Man, whether civilized or savage, is a child of nature — he is not the master of nature. He must conform his actions to certain natural laws if he is to maintain his dominance over his environment. When he tries to circumvent the laws of nature, he usually destroys the natural environment that sustains him. … Continued
Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) is one of those rare ideas which combine transformative potential with an elegant simplicity. The CSA model of funding and sustaining locally-rooted agriculture has grown exponentially around the globe over the past four decades. Since the first formal CSA at Robyn Van En’s Indian Line Farm in South Egremont, Massachusetts in … Continued
In his presentation at the 1974 Agriculture for a Small Planet Symposium in Spokane, Washington, Wendell Berry remarked: “Few people, whose testimony would have mattered, have seen the connection between the modernization of agricultural techniques and disintegration of the culture and the communities of farming.” “This community killing agriculture, with its monomania of bigness, is not primarily the work … Continued
Wes Jackson does not apologize for thinking long-term. He knows such visioning is a practical necessity for achieving a transition to an agriculture that restores and conserves the health of the soil while mitigating the effects of climate change. He is a plant geneticist, after all, trained to consider future generations. At The Land Institute, … Continued
Watson speaks to what Massachusetts can do to preserve farmland and to develop a community-based revitalization that emphasizes urban gardening, energy conservation, and environmental justice. As the Commissioner of Agriculture for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Watson assesses what has happened in agriculture over the past twenty years. He describes moving towards a more sustainable regional food … Continued
Watson speaks to what Massachusetts can do to preserve farmland and to develop a community-based revitalization that emphasizes urban gardening, energy conservation, and environmental justice. As the Commissioner of Agriculture for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Watson assesses what has happened in agriculture over the past twenty years. He describes moving towards a more sustainable regional food system and agricultural economy, one that creates fair wages for farmers and that creates affordable, healthy food for low-income families.
Jackson points to agriculture—in particular to the methods of till agriculture, which cause soil loss and destroy the soil’s water-holding capacity—as our “number one environmental problem, aside from nuclear war” (and today he would undoubtedly add global warming). As practiced, modern agriculture undercuts the very basis of its own existence and thus jeopardizes the future of the human population. At the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas, Jackson and others are working toward a sustainable system of agriculture based on patches (rather than fields) of perennials (rather than annuals), a system “that is at once self-renewing like the prairie or forest and yet capable of supporting the current human population.” He urges that we stop using the reductionist language of science and economics in our studies and applications of ecology and instead use language and metaphors that spring directly from nature.
We return to our refreshed study guide, “Small is Beautiful Revisited…50 Years On,” which revisits Schumacher’s 1973 landmark of ecological economics. “Buddhist Economics” is derived from his experience in Burma, now Myanmar, in 1955.
To assist staff with the ongoing work of its Library and Archives, the Schumacher Center is seeking a paid, on-site intern for Summer 2024.
This intern will support our Community Land Trust program and the work of the volunteer boards of directors of the Berkshire Community Land Trust (BCLT) and the Community Land Trust in the Southern Berkshires (CLTSB).
The main conclusion which I formed in 1899 was that I had to agree on some points with [Eduard] David, and had to give up the view held by Marx and Engels, only, however, to cling to the essential points of the latter far more firmly. I had to agree that the progress of large … Continued
The results of the second development decade will be no better than those of the first unless there is a conscious and determined shift of emphasis from foods to people. Indeed, without such a shift the results of aid will become increasingly destructive. — E. F. Schumacher, opening lines of Ch. 13 Schumacher’s favorite economic … Continued
For two-thirds of mankind, the aim of a ‘full and happy life’ with steady improvements of their lot, if not actually receding, seems to be as far away as ever… — E. F. Schumacher, clear statement near the beginning of Ch. 11 Another stumbling block is the belief that a greater degree of self-reliance in … Continued
The resulting confusion is indescribable. What is the Leitbird, as the Germans say, the guiding image, in accordance with which young people could try to form and educate themselves? There is none, or rather there is such a muddle and mess of images that no sensible guidance issues from them. The intellectuals, whose function it … Continued
The choice of Buddhism for this purpose is purely incidental; the teachings of Christianity, Islam, or Judaism could have been used just as well as those of any other of the great Eastern traditions… — E. F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful, Chapter 3. When Schumacher was an economist working for the British government, he was … Continued
Our 2023 series “Schumacher Conversations: Envisioning the Next 50 Years” was drawn to a close in December with “Regenerating Local Food Economies: Feeding Eight Billion.” The full recording is now available online.
