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{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{short description|Swedish activist and documentary director}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Helena Norberg-Hodge
| image = Helena Norberg Hodge 2015.jpg
| caption = Norberg-Hodge in 2015
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1946|01|10|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Sweden]]
| death_date =
| awards = 1986 [[Right Livelihood Award]] and 2012 Goi Peace Award
| death_place =
| occupation = linguist, writer, activist, documentary film maker
| notable_works = [[Ancient Futures]]<br>
[[The Economics of Happiness]]
}}

'''Helena Norberg-Hodge''' (born 10 January 1946) is the founder and director of [[Local Futures]], previously known as the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC) and pioneer of the Localization movement. Local Futures is a non-profit organization "dedicated to the revitalization of cultural and biological diversity, and the strengthening of local communities and economies worldwide."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.localfutures.org|title=Local Futures – Local Futures|website=Local Futures|access-date=7 October 2017}}</ref>

Norberg-Hodge is the author of the international best-selling book ''[[Ancient Futures]]'' (1991), about tradition and change in the Himalayan region of [[Ladakh]], available in multiple languages, as an ecobook and audiobook versions. She is also the author of ''Local is Our Future'' (2019), in which she advocates for localized alternatives to the global economy, particularly involving the creation of robust [[local food]] systems and democratic structures that can effectively resist [[authoritarianism]].<ref name="Local is Our Future">{{cite web|url=https://www.localfutures.org/publications/local-is-our-future-book-helena-norberg-hodge/|title=Local is Our Future book|website=LocalFutures.org|access-date=24 February 2020}}</ref> An outspoken critic of [[economic globalization]], she co-founded – along with [[Jerry Mander]], [[Douglas Tompkins|Doug Tompkins]], [[Vandana Shiva]], [[Martin Khor]] and others – the International Forum on Globalization (IFG) in 1994.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ifg.org/about/history/|title=History – INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON GLOBALIZATION|website=Ifg.org|access-date=7 October 2017}}</ref> She is a leading proponent of localization as an antidote to the problems arising from globalization, and founded the International Alliance for Localization (IAL) in 2014.

Norberg-Hodge produced and co-directed the award-winning documentary film ''[[The Economics of Happiness]]'' (2011), which lays out her arguments against economic globalization and for localization.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.localfutures.org/the-economics-of-happiness/the-film/film/|title=About the film – Local Futures|website=Localfutures.org|access-date=7 October 2017}}</ref> Recently she initiated World Localization Day (WLD), which broadcasts globally online. In 1986, she was awarded the [[Right Livelihood Award]] for "preserving the traditional culture and values of Ladakh against the onslaught of tourism and development." In 2012, she received the Goi Peace Award for "her pioneering work in the localization movement".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.goipeace.or.jp/en/work/award/award-2012/|title=2012 Goi Peace Award Laureate|website=Goi Peace Foundation|date=August 2012 |access-date=24 February 2020}}</ref>

== Education ==
Norberg-Hodge was educated in Sweden, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom, and the United States. She specialized in [[linguistics]], including studies at the doctoral level at the [[University of London]] and at [[MIT]], with [[Noam Chomsky]]. Fluent in seven languages, she has lived in and studied numerous cultures at varying degrees of industrialization. The most influential of these in forming Norberg-Hodge's worldview is the Himalayan region of [[Ladakh]].

== Ladakh ==
[[Ladakh]], also known as Little Tibet, is a remote region on the [[Tibetan Plateau]]. Although it is part of [[India]], it has more in common culturally with [[Tibet]]. Because it borders both [[China]] and [[Pakistan]], countries with which India has had tense relations and frequent border disputes, the Indian government kept Ladakh largely isolated from the outside world. It was not until 1962 that the first road was built over the high mountain passes that separate the region from the rest of India, and even then the region was off-limits to all but the Indian military. In 1975, the Indian government decided to open Ladakh to tourism and 'development', and Norberg-Hodge was one of the first westerners to visit the region, accompanying a German film crew as a translator.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.share-international.org/archives/social-justice/sj_mllessons.htm|title=Lessons from an ancient culture, Interview with Helena Norberg-Hodge|author=Monte Leach|website=Share-international.org|access-date=7 October 2017|archive-date=28 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121028042014/http://share-international.org/archives/social-justice/sj_mllessons.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

