What’s Next for Earth Art Call: Economic Relocalization

Michele Guieu | March 14, 2023 | Leave a Comment

What’s Next for Earth is a participative art project on Instagram that invites artists to respond to a bi-monthly topic, reflecting on the human predicament. An online exhibition will be on view on this website and on the What’s Next for Earth website. 

You are invited to participate in @WhatsNextForEarth’s art call Economic Relocalization, open until April 30, 2023. 
Follow What’s Next for Earth on Instagram.

“The local challenges created by globalization can be partly countered by economic localization. It starts with communities supporting local business rather than giving subsidies such as tax breaks and free utility hook-ups to large, non-local businesses, as is so often done. In fact, half of all private-sector U.S. jobs are still provided by small businesses, and almost all of these businesses are local. Moreover, local dollars have a multiplier effect—when spent within the regional economy, they increase local wealth, local taxes, jobs, charitable contributions, tourism, and entrepreneurship. Local economic development benefits everyone—except maybe big multinational corporations.”
– Richard Heinberg

Welcome to the fifth chapter of the Think Resilience course: Economy and Society. In this session, we’ll explore the economic and equity aspects of our sustainability crises and how they influence community resilience:
– Lesson 16- How Globalization Undermines Resilience
– Lesson 17- Economic Relocalization
– Lesson 18- Social Justice
– Lesson 19- Education

How to Participate

Important note: You need an Instagram account that is public to participate in What’s Next for Earth.

Sign up for the THINK RESILIENCE FREE ONLINE COURSE if you did not do it before. The best is to watch all the lessons before this one to get an overview of the Human Predicament. Each video is related to the previous one. If you do not have the time, PLEASE READ THE VIDEO TRANSCRIPT of “Economic Relocalization,” lesson 17.

1. Please make artwork or share a project in response to the Think Resilience lesson #17: Economic Relocalization.

2. Post it on your Instagram page. Include a description of your piece in your photo’s caption: title, technique, size, and year if applicable.
– explain how it relates to the theme
– Choose an excerpt of the lesson (you can copy and paste from the video transcript).

3. Copy and paste all these tags at the end of your description – select the whole list (from top to bottom), and copy and paste them in your post right after the description of your piece:

#WhatsNextForEarth
#relocalization #artcall
@WhatsNextForEarth
@mahbglobal
@postcarboninstitute
#mahbstanfordarts
#ecoart
#artactivism
#humanpredicament
#mahbartscommunity
#anthropocene
#climateemergency
#climatechange
#codered
#UprootTheSystem
#EndFossilFuels
#TellTheTruth
#BlahBlahBlah

About the THINK RESILIENCE online course

“ACTING WITHOUT THIS UNDERSTANDING
IS LIKE PUTTING A BANDAGE ON A LIFE-THREATENING INJURY.”

Richard Heinberg 2015

Richard Heinberg

Think Resilience is hosted by Richard Heinberg, one of the world’s leading experts on the urgency and challenges of moving society away from fossil fuels.

We live in a time of tremendous political, environmental, and economic upheaval. What should we do?

Think Resilience is an online course offered by Post Carbon Institute to help you get started on doing something. It features twenty-two video lectures—about four hours total—by Richard Heinberg, one of the world’s foremost experts on the urgency and challenges of transitioning society away from fossil fuels. Think Resilience is rooted in Post Carbon Institute’s years of work in energy literacy and community resilience. It packs a lot of information into four hours, and by the end of the course you’ll have good start on two important skills:

1. How to make sense of the complex challenges society now faces. What are the underlying, systemic forces at play? What brought us to this place? Acting without this understanding is like putting a bandage on a life-threatening injury.

2. How to build community resilience. While we must also act in our individual lives and as national and global citizens, building the resilience of our communities is an essential response to the 21st century’s multiple sustainability crises.

Here are the previous lessons:
CHAPTER ONE – Our converging Crisis
– Energy, (lesson 2)
– Population and Consumption (lesson 3)
– Depletion (lesson 4)
– Pollution (Lesson 5)
CHAPTER TWO – The Roots and Results of Our Crises
– Political & Economic Management (Social Structure) (lesson 6)
– Belief Systems (lesson 7)
– Biodiversity (lesson 8)
– Collapse (lesson 9)
CHAPTER THREE – Making Change
In this session, we’ll learn how change happens and how we might influence change in human society:- Thinking in Systems (lesson 10)
– Shifting Cultural Stories (lesson 11)
– Culture Change and Neuroscience (lesson 12)
CHAPTER FOUR – Resilience Thinking
– What is Resilience? (lesson 13)
– Community Resilience in the 21st Century (lesson 14)
– Six Foundations for Building Community Resilience (lesson 15)
CHAPTER 5 – Economy and Society
– How Globalization Undermines Resilience (lesson 16)
– Economic Relocalization (lesson 17)
– Social Justice (lesson 18)
– Education (lesson 19)
CHAPTER 6: Basic Needs and Functions
– Meeting Essential Community Needs (lesson 20)
– Resilience in Major Sectors (lesson 21)
– Review, Assessment & Action (lesson 22)

What’s Next For Earth is an art project created by Michele Guieu, eco-artist, and MAHB Arts Coordinator, to reflect on the climate emergency, the human predicament and envision a desirable future. The project is supported by the MAHB. If you have any questions, please send a message to michele@mahbonline.org. 
Thank you ~

The views and opinions expressed through the MAHB Website are those of the contributing authors and do not necessarily reflect an official position of the MAHB. The MAHB aims to share a range of perspectives and welcomes the discussions that they prompt.