This past year, we’ve witnessed the continued strides of the Community Land Trust movement with great joy. A new book, out this month from the Center for CLT Innovation’s Terra Nostra Press, reflects on the past, present, and future of the CLT movement.
Our celebration of Small is Beautiful draws to a close in December with the theme of Regenerating Local Food Economies: Feeding Eight Billion. As with all 2023 Schumacher Conversations, registration is free.
In November, “Schumacher Conversations: Envisioning the Next 50 Years” focuses on the enlivening dynamics of the commons. A recording of “Expanding the Frontiers of Commoning” is now available online.
Our celebration of Small is Beautiful continues in November with the theme of Expanding the Frontiers of Commoning. Our participants for this online conversation are introduced below.
A New Study Guide to Small is Beautiful About this ProjectHonoring the 50th anniversary of E.F. Schumacher’s book Small is Beautiful in 2023, the Schumacher Center commissioned this updated study guide from British author and Journalist David Boyle. A landmark of the modern environmental movement, the book’s eminently … Continued
The Berkshire Community Land Trust sent the following enewsletter to its members. We are sharing it with friends of the Schumacher Center to encourage a spirit of land gifting into CLTs as a way to broaden and diversify land access.
As the 50th anniversary of the book Small is Beautiful, 2023 is our opportunity to advance solutions to today’s social, economic, and environmental challenges that build on Schumacher’s original vision. To meet this calling, the Schumacher Center is convening a monthly series featuring New Economic thinkers, builders and activists from a range of fields. November’s … Continued
Big Political Parties “Howard Dean’s presidential campaign provided a blueprint for how a candidate might use the Internet to challenge the establishment. Key elements include a compelling narrative, an appeal to people’s frustration with the growing insularity of the political establishment, a grassroots campaign ethos, and an embrace of the fundamental technologies and ideas that … Continued
The following are excerpts from Woodcock’s Pierre-Joseph Proudhon: His Life and Work (1956) (New York: Schocken, 1972).` GW is George Woodcock (see above), P-J P is Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. (GW) “Eight years before his first polemical essay, one recognizes the Proudhonian distrust of centralised authority and the desire to see the working people learning to … Continued
From Vermont Commons (May 2007) The Decentralist Movement – A Third Way Just a few weeks ago I took seven large boxes of books from my library to give to the E.F. Schumacher Library just outside of Great Barrington, Massachusetts – books I’d gathered for years on decentralism, anarchism, community, separatism, and the like – … Continued
“Whether one endorses a conflict or an integration model of society, or some synthesis of these, it is necessary to inquire into the benefits that a population derives from its investment in complexity. Although in the previous chapter serious questions were raised about the view that complex societies collapse as a result of overtaxing their … Continued
The Principles of the Bulgarian Agricultural Union (1919) Document translation: Julia Stavreva 9/14/2022 The Thirteenth Principle. The Agricultural Union stands for the widest enlightenment of the nation. It strives for the full implementation of the compulsory education for children of both sexes; strives for this obligation to wait for primary and secondary education as well; … Continued
“The next conservatism should revive the dormant conservative agrarian tradition. As the Amish demonstrate, the small family farm can be economically viable. Organic farming, conservation and restoration of the soil, farmer’s markets and ‘crunchy cons’ should find an honored place in the next conservative agenda. Family farms are good places for children to grow up. … Continued
The following is from his essay Not Any Power: Reflections on Decentralism, in Anarchy, 1969. “The fate of the Eskimos, and that of so many other primitive cultures during the past quarter of a century, shows that the old, primal decentralism of Stone Age man is doomed even when it has survived into the modern … Continued
“It is useful to summarise some of the key differences between the two visions of post-industrial society, keeping in mind that the liberal “limits-to-growth” position lies somewhere in between, employing much or the ecological, post-materialistic rhetoric of the decentralists while maintaining the assumptions of the service society. Who holds what position? Advocates of the … Continued
V. HOW CAN WE EXPLAIN THE SUCCESS OF SOME SMALL NATIONS? It would seem from the discussion so far that small countries are under a greater handicap than large in the task of economic growth. Their small size may not permit them to take full advantage of the potentials of large-scale production and organization; … Continued
Mele, Nicco. The End of Big: How the Internet Makes David the New Goliath. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2013. Big Political Parties Howard Dean’s presidential campaign provided a blueprint for how a candidate might use the Internet to challenge the establishment. Key elements include a compelling narrative, an appeal to people’s frustration with the … Continued
Decentralization: Making Small Places Work Again Americans should all be able to live and earn their livelihoods in the kind of environments they prefer, from open country to central cities. In our early history, most work opportunities were agricultural or agriculture-related. People who would have preferred city life stayed on the land instead because … Continued
