Michael Shuman
Community Self-Reliance

Michael Shuman is a specialist in community economics, and the author of: Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age. He discusses the current conventional wisdom regarding community economics being the attempt to attract large corporations and how large corporations destroy local culture. In part two, Michael discusses the way municipalities can regain economic power through community-self-reliance, subsidiarity and retaining the multiplier effect by establishing local currencies.

length: 54 minutes #408
date aired: 7/25/04
website: Living Economies http://www.livingeconomies.org/

biography (from the smallmart.org website)

MICHAEL SHUMAN, BALLE research and public policy director, holds an A.B. with distinction in economics and international relations from Stanford University and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. An economist, attorney, author, and entrepreneur, Michael has authored, coauthored, or edited seven books, including The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition (Berrett-Koehler, 2006) and Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in the Global Age (Free Press, 1998). The Small-Mart Revolution was awarded a bronze medal for best business book by the Independent Publishers’ Association. In recent years, Michael has led community-based economic-development efforts in St. Lawrence County (NY), Hudson Valley (NY), Katahdin Region (ME), Martha’s Vineyard (MA), and Carbondale (CO), and served as a senior editor for the recently published Encyclopedia of Community. He has given an average of more than one invited talk per week for 25 years throughout the United States and the world.

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