| Abstract: | This paper describes a theoretical framework for thinking about self-reliance and self-sufficiency at the local level as one strategy for sustainable local development. Localisation can be regarded as a reaction to the process of globalisation, and can be interpreted in terms of governance and resource use. Self-reliance is related to control over decision making, whereas self-sufficiency refers to fulfilling an individual's or group's physical needs, and thus is linked to resource use. Territoriality can also be interpreted in terms of decision making and resource use. The findings of an interview study concerning self-reliance and self-sufficiency at the local level are presented and discussed in relation to the framework. The strengths of self-reliance and self-sufficiency as strategies for sustainable local development are that these provide opportunities for human-scale, territorial development processes, which through their local scale generate the possibilities of taking into account feedback from the natural environment, and building redundancy into the global system. |
