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Blog Archives

General localization papers.

Universities and localization

Summary – Research universities have as their current primary mission a focus that is likely at odds with the emerging decline in surplus energy, and may be at odds with the global climate crisis. But they are among the more flexible institutions in modern society. They can adopt a new social role,

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Localization: Research projects (Updated: May 31, 2020)

Since 2007, when a Localization Seminar was first taught at the University of Michigan, a number of graduate student research projects have been completed on topics such as local food systems, neighborhood resilience, voluntary simplicity, energy descent, environmental psychology, and psychological well-being. A selection of these projects is listed below.

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Declining net energy

Summary – Add post summary.

The challenge of declining net energy

EROEI and ECoE

ENERGY TAX

Is energy cost of energy a carbon tax. Certainly energy cost of energy going up doesn’t change the amount of carbon that is emitted in the gross use.

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Localization: Research projects (Updated: May 31, 2019)

Since 2007, when a Localization Seminar was first taught at the University of Michigan, a number of graduate student research projects have been completed on topics such as local food systems, neighborhood resilience, voluntary simplicity, energy descent, environmental psychology, and psychological well-being. A selection of these projects is listed below.

Read more ›



Localization: Research projects

Since 2007, when a Localization Seminar was first taught at the University of Michigan, a number of graduate student research projects have been completed on topics such as local food systems, voluntary simplicity, energy descent, environmental psychology, and psychological well-being. A selection of these projects is listed below.

Read more ›



Motivating the process of localization with a conservation aesthetic

Summary – Encouraging people to transition to durable living might be done using a variety of psychological strategies. However, engaging people in ways that help them to flourish during what will likely be a long and challenging process is better accomplished by focusing their attention on an inner transition — one involving intrinsic satisfactions and behavioral aesthetics — rather than relying on bluster and coercion.

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Small experiments for the coming downshift

Summary – The circumstances being faced are urgent, some global, some personal, many overwhelming. It would seem that only large responses will suffice. But this is a version of the homeopathic delusion (Berry 2011): here that only large collective-action solutions can respond to large problems. The notion of small experiments is a counter argument.

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Localization explained

Biophysical limits and disrupted ecosystems mean that soon we will live far more simply. Rather than being dismal, this reality contains many benefits. If thoughtfully done, it can be a locally grounded, intrinsically satisfying life.

Intention

Inspire hopeful visions despite lean times.
Support new farmers, poets, and teachers.

Inspiration

“I think hard times are coming when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine some real grounds for hope.” – Ursula Le Guin (2014)

“Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.” – Robin Wall Kimmerer (Braiding Sweetgrass, 2013)

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