Actionable Strategies: What We Learned From Helena Norberg-Hodge
Regen Streets convener, Nina Sharpe, reports back on the strategies and conversations that emerged from our recent “local economies” workshop with world-renowned localisation expert Helena Norberg-Hodge and community organisers from across Melbourne.
In an era where global systems increasingly pressure communities into unsustainable patterns of growth and consumption, a transformative gathering at the Abbotsford Convent brought together community organisers from across Greater Melbourne to envision alternative futures.
Guided by world-renowned local economies expert Helena Norberg-Hodge, founder and director of Local Futures, participants explored pathways toward resilient local economies and community wellbeing. Norberg-Hodge's powerful message resonated throughout the session: "We are locked into a system, we are currently in a pressure cooker."
Yet rather than surrendering to this pressure, she offered a compelling framework for change through the 5Rs – reconnect, rethink, resist, renewal, and rejoice.
She invited the room to shift from "I" to "we" thinking, providing a cornerstone for the discussions. While her emphasis on "replication not growth" offered a practical alternative to conventional economic models. As participants shared challenges and solutions, a central truth emerged: the power of localisation lies not in striving for perfection but in creating "islands of coherence" through human connection – from shared economic endeavours to something as simple as singing together.
This report captures the insights, frameworks, and actionable strategies that emerged from this vital conversation about how Greater Melbourne's communities can build thriving local economies that serve people and the planet alike.
The event was captured as a visual story by illustrator Josephine Ford (Studio RAA) both bringing to life and immortalising the essence of the room.
Illustrator: Josephine Ford (Studio RAA)
During introductions, participants were invited to share what is keeping them stuck and creating barriers to their work. Four themes were captured and then unpacked in the workshop. Here is a breakdown of each one.
Illustrator: Josephine Ford (Studio RAA)
1. Systems Thinking For Local Action
Systems thinking requires communities to see interconnections rather than isolated problems. The group emphasised the need to view local challenges through multiple lenses — social, environmental, economic, and cultural — to understand how they influence each other.
Key principles
Recognise complex relationships: Local issues are connected to regional and global dynamics, with feedback loops that can amplify or dampen effects.
Learn to Zoom in/out: Communities should alternate between examining specific local details and seeing the broader pattern of relationships.
Embrace multiple perspectives: Diverse stakeholders bring different experiences and knowledge that enriches understanding of community systems.
Identify leverage points: Find where small changes can produce significant improvements in the overall system.
Practical implementation
Map local systems: Collaboratively create visual representations of how community elements interact.
Change over time: Analyse how systems have evolved and might respond to interventions.
Participatory learning: Engage residents in systems education through workshops and community dialogues.
How to avoid analysis paralysis
A critical theme emerged around avoiding "analysis paralysis." While understanding systems is important, communities must balance this with concrete local action. Start with small experiments that can provide immediate benefits while generating learning about system dynamics.
Seek support that exists
Communities should connect with nearby universities, consult systems literature, and establish learning networks with other localities pursuing similar approaches. Systems thinking isn't just an analytical tool but a mindset shift — one that helps communities recognise their agency to effect meaningful change by understanding how local actions ripple through interconnected systems.
“The path to meaningful local action begins with thoughtful community mobilisation strategies that honour both individual motivations and collective needs.”
2. Mobilising Communities for Local Action
Key principles
Warm and welcoming introduction: Create an inviting atmosphere that makes participation accessible to everyone
Understanding local context: Identify existing community activities with high engagement and build upon them.
Events as mobilisation platforms: Use gatherings to spark interest and create momentum.
Storytelling for value demonstration: Share narratives that illustrate the impact of engagement.
Practical implementation
Clear and tangible outcomes: Define specific, achievable goals that people can visualise.
Energy exchange recognition: Acknowledge that community members are contributing valuable resources (time, skills, knowledge).
Learning through immersion: Encourage cross-pollination by connecting with other organisations.
Routine and regularity: Establish consistent activities with predictable schedules.
Flexibility: Offer varying levels of involvement to accommodate different capacities.
