Flattening the World: Scale Changes Reduce Local Sustainability

Globalization flattens the world, causing disjunctures in flows of materials and information. Remote places become enmeshed in political and economic developments beyond local comprehension. Communities once self-sufficient become dependent on larger systems, losing sustainability. Globalization is a contemporary topic, but these processes are not new. Transformations in northern New Mexico and Epirus, Greece, show how scale changes cause convergent evolution in remote, unconnected communities.