Here are some writings that we have found useful in describing living economies:

• Local Living Economies, by Judy Wicks:  A socially, environmentally and financially sustainable global economy is dependent on sustainable local economies. Yet, tragically, from American Main Streets, to villages in developing countries, corporate globalization is causing the decline of local communities, local businesses, family farms, and natural habitats. As wealth and power continue to consolidate into growing transnational corporations, small and medium size companies can help turn the tide for social and environmental justice by working together to build local living economies in our own regions, and linking nationally and internationally. Read More...
• Consent of the Governed: The Reign of Corporations and the Fight for Democracy, by Jeffrey Kaplan: "DESCRIBING THE UNITED STATES of the 1830s in his now-famous work, Democracy in America, the young French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville depicted a country passionate about self-governance. In the fifty years since sovereignty had passed from the crown to the people, citizens of the new republic had seized upon every opportunity "to take a hand in the government of society and to talk about it....If an American should be reduced to occupying himself with his own affairs," wrote de Tocqueville, "half his existence would be snatched from him; he would feel it as a vast void in his life." Read more...
  
• From the Preamble to the Earth Charter: We stand at a critical moment in Earth's history, a time when humanity must choose its future. Read more...
  
• Living Economies for a Living Planet (Korten 2001): Having reached the limits of an Era of Empire, humanity is compelled to accept responsibility for the consequences of its presence on a finite planet, make a conscious collective choice to leave behind the excesses of its adolescence, and take the step to species maturity. It is the most exciting moment of opportunity in the history of the species. Read more...