Last Friday I started to review Della Rucker’s book, The Local Economy Revolution. Today I shall return to the book, picking up on the rather negative implications of her three undercurrents and show how Rucker introduces a more positive note.
If you would like to read the book and you are UK-based, click on the image to the left to go to the UK Amazon site. If you’re in the US, you can get access to it through The Local Economy Revolution website. If you’re anywhere else you’ll need to work it out for yourself! The website is mainly a blog and it provides case studies supporting the book, allowing the ebook to be kept up-to-date without constant updates. The blog is up-to-date and new posts appear a few times a month.
Here is a passage I found towards the end of the book:
“The work of setting up art shows or fighting for better transportation systems, or cleaning up neighborhoods, or opening businesses, matters. It matters furiously. It matters a hell of a lot. It matters because it shows us why these places are loved. And it shows us that somebody loves them, deeply loves them. Despite everything.”
This is perhaps one of the most convincing reasons for community activism. In this blog I occasionally touch on spiritual issues. Sometimes it’s not appreciated spirituality relates to the material world. It is grounded in the streets we walk along, the particularities of the place where we live. Being fully alive connects us to the places we inhabit. To be a spiritual person is to commit to a place, to live there and become a part of it. Then our activism becomes an act of love for our place and it is only when we love it that we can effect its transformation.
This is why big schemes don’t work. When the council spends a fortune to draw a big employer to a city, what happens? First, the model of the big anchor employer, providing jobs for the community died in the 1980s. Second, it is usually short-term profit that draws employers to a new place and not commitment to the place. Third, such investment endangers communities because when they withdraw, it knocks them back.
A local business on the other hand, built slowly and grounded in its place will if it’s successful be committed to stay there. We need to learn how to build economies from dozens of these businesses, investing in the infrastructure that supports them.
Thus Rucker introduces four incentives arguing (1) the focus must be on supporting those things that enable local businesses to grow, (2) identifying what makes this neighbourhood, city or region unique, (3) understand what small businesses can or can’t do and then (4) looking at how to use grants properly. These are my glosses on her long and stimulating arguments, so if you are interested please read the book!
We need it seems three secret weapons to enable us to do all of this: (1) research and understand our communities and how they work, (2) pool our knowledge and understanding with others and (3) be courageous in our initiatives.
All of this contributes to what Rucker calls Wise Economy and her website offers resources for those who share her vision of a difficult but possible future for our most challenged neighbourhoods.
Last time I showed how Rucker’s undercurrents applied to Burngreave New Deal for Communities. I wonder what would have happened had the £50 million been spent according to her incentives. I was actually asked this question a couple of weeks ago, “What would you have spent the £50 million on?” I replied I would have spent it across the city supporting local businesses.
On reflection I think it would still be the best approach. The big drawback would have been the loss of the support for children and young people in Burngreave, which was New Deal’s greatest contribution. However, this is a thought experiment and what has been done cannot be undone.
Here are reasons support of my approach:
- Local businesses are the key to regeneration and it seems something like 80% of start-ups fail within 2 years. Primarily this seems to be because they do not receive the support they need. Many start-ups buy into the mistaken idea they are in competition and it takes time to learn businesses look out for each other and successful ones collaborate.
- Whilst planning needs to be fine-grained as each neighbourhood is unique, a culture of localised economies within a city would benefit all neighbourhoods. The thriving areas may need some support and they should receive it because it enables them to support more disadvantaged parts of the city.
- The perspective is of identifying business opportunities and finding those best placed to accommodate them. An overview of a city would enable development workers to match places to activities.
- A few centralised development workers can be effective only insofar as they are able to nurture activists in every neighbourhood. This way strengthens the voluntary sector.
- And we need to understand how the voluntary and community sectors are essential to local economies. It is never businesses alone that make a place. We need to do more to understand how local businesses and community organisations can work together to support all aspects of a local area.
These are the lessons I have so far taken from Rucker’s book. Some may be tangential to her intentions and there will be some I have missed. I will be returning to her book for inspiration in the future.
