{"id":78615,"date":"2024-06-21T12:06:54","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T15:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=78615"},"modified":"2025-07-01T15:27:45","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T18:27:45","slug":"today-is-world-localization-day-the-biggest-movement-you-may-be-a-part-of-without-realizing-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=78615","title":{"rendered":"World Localization Day: The Biggest Movement You May Be a Part of Without Realizing [REFERENCE]"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Located
Located just outside Bangalore, India, Bhoomi College specializes in place-based education, offering graduate programs and shorter courses. Bhoomi also hosts farmers markets, events, lectures, and conferences, and awards the Bhoomi Award for Localization. Photo: Bhoomi College<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/strong><\/i><\/em><\/i><\/em><\/a><\/h4>\n

Each year on June 21, more and more people around the world are celebrating World Localization Day<\/a>. In 2020, NGO Local Futures organized the first World Localization Day. Countless citizens, initiatives and organizations are involved in localization, even if they may not use the label. Localization, put simply, has to do with reconsidering where we apply our focus: moving it close to home\u2014to building community well-being and self-reliance through local systems for food, economy, housing, knowledge, and more. It is not about nationalism or isolationism, but about shifting awareness away from dependence on top-down globalization and toward how we can strengthen the world from the ground up: by strengthening our communities and their own ways of life and systems of production<\/em>. Consequently, we may not see ourselves as a movement, even though, as we’ll see below, it’s essential we connect up\u2014the Earth is counting on it. <\/em>In honor of World Localization Day 2024, RioOnWatch has put together a primer on the movement for localization, understanding that Rio de Janeiro’s vibrant favelas are also potent examples of the power of localization.<\/em><\/p>\n

What is Localization?<\/h3>\n

Localization understands that by reorienting our lives towards the local, we can make a dent in global systems of extraction. Rather than profits accumulating in the hands of a few while many feel little agency, through localization, communities and regions retain their uniqueness. They strengthen those living there, while also appreciating the agency of other communities and regions and recognizing how we are all interdependent with one another and the planet.<\/p>\n

Local Futures<\/a> explains that localization is a \u201csolution multiplier<\/a>,” where local actions have the potential for systemic change. According to<\/a> Anja Lyngbaek, “Localization goes beyond changing our personal behavior: it\u2019s [also] about making structural shifts in the economy at a macro level.” She quotes Helena Norberg-Hodge<\/a>, founder of Local Futures.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo embark on a systemic path of localization, we need to redirect economic support to favor the local over the global, instead of the other way around… If we can bring about policy shifts, we will see healing, regeneration and transformation more quickly than most of us dare to imagine.\u201d \u2014 Helena Norberg-Hodge, founder of Local Futures<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Therein lies the beautiful and potent paradox of the global movement for localization,” concludes Lyngbaek.<\/p>\n

Localization promotes a return to a gentler, more sustainable way of life that shifts us away from industrial-scale exploitation. There are countless ways to engage locally.<\/p>\n