Updates at: LOCALIZATIONPAPERS.ORG |
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TITLE / ABSTRACT |
PERSISTENT URL (Deep Blue archive) |
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1. Localization: Premise and precis |
http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/83442 |
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To survive on this planet, we each must prepare for a descent in overall resource availability. This emerging biophysical reality is inevitable. It is not altered by political debate or market forces, nor will denial or inattention make it disappear. What is not inevitable, however, is the nature of our response. One plausible response, called localization, has unexpected and positive aspects that emerge from the efforts of behavioral entrepreneurs. |
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2. Localization: A brief definition |
http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/86654
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Definitions tend to be slippery things, they can as easily misdirect or constrain thought as they can enlighten it. Offered here is a tentative definition of what localization involves. It surely will evolve over time, particularly as we get more instances of its practical application. |
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3. Restoring mental vitality in an endangered world |
http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/83484 |
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Responding to climate disruption and resource descent requires behavior change on a massive scale. Many skills are needed to respond well to the coming downshift but none more central than the abilities to plan and manage our behavior, and handle the emotions coming from losing an affluent and stable lifestyle. These abilities require a mental state called vitality. Managing and restoring this capacity are preconditions to successful downshifting. |
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4. Motivating transition with a conservation aesthetic |
http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/86728 |
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Encouraging people to transition to durable living might be done using a variety of psychological strategies. However, engaging people in ways that help them to flourish during what will likely be a long and challenging process is better accomplished by focusing their attention on an inner transition — one involving intrinsic satisfactions and behavioral aesthetics — rather than relying on bluster and coercion. |
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5. Slow change for a durable transition |
http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/88161 |
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Some people despair at the unsustainability of human behavior; however, such despair may come from taking far too narrow and pessimistic a view of human nature. Behavior change does happen but lasting change happens only slowly. Since the problems we face are urgent, such slow-to-change behavior can give rise to frustration. But, in fact, the opposite response is needed from us; we need to be patient. The transition we face must be done well the first time with the changes made durable; it is unlikely we will get a second chance. |
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6. Adaptive muddling |
http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/48163 |
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Understanding the need for localization is not the same as knowing what steps to take and how to take them. To respond well to an energy and resource descent, climate disruption and soil depletion, a great many small experiments must be conducted, and very quickly. Adaptive muddling is a process that innovates rapidly yet carefully. It emphasizes small experiments, not the small steps common in more formal procedures. The difference is subtle but important for a successful transition. This paper, focused on averting the tragedy of the commons, introduces adaptive muddling as a psychologically compatible decision-making strategy. |
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7. Small experiments for the coming downshift |
http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/100254 |
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The circumstances being faced are urgent, some global, some personal, many overwhelming. It would seem that only large responses will suffice. But this is a version of the homeopathic delusion (Berry 2011): here that only large collective-action solutions can respond to large problems. The notion of small experiments is a counter argument. It points out the benefit and efficacy of small scale efforts, of having modest expectations and of understanding the fact that humans are native and highly-motivated problem-solvers. |
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8. Transitioning to a new normal |
http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/102020 |
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Like many ardent environmentalists, the journal Ecopsychology is undergoing a re-visioning. This paper imagines how practitioners might help people to prepare for the harder times ahead. It suggests that psychologists are well positioned to help people envision an alternative to our current relationship with resources, to help them to
anticipate that everyday life will soon differ substantially from conventional expectations and to help them to realize that, despite a dramatic resource downshift, well-being likely will, if unexpectedly, improve. |
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9. Some behavioral aspects of energy descent |
http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/109261 |
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Society will soon face biophysical limits to growth. Resource supplies will slowly tighten and then begin a long drawn-out descent while defensive expenditures rise to address damage caused by past resource consumption. It is difficult to know when this scenario might begin to unfold (it likely has already started) but it clearly constitutes a new behavioral context, one that the behavioral sciences least attends to. Since it is likely that no single response will fix things everywhere, for all people or for all time, it will be useful to conduct many social experiments. Indeed, a culture of small experiments should be fostered which, at the individual and small group level, can be described as behavioral entrepreneurship. It will be useful to both package behavioral insights in a way that is practitioner-friendly and grounded in biophysical trends and to propose a few key questions that need empirical attention. |
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