Global Local call for case studies

Our Global Local bulletin highlights local solutions to global challenges, focusing on a new theme each week. We love hearing from our subscribers and how they’re using their local assets and approaches to tackle complex issues.

Can you help us with forthcoming issues? For our September issues in particular, we’re looking for:

Short term, holiday and vacation rentals and local housing

We know that tourism can be a massive boon to the local economy, but we also know that some cities have struggled with the impact of short holiday lets and the impact it can have on the housing markets and residential neighbourhoods. How has your local government stepped in? What happened?

Extraction-based economies and communities

Are you from a local area that has mining, drilling or harvesting of non-renewable resources? How has your community handled a recent influx of workers? How does it manage the local workforce for industries that boom and bust with the price of oil or minerals? Or maybe you’re from an area where the major resource has played out? How have you handled re-focusing your local economy and re-skilling workers? Can you successfully regenerate mining towns?

Public conveniences

Toilet. Powder room. Restroom. Bathroom. WC. Whatever you call it, local government around the world is cash strapped and public facilities that were once ubiquitous are being flushed away. This can have a big impact on people who frequently (or unexpectedly) need to go, like pregnant women, families with young children, the elderly, disabled or those suffering from chronic illnesses. Has your area developed creative ways to finance ‘spending a penny’? Do you have ways of helping people find the nearest loo?

Human trafficking or modern slavery

It’s the western world’s dirty little secret. People are sometimes moved around the world to work for low or no wages and are kept in debt bondage or sometimes literally imprisoned. How is your local government helping to identify people who may be in this terrible situation and helping them out?

If you have a story to share, please get in touch. You can submit content through our online suggestion box or get in touch directly by emailing [email protected] Perhaps you already have something written up or maybe you’d like help constructing a case study? Either way we’d love to hear from you.

We’re also looking for stories from the local government community on:

• deepening relationships between sister cities or twinned towns and how links can help foster innovation or address crisis.
• local museums as engines of innovation, regeneration or repositories of local history
• support for veterans
• wildfire prevention, preparedness and recovery
• abandoned housing.

But we’re always eager to hear from our local government colleagues on anything you’re doing or ideas you’d like us to cover. Let us know!