"Localism and sustainability" is one of my two applied research areas. There are two case study databases associated with this page. The original set of case studies was developed as part of a summer graduate training session that took place in 2005 with support from the STS Program of the National Science Foundation. The second set of case studies is the result of a classroom project at Vanderbilt University in sociology and urban-level sustainability politics. Undergraduates developed case studies of urban sustainability plans and specific examples of best practices as part of a course on local sustainability. Both sets of case studies can be accessed here: Case studies of local sustainability efforts.
I also have published research on localism that emerged from the research project and other research. The main outcome was the second book in my series with MIT Press on pressure points for increasing the political will to deepend sustainability policies: Localist Movements in a Global Economy (2009). By "localism" I mean efforts to build greater local ownership in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. I am interested in how localist advocacy is connected with efforts to improve the environmental and social equity aspects of regional economies. The research orginally developed from funding from the National Science Foundation (desribed below) in a project with Langdon Winner as the co-principal investigator.
Publications and Talks:
2012 "Local and Not-so-Local Exchanges: Alternative Economies, Ethnography, and Social Science." In Jeff Juris and Alex Kasnabish, eds.,, Ethnography and Transnational Activism. Duke University Press. Forthcoming.
2012 "Alternative Currencies in the Context of Localist Movements." Presentation scheduled for the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, panel on local currencies, economic sociology.
2012 "Transitions and Societal Change: Finance, Corporate Power, and Green Energy in the United States." This paper is completed and will be presented at the workshop on Grassroots Innovation at Sussex University in the UK. The paper explores the relationship between corporate wealth and the historical changes in the financing mechanisms for retrofitting and solarization of homes and businesses in the United States.
2011 "Building the Local Living Economy." Lecture given at Nashville Public Library, "Thinking Outside the Box" series. Video available on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl3dOEBlCl0&feature=relmfu. The talk gives a summary of both my localist research and green jobs research for a broad public audience of about 200 people.
2011 Pathways to a Great Transition. Invited lecture, Tellus Institute. Here.
2010 Plenary talk at the Live Green conference. Here.
2010 Localist Movements in a Global Economy (MIT Press)
2010. "Declarations of Independents: On Local Knowledge and Localist Knowledge." Anthropological Quarterly 83(1): 147-170. Article here.
2008 "Localism and the Environment." Sociology Compass 2(2): 625-628. Article here.
2008 "Some Ways in to Research on Locally Owned, Independent Businesses." This is a bibliography for a talk that I gave at Capital District Local First. I helped found this affiliate network of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. Here.
2007 "Enhancing Justice and Sustainability at the Local Level: Affordable Policies for Urban Governments." By David Hess and Langdon Winner. Local Environment 12(4): 1-17. Related local Policy Paper here
2006 "The University and Sustainable Regional Industries." In Christopher Nelson, The River-Farm Conversations, Virginia Tech Press.
2006 "Community Choice, Public Power, and Energy Conservation: Democracy, Sustainable Consumption, and the Problem of Scale." Paper presented at the RC-24 Conference on Sustainable Consumption. Available at www.michaelmbell.net/suscon-papers/hess-paper.doc.
2002 Workshop at Renssealer on "Technologies for Communities." The workshop included presentations on sustainable, healthy communities as well as work on information technologies, electronic media, and the built environment as they relate to building more sustainable, just, and democratic regions. More information is available here.
Original research project:
Some of this research (the first set of case studies, Local Environment paper, and book on localism) is the result of a project on "Sustainability, the Politics of Design, and Localism," sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Societal Dimensions of Engineering, Science, and Technology and Science and Technology Studies (SES 0425039). This project created case studies (linke above) for teaching purposes and use by NGOs above as well as the publications above. The case studies examine organizational, technological, design, and social change where the goals of environmental sustainability and economic localism intersect. Four graduate students--Colin Beech, Rachel Dowty, Govind Gopakumar, and Richard Hernandez--conducted some interviews and received training as part of the project. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.