We see, then, in some fairly concrete ways how it may be true that the creation of a real marketplace, an economy of inhabitation, may require the development of some new practices of cooperation. But how will those practices emerge, and what will nurture them? Even if they are, as Stegner implies, native to this soil, they do not seem to flourish automatically; they require human nurturing, forethought, and intention. What they require, in fact, is a politics which is as place-focused, as inhibitory, and finally as cooperative as the economy of place…. We spoke earlier of the necessity for states, regions, and localities to resist some of the pressures of the placeless market as they attempt to strengthen and stabilize their own economies…. The development of strong indigenous economies is inconceivable apart from some political changes which would give regions and localities the political will to assert their own long-term interests. The economics of inhabitation cannot succeed without the development of some new political practices.
Daniel Kemmis
Community and the Politics of Place
