This article explores the theoretical conceptualization of the local as the preferential spatial domain for democratic participation and learning. It critiques the ideological nature of educational theory that bifurcates the local from the "the global" through the application of the Marxist concept of "fetish". The argument developed here is that the concept of fetish enables educators to conceptualize how and why this fragmentation of the local and the trans-local ultimately obscures the roots of social inequity and de-radicalizes educational responses to social problems, further generating fragmented forms of social mobilization and resistance.