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Community Economy and Ecological Sustainability

Laszlo Zsolnai’s paper “Community Economy and Ecological Sustainability” was published in the book Transition Redesigned: A Practical Philosophy Perspective (edited by Wojciech W. Gasparski and Boleslaw Rok, 2013, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New Jersey, pp. 79–92).

The paper presents the community economy framework for the required transition toward a more ecologically sustainable society. Models of the community economy represent substantive economic activities. Communities of producers and consumers are formed to meet their mutual needs at the lowest cost and minimize their risks through long-term arrangements. A community economy basically uses local resources to meet the needs of local people, rather than the wants of market far away. World prices do not determine what will be produced and the key production processes need to be run without inputs from the global system.