The first 25 pages of this issue offer a summary presentation of Network Cultures' conclusions on alternative development and what the role of local cultures could be in regenerating our alienated communities. This text presents the core of an important part of the seminars offered by Network Cultures-Europe. It reflects ten years of experience of collective research within our Network.

This economistic age of ours is dangerous. "Corporations rule the world", as the title of David Korten's latest book indicates. Social injustice and ecological damage are more frightening than ever. People thirst for meaning, depth, beauty and brotherhood. The crisis of our civilisation is perhaps a God-given opportunity to mend our ways, explore alternative lifestyles and values such as sutainability, simplicity and local democracy.

A series of texts deal critically with the dominant economic "order" and offer positive alternatives. They serve as a background to our resarch programme on Cultures and Economics : "Economic Organization and Local Cultures : Explorations into the cultural embeddedness of local economic life" which will come to fruition at the end of 1996.