February 20, 2020
Dear Friends, In a January 2020 article for Craftsmanship Quarterly, “Could Small Still Be Beautiful?”, Bryce Bauer writes of the continuing influence of economist E. F. Schumacher. In the process he captures the forty-year sweep of the work of the Schumacher Center for a New Economics. An excerpt of his article is reprinted below with permission of … Continued
December 24, 2019
Twenty-three new episodes of the Schumacher Lectures podcast are available for listening to in time for your holiday travel.
December 16, 2019
“This year’s theme—actionable responses to climate change—was nothing if not timely. Speaking on this topic were Sallie Calhoun—co-owner with her husband Matt Christiano of Paicines Ranch, a 7,600-acre (11.875 square miles) farm near Monterrey, California, and founder of an impact investing fund, Cienaga Capital—and Greg Watson, former Massachusetts Commissioner of Agriculture and a student of Buckminster Fuller, whose work centered on holistic approaches.”
December 10, 2019
At the Schumacher Center, we envision a world in which gifts of working-lands to CLTs are as common as gifts of ecologically sensitive lands to conservation land trusts. To reach that goal will mean educating estate planners, lawyers, and philanthropic advisors about the mechanics and options of land gifting to CLTs. Lands held by CLTs can help address such issues as climate disaster recovery, urban displacement, rural community revitalization, and socially positive commercial development.
December 3, 2019
We steward an exceptional research library to inspire new theory and application. We lead by example in our own region of the Berkshires with innovation in currency issue, community land tenure, local investment, community supported industry, and crowd-sourced business planning. We experiment, make mistakes, adjust, and publish the results – proud to display economic institution-making in process. We engage media with stories of what is possible. We partner with other organizations to expand outreach. We answer questions about replication.
November 26, 2019
The project underway is to build out the ground floor level, an additional 1,600 square feet, providing a light and humidity controlled environment. By moving a significant part of the existing collection downstairs, it will mean additional room upstairs for educational programs.
November 18, 2019
MANAS was the highlight of the week for me. I would walk to the mailbox at the foot of the drive and start reading on the way up. It was like having a private clipping service that spanned the ages of great thinkers and activists. The same issue would have bits of Plato, Kropotkin, and Simone Weil, combined with news of Wes Jackson’s work to recreate a perennial agriculture or John Todd’s work at the New Alchemy Institute to employ plants to filter water. MANAS never failed to reorient me to the finest idealism, an idealism that was, after all, at the heart of our work at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics.
October 18, 2019
The stakes really couldn’t be higher, the fate of the world depends on humankind’s ability to collectively govern the global commons of the atmosphere. Public-Common Partnerships (PCPs) represent a training in democracy that, by increasing the capacities of those doing the commoning, can help set the conditions for a democratic solution to the biggest issues … Continued
September 26, 2019
Buckminster Fuller was one of many to recognize how maps shape our worldview, policy, and decisions. The most common map, the Mercator, projects a sphere onto a flat plane with inevitable distortions; Greenland appears as large as all of Africa when, in fact, it is thirteen times smaller. Fuller felt that a … Continued
September 18, 2019
Both climate change and wealth inequality have roots in an unjust system of land tenure wherein land is sold to the highest bidder. Faced by these rising global crises, it is not a question of whether land redistribution will occur, but how. Time-tested and democratic, the Community Land Trust model was designed for this moment. The … Continued
September 12, 2019
Free, Fair and Alive shows the path to respond to the ecological emergency and the polarization of society economically, socially, culturally. The recovery and co-creation of the commons offers hope for the planet and people. – Vandana Shiva Dear Friend, From cohousing and agroecology to fisheries and land trusts and open-source everything, people around the … Continued
September 3, 2019
A ciénega is a wetland system unique to the American Southwest. Ciénegas are spongy, shallow, wet meadows with permanently saturated soils in otherwise arid landscapes, although few remain in such a healthy state today. One of the goals of a well-managed ranch is to restore the ciénegas. Dear Friend, Sallie Calhoun’s work found her, unfolding … Continued