  This work studies the environments and star formation relationships of local
luminous infrared galaxies (LIRG) in comparison to other types of local and
distant (z~1) galaxies. The infrared (IR) galaxies are drawn from the IRAS
sample. The density of the environment is quantified using 6dF and Point Source
Catalogue redshift survey (PSCz) galaxies in a cylinder of 2h^-1 Mpc radius and
10h^-1 Mpc length. Our most important result shows the existence of a dramatic
density difference between local LIRGs and local non-LIRG IR galaxies. LIRGs
live in denser environments than non-LIRG IR galaxies implying that L_IR=10^11
h^-2 L_sun marks an important transition point among IR-selected local
galaxies. We also find that there is a strong correlation between the densities
around LIRGs and their L_IR luminosity, while the IR-activity of non-LIRG IR
galaxies does not show any dependence on environment. This trend is independent
of mass-bin selection. The SF-density trend in local LIRGs is similar to that
found in some studies of blue cloud galaxies at z~1 which show a correlation
between star formation and local density (the reversal of the relation seen for
local galaxies). This, together with the rapid decline of the number count of
LIRGs since z~1, could mean that local LIRGs are survivors of whatever process
transformed blue cloud galaxies at z~1 to the present day or local LIRGs came
into existence by similar process than high redshift LIRGs but at later stage.
