Imagining Local Futures with Helena Norberg-Hodge

Join Helena Norberg-Hodge, Douglas Rushkoff, John Vervaeke, Nora Bateson, Josh Schrei and more in Sensemaking 102. Navigate complexity and embody new narratives around Tech, Economics, Myth, Power, Systems and Meaning. The live cohort begins on Wednesday, June 11 and the content only option is available throughout the course.

McDonalds in the desert. Coca-Cola in the mountains. The International Monetary Fund. The World Bank. The same clothes, the same thoughts, the same ideas recycled through different cultures again and again.

Anger at globalisation is one of those rare forces that unites people across the political spectrum. As modern life fractures and frays, it’s become one of the fundamental issues of the era. It lies at the heart of our debates around tariffs, immigration and identity.But what’s the alternative, and is it worth it? Are our lives better when we come back to local community? What do we gain, and what do we lose? Helena Norberg-Hodge is an author and film-maker. She’s one of the leading voices in the localisation movement, and the founder of Local Futures, which is committed to the revitalisation of cultural and biological diversity and the strengthening of local communities and economies worldwide.

In 1975, having studied linguistics with Noam Chomsky at MIT, she was invited to accompany a film team to the remote region of Ladakh, or ‘Little Tibet’, which had been sealed off from the outside world and had only recently been opened. Helena became the first Westerner in modern times to master the Ladakhi language, and gained deep insights into the workings of one of the few cultures that remained untouched by the modern world.

She went on to write ‘Ancient Futures’ arguing for the importance of localisation, and of rejecting the homogenising forces of global capital. Five decades and several books later, the question of how we come back to ourselves and to local land and culture is more pressing than ever.

Leviathan Screenings

If you’re looking to find the others and watch our first feature-length documentary Leviathan in real life before our online premiere on the 26th, we have a growing list of screenings happening around the world. You can find the first ones below, with many more to come.Official London Premiere on Thursday, 26 June hosted by Alexander BeinerBerlin Screening on Tuesday, 24 June hosted by WeSpace (with Alexander in person for Q&A)

Cape Town Screening on Sunday, 23 June hosted by Daniel Shaw

Buckfastleigh Screening on Sunday, 23 June hosted by The Moor Imagination Collective Available Soon: Stockholm Screening on Thursday, 26 June hosted by Nora Bateson and Pella Thiel (with Alexander on virtual Q&A)

Toronto Screening on Thursday, 26 June hosted by Peter Limberg

Tel Aviv Screening on Saturday, 21 June hosted by Michael Fine / Fermata

Berlin Screening on Saturday, 21 June hosted by Lovers and Leaders

Singapore Screening on Saturday, 21 June hosted by Ryan Cheng

Capetown Screening on Sunday, 22 June hosted by Inet Strydom / Grabouw