New Local Principles

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Produced by Michael Shuman and Gilbert Rochecouste:

"The New Local Principles

Place

Placemaking is the art of creating meaningful, inclusive and connected places. It is the collaborative process of making places that benefit all people, everyday. A thriving place is a place where the environment and community are vibrant, vital and resilient.

Regeneration

Regeneration is where we put back more into our ecological and social fabric than we take out. It addresses the whole system and strives to make it better and more resilient. The goal of regeneration is to increase our ecological fabric, while also increasing our social and cultural cohesion, to enhance local life supporting systems. Regeneration empowers local enterprises to be part of their place and feel pride in contributing to it, supporting them to think about what they can do to improve the local environment.

Connectivity

Connectivity matters for the New Local in two ways. First, success in economic development can no longer depend on one indicator like jobs or GDP but instead must integrate and be attentive to all ten principles. In short, think and act holistically. Second, it’s helpful to find inspirational municipal models not only in Australia but across the planet.

Ownership

Local ownership of business matters. A growing body of evidence shows that, compared to outside-owned businesses, local businesses generate per dollar of production more income, wealth, jobs, and charitable contributions. Moreover, communities with higher levels of local ownership have more social equality, civic engagement, and sustainability.

Diversification

While traditional economic development encourages the nurturing of a small number of “world class” industries to achieve comparative advantages, the New Local encourages economic diversification, greater self-reliance, and stronger reliance. Paradoxically, a community that is more self-reliant is often wealthier and has many more promising export sectors.

Reinvestment

Reinvestment means helping local residents, businesses, and governmental bodies redirect their capital from global businesses to local ones. It means more local banking, more local securities, more local investment funds, and more localized superannuation options.

Democracy

Democracy is about power to the people, where empowered citizens directly participate in the decisions affecting their lives, communities and local ecologies. A new approach to resilience and economic development has a foundation of authentic engagement at its core, supported by powerful engagement and governance tools and models.

Equity

Social equity is broadly defined as the more equal distribution of public resources, infrastructure and goods. It is about providing equitable access to these basic needs and opportunities, readily and locally, irrespective of race, class and other dimensions of social identity.

Culture

Culture is about the rituals, customs, ideas and expressions of people. Culturally rich places are shaped through freedom of expression, creative risk-taking and showcasing diverse voices. Strong, collective community values and cultural assets enhance a sense of place and local identity, which can occur when communities are empowered to innovate and express themselves creatively.

Innovation

Innovation means continuously looking for ways to expand and improve existing businesses, and successfully launch new ones. It means providing entrepreneurs with the technology, assistance, space, mentors, networks, and finance to succeed. Entrepreneurs, moreover, include not just the “best and the brightest” but all parts of the population, such as the young, retirees, immigrants, people of color, the chronically unemployed, and the disabled."