Thriving and Resilient Communities

Fostering strong, thriving, interdependent local/regional economies and human communities that are rich in social ties is an essential part of creating an ecological economy.  In visualizing this new possibility, we are invited to see ourselves differently and to understand that difference as strength.   Instead of perceiving ourselves as independent individuals, we are challenged to recognize ourselves as interdependent members of communities and to value and foster that interdependence.
 
As a shift from independence to interdependence occurs in global society, the economy will necessarily shift as well.  As author Bill McKibben observes, “the key economic questions will change from whether the economy produces an ever larger pile of stuff to whether it builds or undermines community—for community, it turns out, is the key to physical survival in our environmental predicament and also to human satisfaction.”