This article
In this issue
- The employment of graduates within small and medium sized firms in England
by Trevor Hart and Paul Barratt - Learning lessons from stock transfer: the challenges in delivering second stage transfer in Glasgow
by Kim McKee - Ecolocalisation as an urban strategy in the context of resource constraint and climate change - a (dangerous) new protectionism?
by Peter North - A New Deal for Political Space: what effect could space have on attitudes to the New Deal for Communities?
by Deirdre Duffy - How low should you go? Neighbourhood level interventions in the crime and community safety theme of New Deal for Communities
by Sarah Pearson - Continuity or Change: considering the policy implications of a Conservative government
by Richard Crisp, Rob Macmillan, David Robinson and Peter Wells
Ecolocalisation as an urban strategy in the context of resource constraint and climate change – a (dangerous) new protectionism?
Summary
This article critically engages with eco-localisation as an alternative economic development strategy in an era of climate change and resource depletion. The article argues that arguments, advanced by environmentalists and climate change activists, that we need to refocus local economic development away from insertion into the global division of labour and towards ways to minimise carbon emissions and fuel consumption by producing as much of what we need as locally as we can have merit in the context of climate change. Eco-localisation is, however, diametrically opposed to current economic development ‘common sense’ that ‘trade is good’ and ‘protection bad.’ There are no ‘actually existing’ examples of local economic development with a focus on meeting needs locally. Consequently, arguments for localisation lack credibility in local economic development circles. Stronger arguments for localisation are required, as well as local experimentation in strategies that put carbon reduction at their heart.
