Today, we joyfully celebrate our namesake, E.F. Schumacher, on what would have been his 112th birthday!
2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of E.F. Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful. Schumacher’s writing and speeches—was his voice visionary, or prophetic?—inspired a movement for appropriate technology, renewable energy, relocalizing production, worker-ownership, redistribution of land, and more. So far, our 2023 monthly Schumacher Conversations have revealed his enduring impact among those envisioning a hopeful future for communities and the planet.
Since 1981, our Annual E.F. Schumacher Lectures have similarly read as an extension of Schumacher’s vision into the present. This year’s 43rd Annual E. F. Schumacher Lecturers are Co-founders of Rising Tide Capital Alfa Demmellash (CEO) and Alex Forrester (COO). Drawing on their experience in catalyzing community-rooted entrepreneurs, the pair will speak on the role of creativity and moral imagination in advancing a New Economics.
After three years, we’re pleased to return to an in-person format. The event will be held in Great Barrington, MA at Saint James Place on Saturday, October 21 at 3 PM ET, with a recording to be published online following the talk.
In Small is Beautiful, Schumacher taught that a just, regenerative economic system would only come about alongside a deeper moral or spiritual reorientation. As he wrote, “[t]he task of our generation, I have no doubt, is one of metaphysical reconstruction…“ Alfa and Alex’s impactful work, uplifting entrepreneurs in disadvantaged communities, is guided by the same ethos.
This spring, during our May Schumacher Conversation, Alfa shared how their Jersey City, NJ-based organization launches community entrepreneurs by “meeting them where they’re at,” through flexible, inclusive service models and connections to forms of patient capital. When well-supported, she explained, these creative and determined individuals shape livelihoods for themselves and others. By offering not merely information, but wisdom, and not only ‘services,’ but care, Rising Tide is unlocking human potential at community scale.
As Chief Operating Officer at Rising Tide since 2004, Alex has also been at the forefront of a movement for grassroots economics that champions the creativity and courage of local entrepreneurs in building thriving, inclusive communities. In addition, Alex is currently pursuing Masters-level research at Drew Theological Seminary on ecology, economics, and spirituality.
Alex and Alfa’s organization is a prefigurative institution, and their model is informing other groups around the United States. Together, Alex and Alfa are recipients of the prestigious Heinz Award, and have been recognized with Rising Tide Capital at the White House, United Nations, World Economic Forum, CNN Heroes, and elsewhere.
This collaboration of two Annual Lecturers will be the first of its kind. Both Alex and Alfa cite Small is Beautiful as a foundational influence. As Alfa articulated in May:
I think the invitation from Schumacher’s affirmation of our humanity, and man as being small and therefore beautiful— there’s vitality there… this is the decade where we can take this invention called “money” and actually use it to do all the things that our brains and hands are so adept and capable of doing…
Registration for the in-person event costs $15 or 15 BerkShares.