ABSTRACT

Considering the context of the present ecological and social crisis, this book takes an interdisciplinary approach to explore the relationship between globalism and localization. Globalism may be viewed as a positive emergent property of globalization. The latter depicts a worldwide economic and political system, and arguably a worldview, that has directly increased planetary levels of injustice, poverty, militarism, violence, and ecological destruction. In contrast, globalism represents interconnected systems of exchange and resourcefulness through increased communications across innumerable global diversities. In an economic, cultural, and political framework, localization centers on small-scale communities placed within the immediate bioregion, providing intimacy between the means of production and consumption, as well as long-term security and resilience. There is an increasing movement towards localization in order to counteract the destruction wreaked by globalization, yet our world is deeply and integrally immersed within a globalized reality.

Within this collection, contributors expound upon the connection between local and global phenomenon within their respective fields including social ecology, climate justice, ecopsychology, big history, peace ecology, social justice, community resilience, indigenous rights, permaculture, food justice, liberatory politics, and both transformative and transpersonal studies.

chapter 2|14 pages

The African Burial Ground

Roots of Ecological Destruction and Social Exploitation 1

chapter 3|20 pages

The Ties That Bind

An Earth-Based Story of Home 1

chapter 5|23 pages

The Declaration of Ek Balam

Protecting the Sacred in Corn

chapter 8|18 pages

The Evolution of the Environmental Justice Movement

Translocal Voices for Systemic Transformations

chapter 10|24 pages

Living La Vida Local

Small Steps Toward Global Change 1