Social Capital

Dave is joined by three active participants in the Occupy TC efforts going on locally. The discussion highlights the 'message' problem facing both the larger Occupy effort and those working locally: how to have a decentralized movement with some coherency to the message. This talk also shares numerous web-site resources and access points for those wanting to keep in touch with what's going on. Check CommonsDreams.org for links to many occupy resources.

Bob Russell is in with Dave this week reviewing foundation concepts that are critical to resilience thinking: adaptability, diversity, redundancy, and feedback loops. The discussion seeks to detail the connections between each concept and the idea of building resilience into our Northwest Michigan communities. Towards the end of the discussion Bob and Dave make an announcement which includes a name change. From now on these weekly discussions will be known as ICR: Investigating Community Resilience.

In this week's program Jan Shireman and Gerard Grabowski join us to tell their story of a business that is a shining example of the all-local, farm to business to consumer economic model so important to building local food resilience. These two created Pleasanton Brick Oven Bakery nearly two decades ago in search of a locally made, healthy bread and in the process became national leaders in the artisan bread movement. Pleasanton Bakery today employs nearly a dozen people in direct bakery jobs. Learn what makes their bread so different. Jan and Gerard share their dream of local sustainable agriculture and of ag-to-consumer businesses to support locally grown food. Only one of the grains they currently use comes from outside of Michigan, but the rest is grown on downstate farms. Gerard argues that northern Michigan needs to grow much more grain for local use, and develop its own milling facilities to turn the grains into flour.

Our second conversation with noted writer, economist, and historian Tom Greco continues with his major thesis: that our money system is built on a debt and interest structure that is corrosive and unsustainable. In this conversation Tom develops his view that the current money system mis-applies the three roles of money: to an instrument to transfer value, to be a measure of value, and to be an instrument holding value itself.  The transfer value of money must separated from the other two, argues Greco, by the development of credit clearing associations built carefully on a regional basis among mutual needs of the participants.

Tom Greco author of THE END OF MONEY AND THE FUTURE OF CIVILIZATION joins us for two half hour discussions on the history of money and the debt building pyramid- scheme modern money is based on. In this first discussion Greco puts modern money in its historic context and traces its growth to contemporary times where money is controlled by political elites through a interconnected array of national central banks. New money is created by creating debt, and interest is charged on the debt. The debt imperative of money creates a growth imperative in the economy which is destructive of our social fabric and our environment. Greco argues for creation of credit exchange associations, free corrosive effects of interest charged on debt, the topic we pick up in part two.

The 10th Great Lakes Bioneers Conference was held the weekend of October 14-16, 2011 in Traverse City, Michigan. Laurie Cirivello gave the local keynote on Saturday morning on the "Media Commons".

Jacob Wheeler first created the GLEN ARBOR SUN right out of high school. He continues in a wide ranging career of independent journalist including continuation of the Sun and major contributions to TheUptake.org.  Jacob joins Dave for a discussion of the role of media in a democracy and how especially critical it is today in development of effective local governance. Jacob tells of his experiences as an independent journalist especially the work of TheUptake.org in keeping the last Minnesota Senatorial election and the long court battle that followed highly visible to every citizen and therefore transparent. Likewise, their coverage of the Wisconsin battle to protect bargaining rights for public employees help launch that effort into a national campaign.

Duke Elsner, Grand Traverse County extension agent, updates the local experience with bugs, both pests and otherwise, this hot summer. Importantly, Duke and Dave talk about the funding threats to the Extension Service and the vital role that agency plays in our communities' social capital.

With this program Bob and Dave dive into a two part discussion of the basic concepts and thinking points involved in the idea of 'community resilience'.They begin with a discussion of the premise of resilience as applied to eco-social communities. Quickly they share the Richard Heinberg narrated video, The Ultimate Roller Coaster Ride: Four Hundred Years of Fossil Fuel History. Eco-Social Resilience matters because the drive of history is changing. Energy constraint and expense, along with climate change, are already causing changes, even shocks, to our globalized system of doing things. Severe stresses to our way of life are likely in the near term future.

We wrap up our current discussion of placemaking and related issues with Harry Burkholder and Heather Seyfarth. Both are planners with Lands Information Access Association and involve in numerous community planning projects.  Economic development surveys reveal that "an attractive place with lots to do" is the prime reason the key, youthful demographic age grades communities need to attract to strengthen local social capital. Designing a place for people, making a place that is attractive to live in, is critical to small communities as well as large. All communities in a region need to attend to their design for people for the whole region's benefit. Burkholder and Seyfarth report on their experiences trying to develop a future vision amongst local leaders.