On Monday I went to see a new film, The Economics of Happiness, at University of Toronto as part of a conference called Animating Good Food Ideas, that was about cultivating local and sustainable food practices. The film, co-directed by Helena Norberg-Hodge, catalogued the power and destruction of globalization and favoured localization instead.
While many of the ideas about the failure of constant economic growth and the failure of world debt policies have been talked about in academia since the 1970's, the idea that money does not necessarily drive our happiness was more compelling for me. The filmmakers aptly noted that since the 1950's there has been a decline in the levels of happiness amongst Americans, although incomes have continued to rise. They point out that with globalization, communities are more rare and individualization reigns supreme.
While I would agree with the idea that local culture is extremely important to our sense of wellbeing, I think that those fortune enough are finding new ways to build communities across international borders and over the internet. Call me idealistic - but there has to be a way we can build hybrid communities that are both global and local. I think we see this within subcultures and movements all over the place.
Visit the site for future dates when the film is screening.

