of promoting local production, distribution, consumption, control, monitoring and governance. In reality it is much more than satisfying the physical needs but extends to psychological needs, self-realization, social needs, environmental needs and spiritual needs by embracing participation, local identity, local traditions, culture and history. So it is rather a socially, economically, environmentally, culturally and spiritually sustainable way of life that ensures sustenance of mother earth, its flora & fauna, harmony, equality, tolerance and happiness.

Democracies support localism to a greater extend with its equality and participatory approach. Re-localizing had started in the Indian state of Kerala, though it is a consumer state with least home production. The control, monitoring and governance was largely shifted to local community and local bodies for local self-governance. Various efforts by the state to localize agricultural production and promote organic precision farming did not materialize due to higher cost of production and poor short term populist policies. The industrial production on the other hand take the beating due to high cost of production & population density and unique political climate created by unionizing of the work force which made the workers fully aware of all their rights but forget their responsibilities. The burning of the government work order in Kerala for deferring six days salary and taking the same to the court despite the fact that the government workers & pensioners consume nearly 75% of state income is a good example of this.

If localism is able to penetrate in to half the world population, it will cure and balance impact of the globalism and both can coexist side by side. Many countries in west like Germany and Japan are practicing this where they use globalism mainly for their exports through their corporates while opting localism for themselves.

The spread of Covid necessitates self-sufficiency and self-reliance for all regular essentials. In my own example, we used to depend on supermarket chains for regular groceries, online forums for food, malls & multiplex for weekend hangouts, etc.  The lock down forced us to stay indoors in our farm house, the food came from our own farms in the form of long ignored jack fruit, leafy vegetables, rice from paddy fields, oil from coconuts and so on. Fishing in nearby river & fish bought from locals provided both entertainment and fresh food. It was nice to experience the local life style where in people have a very strong bond between each other unlike in cities. They help each other, get poison free grains & vegetables from nearby fields, fish from the river and their own livestock provide them milk, meat and eggs.

The subsequent parts of the article will discuss how regionalism and nationalism play a part in the dynamism of this transition.

Mathews George B.E. AG. DMM, MSc URP, MRTPI

Chartered Town Planner of Royal Town Planning Institute of UK

 

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