Beyond the Monoculture: Strengthening Local Culture, Economy and Knowledge

OPINION In this deeply cohesive and fundamentally geographic argument, Helena Norberg-Hodge brings an impressive array of sustainability issues under a single guiding rubric for educating and changing society—the need for a shift from globalised systems to local practice. [...]villages, rural communities and their cultural traditions are being destroyed on an unprecedented scale by the impact of globalising market forces. In diverse ‘developing’ nations around the world, people are induced to meet their needs not through their community or local economy, but by trying to buy in to the global market. Though natural resources were scarce and hard to obtain, the Ladakhis had a remarkably high standard of living – with beautiful art, architecture and jewellery.