{"id":958,"date":"2008-08-10T03:09:17","date_gmt":"2008-08-10T07:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=958"},"modified":"2018-08-12T22:02:53","modified_gmt":"2018-08-13T02:02:53","slug":"16396-%c2%a0-michael-h-shuman-the-small-mart-revolution-%e2%80%95-how-local-businesses-are-beating-the-global-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=958","title":{"rendered":"16396. (Michael H. Shuman) The Small-Mart Revolution \u2015 How Local Businesses are Beating the Global Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

I would like to see every\u00adone involved with urban reform and with demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adtic activism to read this book. There is a pow\u00ader\u00adful under\u00adcur\u00adrent of change going on in both the Unit\u00aded States and Cana\u00adda, def\u00adi\u00adnitely some\u00adthing mov\u00ading up from the grass roots and ignored by both the media and the elite polit\u00adi\u00adcal drones. It\u2019s some\u00adthing far more cre\u00adative and sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcant than a mere flaky fash\u00adion for \u201canti-glob\u00adal\u00adism\u201d demon\u00adstra\u00adtions, with which the read\u00ader might at first con\u00adfuse it. It\u2019s the fact that peo\u00adple \u2014 ordi\u00adnary peo\u00adple \u2014 are start\u00ading to ques\u00adtion the ortho\u00addox\u00adies they have been taught about how things \u201chave to be\u201d, and real\u00adiz\u00ading that their self-inter\u00adest, as well as their future, depends on re-invig\u00ado\u00adrat\u00ading local eco\u00adnomic and polit\u00adi\u00adcal pow\u00ader. You would nev\u00ader guess it from fol\u00adlow\u00ading the media, but Amer\u00adi\u00adcans and Cana\u00addi\u00adans are start\u00ading to shake off the pas\u00adsiv\u00adity and mor\u00adbid fatal\u00adism that their rulers have ener\u00adget\u00adi\u00adcally cul\u00adti\u00advated. They\u2019ve begun to notice that Wal-Mart mov\u00ading into your neigh\u00adbour\u00adhood pro\u00adduces pover\u00adty, not pros\u00adper\u00adity, that North Amer\u00adi\u00adcan soci\u00adety has been rapid\u00adly hemor\u00adag\u00ading cash into a \u201cglob\u00adal\u201d empire of multi\u00adna\u00adtion\u00adals-kings-dic\u00adta\u00adtors, and that if they don\u2019t do some\u00adthing about it they are going to become help\u00adless pau\u00adpers. Shu\u00adman describes some of the things that peo\u00adple have been doing, most\u00adly in small scale entre\u00adpre\u00adneur\u00adial and social action, to turn the tide. His analy\u00adsis of the issues and process\u00ades is not entire\u00adly accu\u00adrate \u2014 he still suf\u00adfers from the con\u00adfu\u00adsion of cat\u00ade\u00adgor\u00adi\u00adcal ter\u00admi\u00adnol\u00adogy, such as the idi\u00adotic \u201cleft-right\u201d con\u00adcept, that crip\u00adples reform think\u00ading \u2014 but he is def\u00adi\u00adnitely on the right track.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the heart of his study are the premis\u00ades that every con\u00adsumer choice that prefers local sourc\u00ading over dis\u00adtant sourc\u00ading increas\u00ades the \u201cmul\u00adti\u00adplier effect\u201d of trans\u00adac\u00adtions in an econ\u00adomy, and that import sub\u00adsti\u00adtu\u00adtion is the engine of eco\u00adnomic growth. He expos\u00ades the dis\u00adas\u00adtrous con\u00adse\u00adquences of lur\u00ading and brib\u00ading dis\u00adtant cor\u00adpo\u00adrate pow\u00aders into a local\u00adity, rather than cre\u00adat\u00ading con\u00addi\u00adtions for organ\u00adic local eco\u00adnomic cre\u00adativ\u00adity. These are argu\u00adments that Jane Jacobs out\u00adlined decades ago, and which have large\u00adly been ignored by con\u00adven\u00adtional econ\u00ado\u00admists. Shu\u00adman grasps that the \u201cgreater effi\u00adciency\u201d of trans-nation\u00adal cor\u00adpo\u00adrate busi\u00adness con\u00adsists entire\u00adly of col\u00adlect\u00ading free mon\u00adey from tax\u00adpay\u00aders, exploit\u00ading mar\u00adket dis\u00adtor\u00adtions man\u00adu\u00adfac\u00adtured by gov\u00adern\u00adment, and deploy\u00ading crim\u00adi\u00adnal and destruc\u00adtive strate\u00adgies against peo\u00adple who have been stripped of defen\u00adsive resources. The exam\u00adples he gives (such as the cor\u00adpo\u00adra\u00adtion that received a quar\u00adter of a mil\u00adlion dol\u00adlars of free mon\u00adey from tax\u00adpay\u00aders for every job it vague\u00adly promised to pro\u00adduce in a city, and did not even do so) should wake up the read\u00ader to the absur\u00addity of their gov\u00adern\u00adments\u2019 poli\u00adcies. He also grasps that those same gov\u00adern\u00adments will quick\u00adly \u201cagree\u201d with ratio\u00adnal crit\u00adics and make a big, but entire\u00adly pho\u00adny, show of fol\u00adlow\u00ading the ratio\u00adnal path, while chang\u00ading noth\u00ading. This shows that he has some real-life expe\u00adri\u00adence of try\u00ading to reform things. But he is at his best when he describes sit\u00adu\u00ada\u00adtions where ded\u00adi\u00adcated peo\u00adple have actu\u00adally made advances in democ\u00adracy and pros\u00adper\u00adity, despite all the obsta\u00adcles. The good news is that those advances are more numer\u00adous and vig\u00ador\u00adous than one would guess. The media have no inter\u00adest in telling you about them. To describe these suc\u00adcess\u00adful ini\u00adtia\u00adtives, Shu\u00adman coins the acronym LOIS<\/span> (\u201clocal own\u00ader\u00adship and import sub\u00adsti\u00adtu\u00adtion\u201d). The term is use\u00adful, and I\u2019ll incor\u00adpo\u00adrate it into my own discussions.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s noth\u00ading in this book that I haven\u2019t been try\u00ading to talk peo\u00adple into for the last twen\u00adty years, but I\u2019ve not been in the posi\u00adtion to influ\u00adence very many peo\u00adple. Schu\u00adman is bet\u00adter placed to do so. He relies, for the most part, on con\u00adven\u00adtional ter\u00admi\u00adnol\u00adogy to explain his points and out\u00adline his rec\u00adom\u00admen\u00adda\u00adtions, rather than take the next log\u00adi\u00adcal step to the reform of ter\u00admi\u00adnol\u00adogy and con\u00adcep\u00adtual frame\u00adwork that I feel is nec\u00ades\u00adsary. But any\u00adone who reads and absorbs his mate\u00adr\u00adial will be bet\u00adter equipped to take that log\u00adi\u00adcal step.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I would like to see every\u00adone involved with urban reform and with demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adtic activism to read this book. There is a pow\u00ader\u00adful under\u00adcur\u00adrent of change going on in both the Unit\u00aded States and Cana\u00adda, def\u00adi\u00adnitely some\u00adthing mov\u00ading up from the \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[946,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-reading","category-bs-reading-2008"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=958"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8392,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\/revisions\/8392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}