As she described in an interview with the Indian website Infochange,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://infochangeindia.org/globalisation/related-analysis/localisation-is-about-bringing-the-economy-back-to-a-human-scale.html |title=Localisation is about bringing the economy back to a human scale | Analysis | Globalisation |access-date=30 March 2016 |url-status=usurped |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160412115528/http://infochangeindia.org/globalisation/related-analysis/localisation-is-about-bringing-the-economy-back-to-a-human-scale.html |archivedate=12 April 2016 }}</ref> the culture she observed in those early years was a near-paradise of social and ecological well-being, but quickly broke down under the impact of outside economic forces: "When I first arrived in Leh, the capital of 5,000 inhabitants, cows were the most likely cause of congestion and the air was crystal clear. Within five minutes' walk in any direction from the town centre were barley fields, dotted with large farmhouses. For the next twenty years I watched Leh turn into an urban sprawl. The streets became choked with traffic, and the air tasted of diesel fumes. 'Housing colonies' of soulless, cement boxes spread into the dusty desert. The once pristine streams became polluted, the water undrinkable. For the first time, there were homeless people. The increased economic pressures led to unemployment and competition. Within a few years, friction between different communities appeared. All of these things had not existed for the previous 500 years."

Many of the changes that 'development' brought were psychological, as she described in the film version of ''Ancient Futures'': "In one of my first years in Ladakh, I was in this incredibly beautiful village. All the houses were three stories high and painted white. And I was just amazed. So out of curiosity I asked a young man from that village to show me the poorest house. He thought for a bit, and then he said, 'We don't have any poor houses.' The same person I heard eight years later saying to a tourist, 'Oh, if you could only help us Ladakhis, we're so poor!' And what had happened is that in the intervening eight years he had been bombarded with all these one-dimensional images of life in the West. He'd seen people with fast cars, you know, looking as though they never worked, and with lots of money. And suddenly by comparison his culture seemed backward and primitive and poor."

In 1978, Norberg-Hodge founded The Ladakh Project, for which Local Futures is now the parent organization, in order to counter the overly rosy impressions of life in the urban consumer culture, and to re-instill respect for the traditional culture. She also helped establish several indigenous NGOs in Ladakh including the Women's Alliance of Ladakh (WAL), the Ladakh Environment and Health Organisation (LEHO), and the Ladakh Ecological Development Group (LEDeG). LEDeG has designed, built and installed a wide range of small-scale appropriate technologies, including solar water heaters, cookers, passive space heaters, and greenhouses. In 1986, Norberg-Hodge and LEDeG were awarded the [[Right Livelihood Award]] (also known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize') in recognition of these efforts.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rightlivelihood.org/ladakh.html |title=Right Livelihood Award: 1986 - LEDEG |work=www.rightlivelihood.org |access-date=8 January 2009 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090108164840/http://www.rightlivelihood.org/ladakh.html |archivedate=8 January 2009 }}</ref>

== Documentaries ==
Together with the Local Futures team, Helena has produced the following films and animations:

* ''Trade Gone Mad'', 2024, narrated by [[Nathalie Kelley]] (4 minute animation)
* ''Closer to Home: Voices of Hope in a Time of Crisis'', 2024 with [[Cyrus Sutton]] (33 minutes)
* ''The Power of Local'', 2024 (42 minutes)
* ''Planet Local: A Quiet Revolution'', 2023 (50 minutes)
* ''Local Food Can Save the World'', 2023 (3 minutes)
* ''Local, A Story of Hope'', 2022, also featuring [[Damon Gameau]] and Ella Noah Bancroft (8 minutes)
* ''Big Picture Activism'', 2022, also featuring [[Damon Gameau]] and Ella Noah Bancroft (5 minutes)
* ''Small is Beautiful: Growing the Local Food Movement in Dartington / Totnes UK'', (3 minutes)
* ''Young Farmers in Ladakh'', 2021 (7 minutes)
* ''Insane Trade! - How Insane is Global Trade?'', 2021 (3 minutes)
* ''Going Local: the solution-multiplier'', 2017 (2 minutes)
* ''Localization: for People and the Earth'', 2014 (7 minutes)
* ''The Economics of Happiness'', 2012 (1 hour 8 minutes)
* ''Paradise with Side Effects'', 2004 (40 minutes)
* ''The Future of Progress'', 1992 (30 minutes)

