Small is Beautiful in the 21st Century The legacy of E.F. Schumacher

During the 35 years since the publication of Fritz Schumacher’s seminal bestseller Small is Beautiful: economics as if people mattered, many of his prophetic warnings have come to pass. Small is Beautiful in the 21st Century traces Schumacher’s legacy through the activities and outreach of those pioneers who, over the years, have been working on practical solutions to our interrelated global crises. In particular, it describes how several flourishing organisations, some large and some small, have remained closely linked with his ideas and work, and have since become associated as the Schumacher Circle.

The particular contribution of Fritz Schumacher was to bring a profound wisdom and humanity to bear on the practical challenges of our time, and the Briefing both illuminates Schumacher’s thinking and shows the ways in which each of us can help to turn our present crisis into the opportunity to build a more kind, just and ecologically sustainable society.

Contents

Who was Fritz Schumacher?

The Schumacher Society

Third World development models

Food, agriculture and land use

Small-scale technologies for local sustainability

The call for a new economics

Transforming industrial work in the First World

The relevance of E. F. Schumacher today