Cosmolocalism

Definition

A design principle for organizing human activity: what is heavy should be local and self-governed; what is light should be global and shared.

Physical resources, production, and governance stay rooted in place. Knowledge, designs, protocols, and patterns circulate freely across the global commons.

Significance

Cosmolocalism resolves the false binary between globalization (which concentrates power) and localism (which fragments capacity). It enables communities to benefit from collective intelligence while maintaining sovereignty over their material conditions.

This is the organizational logic behind federated knowledge systems like OPAL — local knowledge bases that share patterns across a global commons.

Core Principles

• Heavy = local — Physical production, governance, resource management
• Light = global — Knowledge, designs, protocols, software
• Sovereignty preserved — Local communities govern their own affairs
• Intelligence shared — No community needs to solve problems already solved elsewhere

Related Concepts

• Bioregionalism — Place-based governance
• Commons Governance — Shared stewardship

References

• Jose Ramos, Cosmolocalism (2021)
• Michel Bauwens & Vasilis Kostakis, Peer to Peer: The Commons Manifesto (2019)