== Publications ==
[[File:Helena Norberg-Hodge.jpg|thumb|Norberg-Hodge in 2009]]

Norberg-Hodge's most recent book, ''Local is Our Future'' (2019) describes how a systemic shift from a globalized economy towards a network of decentralized, localized economies could address a number of problems simultaneously, ranging from economic inequality to the climate crisis to mental illness epidemics.<ref name="Local is Our Future" /> The book has received praise from a number of public figures including [[Bill McKibben]], [[Douglas Rushkoff]], [[David Suzuki]], [[Charles Eisenstein]], [[Alice Waters]], and others.<ref name="Local is Our Future" /><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.localfutures.org/publications/local-is-our-future-book-helena-norberg-hodge/endorsements/|title=Local is Our Future: Endorsements|website=LocalFutures.org|access-date=24 February 2020}}</ref>

Her previous book, ''Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh'' (Sierra Club, 1991), was based on Norberg-Hodge's first-hand experience of Ladakh's traditional culture and the impacts of conventional development on it. The book was very well received, and has remained in print ever since. (A second edition, with a different subtitle, "Lessons from Ladakh for a Globalizing World", was published in 2009; a third edition, with no subtitle, is to be published in April 2016). ''Ancient Futures'' has been described as an "inspirational classic" by The London ''Times'' and "one of the most important books of our time" by author Susan Griffin.<ref name="Chelsea Green">{{cite web|url=https://www.chelseagreen.com/science-nature-environment/ancient-futures-3rd-edition|title=Chelsea Green Publishing – Ancient Futures, 3rd Edition|website=Chelsea Green Publishing|date=28 January 2016 |access-date=7 October 2017}}</ref> Together with the film version of the book, ''Ancient Futures'' has been translated into more than 40 languages.<ref name="Chelsea Green" />

Norberg-Hodge is also co-author of ''Life After Progress'' (Local Futures, 2022), ''Bringing the Food Economy Home: Local Alternatives to Global Agribusiness'' (Kumarian, 2002) and ''From the Ground Up: Rethinking Industrial Agriculture'' (Zed Books, 1992).

== Lectures, workshops, webinars and presentations ==
Norberg-Hodge lectures extensively in several languages – most often in English, Swedish, German, and Ladakhi, and occasionally in French, Spanish, and Italian. Over the years, lecture tours have brought her to universities, government agencies and private institutions. She has made presentations to parliamentarians in Germany, Sweden, and England; at the White House and the US Congress; to [[UNESCO]], the [[World Bank]], the [[European Commission]], and the IMF; and at Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, Cornell and numerous other universities. She also teaches regularly at [[Schumacher College]] in England. She frequently lectures and gives workshops for community groups around the world working on localization issues.

In addition, she frequently appears on television and radio programs around the world.

== Recognition ==
* [[Right Livelihood Award]] as recognition for her work with LEDeG, 1986.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rightlivelihood.org/ladakh.html|title=Right Livelihood Laureates|website=Rightlivelihood.org|access-date=7 October 2017|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090108164840/http://www.rightlivelihood.org/ladakh.html|archivedate=8 January 2009}}</ref>
* One of the world's 'Ten Most Interesting Environmentalists' by the Earth Journal (1993).
* In Carl McDaniel's book ''Wisdom for a Liveable Planet'' ([[Trinity University (Texas)#Trinity University Press|Trinity University Press]], 2005), she was profiled as one of eight visionaries changing the world today.
* Goi Peace Award from the [[Goi Peace Foundation]] in Japan (2012), "in recognition of her pioneering work in the new economy movement to help create a more sustainable and equitable world.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.goipeace.or.jp/english/activities/award/award2012.html|title=2012 Goi Peace Award Laureate|website=Goipeace.or.jp|date=August 2012 |access-date=7 October 2017}}</ref>
* The Environment Award at the [https://www.tignano.it/ Tignano Festival], Tuscany - Italy (2023).

