A new video channel of John Thackera's talks covers the waterfront of design, regeneration and a healthy planet

We are great fans of John Thackera’s thinking and action at the Daily Alternative - and we’re delighted to see that John has gathered his videos and speeches together on one YouTube channel.

Above we’ve embedded one of his most recent presentations, on an enduring topic for us - localism and its global consequences (and connections), or “cosmolocalism”. From the blurb below:

Today, mega cities such as Tokyo, Delhi, or Shanghai get all the attention - but fewer than 10% of the world’s city dwellers live in them. Ninety percent of the world’s urban population lives in much smaller cities - and a lot more radical action is happening at local level.

Below are direct web links to topics in the conversation:

2:00 'the word city is empty, we should not use it'; 3:42 the city in the middle ages was a living cell; 7:45 in China, smaller units - ‘parishes’ - play an important local role; 11:20 in the EU, ‘local’ is often understood to mean a whole city; 15:30 only 1.3% citizens in Hamburg are active in city management affairs; 19:00 worldwide, there’s a lot of self-organization in 'hoods of 500 people; 20:00 but more radical action is happening in big cities eg “15 minute Paris" 23:30 a bread baker and brewery in every neighborhood? 25:30 German construction industry getting behind the 15 minute city 26:40 poly = mostly refit: new buildings are no more than 15% of the challenge; 28:20 Europe’s old cities were infinitely diverse; these cultural roots are an asset, now; 30:50 the money system makes everything similar; this is a design challenge; 34:00 the Doughnut Economy - transparent and versatile tools 36:00 “to live is to care for life”

More from John here. And another presentation on “the journey back to local” here (blog and transcript, video embedded below).