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Building Sustainable Communities Tools and Concepts for Self-Reliant Economic Change Morehouse, Ward (ed.) Publisher:  Bootstrap Press Year Published:  1989   First Published:  1983 Pages:  187pp   ISBN:  0-942850-11-4 Book Type:  Handbooks/Manuals Resource Type:  Book The major sections of the book deal with community land trusts and other forms of community ownership of natural resources, worker-managed enterprises and other techniques of community self-management, and community currency and banking. Abstract:  Building Sustainable Communities is a revised edition of a work previously published in 1983, based on the Schumacher Society Seminars on Community Economic Transformation. This work is formulated in response to neo-liberal economic and social policies and their inability to address issues such as unemployment, poverty and ever-widening income gaps. The authors provide a conceptual framework and tools for implementing alternative economic systems based on community ownership, production and exchange. The book is divided into three main sections. The first section, Community Stewardship of Land and Natural Resources, discusses models of community ownership in opposition to state or private ownership. Community Land Trusts are a specific focus, as models for production informed by environmentalism with an emphasis on sustainable development. The second section, Community Self-Management, proposes systems of community shared ownership tied to more equitable models of work and income distribution. The term "social capitalism" is put forth for this departure from capitalism, socialism and communism. This is part of an approach that does not outright reject private property market economies, but instead, seeks to re-write corporate ownership rules. The third section, Community Currency and Banking, begins with a historical account of how we have arrived at a system of exchange dominated by paper money rather than commodity exchange. Consumable or service-based units of currency are proposed as alternative community currencies such as energy, in the form of kilowatt hours, or labour. Strategies for developing community banking systems to allow for the use of these alternative currencies are discussed also. Uncounted individuals already operate outside the official system of exchange, through barter or un-taxed labour for instance. Economic crisis and the inadequacy of government responses provide impetus for change and Building Sustainable Communities demonstrates the possibility of theorising and enacting alternative economic systems. Topics Alternative Economic Structures/Models Common Ownership Common Property Communities Community Building Community Economic Development Community Land Trusts Community Venture Capital Co-operative Development Co-operatives Currencies Ecological Responsibility Ecologically Wise Practices Ecology Economic Alternatives Economic Crises Economic Renewal Economic Restructuring Economic Self-Reliance Economy Environment/Economy Environmental Economics Environmental Stewardship Forest Conservation Forest Land Trust Land Ownership Land Stewardship Land Stewardship Trusts Land Trusts Land Use Local Currencies Local Economies Self-Management Self-Reliance Social Capitalism Social Change Sustainable Communities Sustainable Development Sustainable Forestry Sustainable Prosperity Worker Ownership Workers' Control Workers' Co-operatives

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