<p>Rick Morse is a School of Government faculty member.</p> <p>“Practical futurist” Michael Rogers recently gave a keynote speech at a Triangle J forum in Durham about how technological innovations are transforming society. It was an excellent and thought provoking speech. At the same time, I’ve also been reading Wendell Berry as well as various articles about the local food movement (a topic I’ve recently written about in this blog). What I see here are two trends (globalism and localism for short), both tied directly to community economic development, yet seemingly pulling in opposite directions. On the one hand there are the forces of globalization that are shrinking the world, dis-placing people in the process. On the other hand, community self-reliance and sustainability (seem to be) making a comeback with the growth of the local food movement and related efforts aimed at re-placing people (in their local communities).</p> <p>Michael Rogers’ anecdotes about future trends are startling. Twelve-year old boys enjoying playtime, but not together; they each stay in their bedrooms, in front of a computer. A computer programmer in America subcontracting out part of a job to a teenager in Russia. Devices that allow people to be online, literally, 24/7. Thomas Friedman’s writings about globalization include similar, striking examples of how the world is shrinking (and flattening) and how, as a consequence, place matters less and less. The implicit, if not explicit, connection made to community and economic development is the idea that the technological innovations are opening up new opportunities for communities that were once limited [...]</p>
Faculty Coordinators
