Short Circuit: Strengthening Local Economies for Security in an Unstable World - Softcover

Douthwaite, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1874675600 ISBN 13: 9781874675600

Publisher: The Lilliput Press Ltd, 1995

Synopsis

With the deregulation of international trade and a free movement of capital, the world economy is more unstable than ever and liable to economic collapse. So precarious is it that it should no longer be relied upon to provided all the goods, fuel, food and services we need to live. As unemployment rises in every industrialized country, increasing numbers are excluded from participation in the market economy and face the reality of a world without job security. The solution proferred by Short Circuit is that each community should develop an independent economy capable of restoring full employment to its area and ensuring the supply of goods and services should the mainstream economy collapse. The book demonstrates how this can be done by supplying details of local energy-generation, currency, banking and food-supply systems. It contains case-studies of local communities at work in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and the USA, as well as in Britain and Ireland. Extensively illustrated and referenced, this annotated guide will identify sources of more specific information, and appeal to all concerned with how competitive forces are squeezing the life out of their environment. More broadly, it demonstrates how power can be returned to the community.

About this title

Review

" 'Short Circuit' resonates. A vital read for uncertain times.' -- Sara Parkin, Green Party founder and director of Forum for the Future

"A wonderfully irreverent challenge to our obsessions with the market place." -- - Anthony Sampson, author of 'The New Anatomy of Britain'

"Marvellous. Brilliantly written. Challenges the globalisation of the food economy and shows how re-localisation is possible." -- - Prof. Tim Lang

"Short Circuit combines brilliant analysis with straight reporting of the experience of people in areas almost invariably dismissed as 'alternative'. This is a book crammed with stories. There are stories of how people, working within their own communities, have created alternative financial systems, 'parallel financial micro-climates', within which local resources are appropriated, applied and exchanged... It provides a map of reality which is at least as real as the one depicted in the news columns and business pages, but is never acknowledged other than in a tokenistic and condescending way." -- - John Walters, The Irish Times

"Very valuable... the most readable and accurate account of the new money systems I've come across." -- - Michael Linton, developer of Local Exchange Trading Systems LETS

About the Author

Richard Douthwaite is an economist and writer with a special interest in climate and energy issues and in local economic development. His best-known book, The Growth Illusion: How Economic Growth Enriched the Few, Impoverished the Many and Endangered the Planet explores the effects that the pursuit of growth has had on the environment and society. He is a co-founder of Feasta, the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability, the Dublin-based international network of people who believe that the world's sustainability problems are due to the use of dysfunctional systems and are trying to develop better ones. His current projects include the design and introduction of novel financing arrangements for community energy projects and the management of the Carbon Cycles and Sinks Network which explores ways in which land-based greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced.

Edition details

• Publisher: The Lilliput Press Ltd
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1874675600
• ISBN 13: 9781874675600
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320