From Mutual Aid In the animal world we have seen that the vast majority of species live in societies, and that they find in association the best arms for the struggle for life: understood, of course, in its wide Darwinian sense — not as a struggle for the sheer means of existence, but as a … Continued
1 Throughout society, the centralizing style of organization has been pushed so far as to become ineffectual, economically wasteful, humanly stultifying, and ruinous to democracy. There are overcentralized systems in industry, in government, in culture, and in agriculture. The tight interlocking of these systems has created a situation in which modest, direct, and independent action … Continued
Government without Territorial Monopoly We normally take it for granted that each government has a particular territory and that each territory belongs to a particular government. Yet this identification of government with territory need not be the case. In important instances, it does not hold. Multiple Governments Associated with the Same Territory. In the … Continued
Welcome to the Decentralism File!This digital collection offers over 100 selections of decentralist thought from many different historic eras, authors, and countries. Together, these pieces exhibit the depth and breadth of decentralist thinking across the political, social and economic spheres of human organization, and across time. As a whole, the curation demonstrates intellectual engagement with … Continued
One’s own employees ought to be one’s own best customers. The real progress of our company dates from 1914, when we raised the minimum wage from somewhat more than two dollars to a flat five dollars a day, for then we increased the buying power of our own people, and they increased the buying power … Continued
* There still remain in Europe a few small nations without political self-government. Three of them belong to the Celtic group, of which Ireland alone is self-governing. These three are wholly without self-government, lacking even that measure of it which the cantons of Switzerland or the provinces or states of other federal countries enjoy. Consequently … Continued
“Schumacher Conversations” continued in July with a focus on the role of human-scale technologies in community economic development. Video of “Developing Convivial Technologies for Right Livelihood” is now available on our website and YouTube.
Communism and Statism: Is There a Third Way? Notes on a Conservative Political Economy by William F. Campbell and Andrew W. Foshee The conservative victory in the 1984 election provides a timely opportunity to reconsider the conservatives’ approach to public policy. What is lacking is a conservative political economy, a set of economic policies and … Continued
Every local community must be a nation in miniature, and its government should have the same activities as the national government today. The nation has a health ministry and departments of industry, agriculture, education and justice; the local community must have them too. The national government has relationships with foreign countries; the local community has … Continued
AlabamaGraymont Fresh Market organized by Dynamite Hill-Smithfield CLTDynamite Hill – Smithfield Community Land Trust2024 3rd Avenue North, Suite 314Birmingham, Alabama 35203205-582-0457dynamitehillclt@gmail.comIn the process of creating a new website, in the meantime, access their FacebookDate Incorporated: 2016Purpose: To uphold the legacy of social justice, black entrepreneurship, property ownership, and civil rights activism in Smithfield by managing … Continued
My purposes in beginning with this survey of history are (I) to show how deeply rooted in our past is the mentality of exploitation; (2) to show how fundamentally revolutionary it is; and (3) to show how crucial to our history-hence, to our own minds-is the question of how we will relate to our land. … Continued
A PLURALIST COMMONWEALTH AND A COMMUNITY SUSTAINING SYSTEM * The importance of simultaneously clarifying next system institutional goals and architecture, along with a process of deep social, economic, and ecologically sustainable evolutionary reconstruction Throughout much of the modern era, the two dominant alternatives to corporate capitalism have been state socialism and social democracy. The … Continued
Our celebration of Small is Beautiful continues in July, focusing on the theme of Developing Convivial Technologies for Right Livelihood. Our participants for this online conversation are introduced here.
Our July list of organizations is highlighted as part of our 50th Anniversary Celebration of E.F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful …a technology with a human face, is in fact possible… it re-integrates the human being, with his skillful hands and creative brain, into the productive process. It serves production by the masses instead of mass … Continued
John Chettleborough is Agriculture and Markets Lead with Practical Action, the NGO set up by Fritz Schumacher in 1966 (originally called the Intermediate Technology Development Group). His current portfolio of work focuses on how to use markets and enterprise to support locally led regenerative agriculture in Practical Action’s focus countries in Africa, Asia and Latin … Continued
For over 40 years, the premise of our work at the Schumacher Center has centered on local production for local consumption as the soundest basis to economic development. Locally-owned businesses, embedded in place, build roots and connections that keep them accountable to community and less likely to pick up and leave. The unique culture, landscape, … Continued