{
  "id": "buy-local.firms",
  "term": "buy local",
  "sense": "firms",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "published",
  "level": 17,
  "domain": "agency",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "A collective self that narrows its boundary to the companies its members buy from, choosing those it reads as inside it.",
  "folk_gloss": "the practice of buying from nearby or home-grown businesses to support one's own community",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "collective-self.shared",
      "boundary.limit",
      "company.economic",
      "buy.economic",
      "choose.decision",
      "in-group.inside",
      "narrow.spatial",
      "member.social",
      "read.information",
      "inside.spatial"
    ],
    "interaction": "Each purchase becomes a small act of drawing the boundary; the money members spend is kept inside the group, and companies from inside it read as the group's own.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "buying as a boundary act",
      "the group's edge drawn around money"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "economic-nationalism.firms",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "economic nationalism draws the same edge with government power; buy local draws it by members' choices"
    },
    {
      "id": "locals-only.closed",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "locals only closes a place to people; buy local closes spending to outside firms"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "buy local",
    "buying local",
    "home grown companies",
    "home grown company",
    "homegrown companies",
    "homegrown company",
    "shop local"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "claude-opus-5-5:hand-curated",
    "date": "2026-09-29",
    "confidence": 0.85,
    "sources": [
      "schema/power-agency-phase.md"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-buy-local.firms"
}