BBC NEWS | England | Devon | 'Ghost towns' warning
A warning on the perils of rural life in the 21st century, but also a glimpse of optimism and the value of mutuality:
But the report by the independent think-tank, New Economics Foundation (NEF), holds up Rackenford in north Devon as an example of how villages can help themselves.
Villagers there clubbed together to buy the local shop and post office.
Sally Child from the village says they were faced with a stark future if they had not gone ahead.
She said: "I think that if we had lost the shop, the fact that you have to drive so far for a newspaper or a pint of milk would really have made a difference.
"Then we might have started to look like a ghost town or a purely dormitory village which we really aren't at the moment."
This links in very nicely with Tim's recent posting on Mutual Manifesto (Mutuals on A High Wire)which suggest Mutuals work best in an atmosphere of pressure for collaborative action, to ensure that they maintain their reason for existence. Obvious Rackenford has this pressure and has responded positively in an area where the market just isn't working to meet the needs of people.
Andrew Sims of NEF goes on to say:
A new retail feudalism is emerging across Britain as a handful of brands take over our shopping.
"Unless it is challenged, ghost town Britain will become a daily reality.
"If things carry on as they are, before long, we will be facing a commercial one-party state."
Is choice always good? Some choice definitely and where choice is taken away because the market cannot fulfill a need then Mutualism can step in and makes tremendous sense. The aspect of a community also comes across as important - there is a fundamanetal difference between the scale of application of the Brand organisation (as described above) and the Mutual organisation. Can Mutuals be actively sustained for larger organisations or across mutliple communities? I believe so but it is harder and much more of the high wire act, than in this instance.
Mutuals have far more applications which need to be explored and pushed forward as viable alternatives to markets or Government organisations.
Hi Paul,
I know of a village here in the Netherlands as well where the inhabitants bought the local store, and since then have run it in a profitable way. Their neighbouring village now has a few people knocking all doors to collect support to buy up the local store there as well.
The return of the coop, where the old coops have lost the connection to their original members (dairy processors went that route here in NL), and maybe even the return of money-less (the official kind at least) niches where general well fare and well being is mutually achieved.
Posted by: Ton Zijlstra at January 9, 2004 02:41 PM