Life after Progress

This anthology brings together three decades of writing by the team at Local Futures, an organization whose members are internationally recognized as early figures in the localization movement. The pieces include essays, book chapters, and blog posts. Together they question the belief that advancing technology and ever-wider global markets will automatically produce a better future.

Some selections revisit foundational ideas about what progress means, what causes poverty, and what makes people content. Others trace the sources of today's overlapping crises, including climate change, growing income inequality, the weakening of democratic institutions, and the rise of authoritarian leaders. Throughout, the writers point to practical steps that could move societies in a different direction.

Several of the essays were written many years ago, yet they read as increasingly timely as these crises deepen and the call for fundamental structural reform grows louder.