== Affiliations ==
Norberg-Hodge is a co-founder of the International Forum on Globalization and the [[Global Ecovillage Network]]. She was a founding member of the International Commission on the Future of Food and Agriculture, launched with the support of the government of Tuscany, and was previously on the editorial board of [[The Ecologist]] magazine. She lives in Australia and the UK.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
* [https://www.localfutures.org/ Local Futures/International Society for Ecology and Culture]
* [https://www.youtube.com/@ISECeconofhappiness Local Futures' catalog of documentaries]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120229235421/http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-7846941319183318053&ei=S0QlS-HZF5LW-AalroXiAw&q=helena+norberg+hodge+ancient+futures&hl=en Helena Norberg-Hodge's film – ''Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh'']
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090212113749/http://www.bigpicture.tv/speakers/de774005f Online interviews with Helena Norberg-Hodge]
* [https://www.theecologist.org/ The Ecologist magazine]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090108164840/http://www.rightlivelihood.org/ladakh.html The Right Livelihood Award website]
* [https://www.ifg.org/ The International Forum on Globalization (IFG)]
* [http://www.economia.rai.it/articoli/norberg-hodge-leconomia-della-felicità/16592/default.aspx Helena Norberg-Hodge, on the portal RAI Economy]
* [https://greattransition.org/gti-forum/global-local-norberg-hodge "Resist Locally, Renew Globally"], Great Transition Initiative, August 2019
* [https://truthout.org/articles/unlike-a-globalized-food-system-local-food-wont-destroy-the-environment/ "Unlike a Globalized Food System, Local Food Won't Destroy the Environment"], Truthout, December 2018
* [https://www.tni.org/en/publication/localisation-a-strategic-solution-to-globalised-authoritarianism "Localisation: a strategic solution to globalised authoritarianism"], Transnational Institute, May 2018
* [https://commonthreads.sgi.org/post/157897991073/localization-and-the-economics-of-happiness "Localization and the Economics of Happiness"], Soka Gakkai International, March 2017
* [https://www.tikkun.org/nextgen/strengthening-local-economies-the-path-to-peace/ "Strengthening Local Economies: The Path to Peace?"], Tikkun, 29 July 2015
* [https://www.resurgence.org/magazine/article4444-a-new-call-for-resistance-and-renewal.html/ "A New Call for Resistance and Renewal"], Resurgence, July–August 2015
* [http://www.ecotrust.org/the-economics-of-climate-change/ "The Economics of Climate Change"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422232557/https://ecotrust.org/the-economics-of-climate-change/ |date=22 April 2021 }} Ecotrust, 23 February 2015
* [https://www.resilience.org/stories/2019-12-18/helena-norberg-hodge-is-localization-a-solution-to-the-crisis-of-capitalism-in-conversation/ "Is Localization a Solution to the Crisis of Capitalism?"] (interview on the Upstream Podcast, December 2019)
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVPcIj9fiE0 "Helena Norberg-Hodge on Looking at the Big System"] (appearance on the television program Renegade Inc, October 2018)
* [http://upliftconnect.com/the-economics-of-happiness/ "Understanding the Economic Equation for Creating Happiness"] (interview on the UPLIFT Podcast, May 2017)
* [https://www.localfutures.org/programs/global-to-local/webinars/debt-and-speculation-webinar/ "Debt and Speculation in the Global Economy"] (webinar with Charles Eisenstein, March 2016).
* [https://www.localfutures.org/programs/global-to-local/webinars/going-local/ "Going Local"] (webinar with Michael Shuman, December 2015).
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsXf88fy8FU "Economics of Happiness – How Human-Scale Is Essential for Solving Our Social and Ecological Problems"] at Lingnan University, Hong Kong, October 2015
* [https://www.communitiesincontrol.com.au/cic/speakers/?speaker=Helena%20Norberg-Hodge Talk at the 'Our Community' Conference] in Melbourne, Australia, May 2015
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r06_F2FIKM "The Economics of Happiness."] TEDx, Christchurch, New Zealand, July 2011

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Helena Norberg-Hodge - Revision history

Nikhil009 at 20:22, 13 April 2026