We have chosen the theme 'Can we Create a Local World?' 25 years after the death of E. F. Schumacher, economic globalisation has expanded in rich and poor countries alike to the detriment of local self-determination. Local ecosystems, economies and communities have all been gravely undermined. Even sustainable development initiatives are often top down, and tend to ignore the concerns of people in their neighbourhoods and communities.
Yet, despite all this, the yearning for local belonging, strong local economies and a close relationship to the land may never have been greater. Does the dream of local self-reliant living have any relevance in a world of global travel, communications and trading? The 2002 Bristol Lectures will explore options for countering dominant trends and for creating human scale sustainable food, building design and energy systems as a basis for a new, local world.

Zac Goldsmith has been the director and editor of The Ecologist Magazine since 1998. Before joining the Ecologist, he worked for several years with The International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC), based in California (USA), Bristol (UK), and Ladakh (India). He remains an associate director of ISEC. He has participated in numerous television and radio programmes and his writings have been published in newspapers and journals throughout the world.
He states that "the trouble with globalisation is that it sounds so good. Global village, unification, harmonisation - all sounds so benign at a time of conflict, poverty and environmental degradation. But the primary beneficiaries of economic globalisation are multinational corporations whose power is now greater than any other force on Earth, second only to nature herself."

Dr. Caroline Lucas became the Green Party's first MEP in June 1999. She is vice-president of the European Parliament's Delegation to African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries, and its Animal Welfare group. Caroline has written extensively on globalisation. In 2000 she co-authored the booklet "The Euro or a Sustainable Future for Britain - a green critique of the single currency". In 2001 she co-authored "Which way for the European Union: Radical Reform or Business as Usual?".
She states that "the crisis of the EU is more than a simple communications problem which can be remedied by a little more transparency. The EU must rediversify national and local economies and provide society's needs in an environmentally sustainable manner. We must put social and environmental justice at the heart of Europe's domestic and international policies. To do this we must promote strong, diverse, self-reliant regional economies".

Pooran Desai is a founder and co-director of the BioRegional Development Group in Sutton, South London. BioRegional have developed a range of initiatives drawing on local biological resources - charcoal from tree cuttings, local paper, clothes from hemp and linen. They have also revived the historic lavender industry of South London on disused allotments. The Beddington Zero Energy Development (BedZED), built with the Peabody Trust, is the UK's largest carbon-neutral housing project. Pooran, with Sue Riddlestone, is co-author of Schumacher Briefing 8, 'BioRegional Solutions For Living on One Planet'.
They state that "the BioRegional approach is a practical expression of thinking globally and acting locally. Localising the supply of products and services enables us to increase local recycling and reduce unnecessary transport and to create more stable regional economies, protected from the destructive swings of globalisation."

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