Reframing volunteer engagement
A significant challenge involves rethinking how we conceptualise and discuss community participation. These include:
Shifting terminology: Move beyond the term "volunteer" which can carry limiting connotations.
Core skills and service gaps: Identify where volunteer efforts are filling roles that should be government-supported.
Participant Motivations: Understand what drives community members to contribute their time and talents
Tracking value differently: Question whether tracking "volunteer hours" is the most meaningful metric.
Agency and stewardship language: Frame participation as "caring for our community" to emphasise shared ownership.
Overcoming barriers to participation
Several challenges require strategic approaches:
Abundance vs. scarcity mindset: Cultivate thinking that focuses on collective resources rather than limitations.
Responsibility concerns: Address apprehensions about liability or overwhelming commitment.
Unlocking time and skills: Create flexible structures that accommodate various schedules and abilities.
Intention-Action Gap: Develop strategies to bridge the discrepancy between stated interest and actual participation.
Structural foundations for success
Effective community mobilisation requires:
Clear objectives: Well-defined goals that provide direction.
Diverse viewpoints: Multiple perspectives that enhance understanding and solutions.
Values Alignment: Shared principles that unite participants.
Collaboration with existing networks: Partnership with established organisations.
Induction processes: Thoughtful onboarding that connects new participants to the community's purpose.
By integrating these elements, communities can create more inclusive, effective, and sustainable local action initiatives that transform individual interest into collective impact.
Illustrator: Josephine Ford (Studio RAA)
3. Supporting Local Leaders
The approach to supporting local leaders, centres on shifting from a centralised "I" model to a decentralised "we" model, addressing the gap between concept and scale while maintaining heart, passion and innovative ideas.
Key principles
Create new structures: Move beyond exhaustive labelling systems and structures that perpetuate centralisation and globalisation.
Differentiate leader roles: Recognise the distinction between "leader in title" (holder of responsibility and risk) and "leader in action" (driving change, accountability, and responsive action).
Differentiate leader types: Create conditions where people can "see a leader" in others and "identify as a leader" themselves.
Embrace a "mycelium" approach: Foster interconnected networks that replicate and grow organically.
Implementation strategies
Address governance, finance, and resourcing challenges that prevent scaling.
Create membership structures that support rather than constrain.
Enable many small initiatives to replicate rather than forcing central control.
Reconnect people to their leadership identity and capacity.
Facilitate an environment where leadership emerges naturally from community needs.
This framework challenges traditional hierarchical models by emphasising distributed responsibility and collective action, ultimately creating more resilient and responsive local leadership ecosystems.
4. Communities Influencing Policy: A Bottom-Up Approach
Key principles
Recognise community expertise: Treat community wisdom as a valuable resource that can directly inform policy development.
Champion bottom-up policy creation: Policies should be built up from community needs rather than imposed from above, emphasising that "policies need to be built up, not sent down".
Engage in co-design: Institutions need to be retrained to genuinely engage with communities in the field rather than operating at a distance.
Reform funding structures: Current policy funding often prioritises documentation and reports while the community misses out on real benefits.
Practical approaches for communities
Local representation over unified messaging: Communities should prioritise local representatives speaking for their specific needs rather than accepting a "unified team approach."
Emphasise relationships in systems: While complex, systems change requires focusing on relationship-building between communities and policy-makers.
Support community initiatives: When communities generate good ideas, focus on implementation and removing barriers rather than blocking progress.
Learn from successful models: Reference examples like Iceland's approach to citizen involvement in government as potential frameworks for reform.
Addressing systemic barriers
Confront governmental limitations: Current approaches often involve too much bureaucracy, with accountability focusing on documenting activities rather than measuring outcomes.
Recognise humanity in policy: Policy craft is inherently human and carries the biases of those who create it; diverse community voices can counterbalance this.
Break down complexity: Move away from mechanistic worldviews by breaking systems into manageable components with individual budgets and clearly defined roles.
The overall message emphasises that effective policy influence requires communities to actively engage from outside and within systems, elevating local wisdom while reshaping institutional practices to be more responsive to community needs.
Illustrator: Josephine Ford (Studio RAA)
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