In times of crisis how to sustain local economies?

Launch Development

Development vol 53 no 3 on sustaining local economies was launched at the Hivos dialogue ‘Knowledge & Change, Theory and practice of development dilemmas’ in The Hague, 29 September 2010. The launch was one of two parallel events on the first day. At the launch Hivos programme coordinator Josine Stremmelaar, journal author Alec Balasescu, Editor of Development Wendy Harcourt and Development Analyst and Editorial Board Member of the Development Journal Shobha Raghuram laid out some of the complex constraints at the macro level which hinder local economies and their autonomy.

The launch brought to the table critical issues that people at the fringes of development face when they engage with local development processes. The session discussed some of alternatives found in the local economies which are functioning on the margins of neo-liberal global capitalism. It asksed questions that took the notion of sustaining local economies beyond sterile even about market v the state v civil society. The debate examined livelihoods in the context of India, in relation to the continuing poverty in the face of liberalization. A major question was how to use the momentum of the crisis to rethink the economy as citizens hold governments and businesses accountable and we try to move from quick fixes to long-term solutions. In this the experience, knowledge and role of communities and their participation in various forms of decision making are vital.