Piece
by Piece: Grassroots Building Blocks of a Transformed Economy.
by Dawn
Nakano and Thad Williamson
Who Is My Neighbor?
Economics As If Values Matter
Sojourners,
April 1994
Content:
Page
1 of 4
Introduction
A
group of ministers works with a community development corporation
to build a much needed grocery store in a blighted neighborhood.
A local trading system allows people to trade goods and services
with each other without using cash. A community tries to multiply
its money through spending locally and promoting local ownership.
Community-based
economic experiments like these are at the forefront of a
new grassroots politics aimed at establishing community control
over economic resources. These experiments and others like
it have succeeded in addressing real economic needs and in
revitalizing community participation and spirit.
By
themselves, these experiments have little impact on the overall
structure of the political-economic system. None can fundamentally
alter the political economy of a community or the nation.
They do, however, constitute possible elements of a long-term
process of reconstructing a stagnant economy. Moreover, they
represent a fundamental leap to a new conception of how politics
might proceed in an era when existing institutions have lost
their capacity to inspire.
The
people involved in these experiments have seek to make the
political, economic and social composition of their communities
more responsive to their needs and enhance the quality of
their lives. By building institutions that nurture and sustain
themselves and their communities, they regain some control
over their economic fate.
Faced
with tough political and economic conditions, local communities
push beyond the failed "solutions" of the past to build alternatives
that offer more than a chance to vote for or against an issue
or engage in the perpetual fight against further calamity
(necessary as that is). They undertake the difficult task
of cutting off the giant's feet instead of its head.
Whether
or not people engaged in these experiment view their actions
as an attempt to rebuild a democratic economy, they often
describe an increased sense of ownership and belonging to
the community. The essence of political action in a democracy
is the coming together of citizens to shape and build the
architecture of their society. By committing to the difficult
and painstaking process of shaping and building the architecture
of their communities, participants in these experiments are
fully exercising their most potent political power. To the
extent that citizens can actively build, through a democratic
process, the economic institution of their community, economic
and political democracy become a lived reality.
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