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Small Is Beautiful in the 21st Century: The legacy of E.F. Schumacher (17) (Schumacher Briefings)
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About Small Is Beautiful In The 21st Century: The Legacy
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Small is Beautiful in the 21st Century The Legacy of E. F. Schumacher By Diana Schumacher Green Books LtdCopyright © 2011 Diana Schumacher All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-900322-75-1 Contents 1. Who was E. F. Schumacher?, 2. The Schumacher Society Its origins and offshoots, 3. Third World development models Practical Action (formerly the Intermediate Technology Development Group) & Jeevika Trust (formerly India Development Group), 4. Food, agriculture and land use The Soil Association and other projects, 5. Small-scale technologies for local sustainability The Centre for Alternative Technology, 6. The call for a new economics nef and the E. F. Schumacher Society, 7. Transforming industrial work in the First World, 8. The relevance of E. F. Schumacher today, Notes, CHAPTER 1 Who was E. F. Schumacher? "Knowledge that does not help people to overcome their problems and to lead to a better and happier life is no use." – Dr A.T. Ariyaratne Ernst Friederich (Fritz) Schumacher, the economist-philosopher, was an unlikely pioneer of the Green Movement. He was born in Bonn in 1911, studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and returned to England before the Second World War to avoid living under Nazism. He died prematurely on a lecture visit to Caux, Switzerland, in September 1977. Coming from a distinguished intellectual background (his father was the first Professor of Economics at Berlin University), Schumacher himself experienced a short but meteoric academic career in Germany, England and America, becoming assistant lecturer in banking and international finance at Columbia University at the age of 23. However, he always believed that one should strive for practical outcomes to philosophy and economic theory which would benefit people and society. In both his outer and his inner life he was a searcher for truth and dedicated to peace and non-violence. Unlike so many of his contemporary academics, however, he wanted to see these ideals translated into practical actions and right livelihoods. He saw the need to provide his colleagues and audiences with philosophical 'maps' and guidelines which related to reality. In the process, his life was one of constant questioning, including challenging most of the basic assumptions on which Western economic and academic theory have been based. What are the 'laws' that govern the 'science' of economics? What is the true value of money? What is the relationship between time and money? What is the real worth of work? And of development? These were the everyday questions which interested him most as an economist. Gradually he saw the need to expand the vision of contemporary economists to put human wellbeing at the centre of economic decision-making and everything within the context of environmental sustainability. Part of Fritz Schumacher's personal sorrow – but analytical strength and objectivity – lay in the fact that he remained 'an outsider' for most of his life. He never fully integrated with his fellow students either in England or Germany, or with any particular community or sect. His original thinking and academic successes only set him further apart from his contemporaries, despite his humorous good nature and obvious talents. Early commercial assignments ranged from Wall Street to the City of London, to organising an independent and lucrative barter import-export enterprise run from Germany during the pre-war depression. In 1937, owing to Hitler's frenzied ascendancy and his own feeling of the intellectual and political betrayal of Germany and its heritage by his nationalistic compatriots, he decided to abandon the majority of his social, family and business ties and to bring his young wife and son to London, where he was granted British citizenship. He was certain that until Germany could be purged of the Nazis' evil presence there would be no peace in Europe; but that ultimately the reconstruction of Europe might be led from
