Community is a widely accepted concept which is credited with emotional and spiritual values. But does community have practical or economic value? “Can people be neighbours if they don’t need or help each other?”
We are losing or have lost community. All forms of industrious activities are taken over by “industries” e.g. the health industry, the education industry, which undermine or bypass the local community. Rural communities become the colony of some far away enterprise which destroys the land and its people. “The destruction of lives, livelihoods, homes and communities is an acceptable cost of production”. The colonial economy misrepresents reality by keeping costs off the books of an exploitive interest. It is contrary to E.F. Schumacher’s just ideal of “local production from local resources for local use”.
Community in a true sense requires self-sufficiency, support for the full cycle of life within itself. A local subsistence economy is being replaced first by a colonial economy and then a consumer economy which creates dependence on foreign markets.
By definition a community is placed and its success can not be divided from its place e.g. the natural setting and surroundings. The natural and the human economy support each other. Each contributes to a durable life.
Berry offers us a thought provoking essay which is worth gold to a community’s self-determination.
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