January 13, 2021
In 1940 the legendary comedian and silent film star, Charlie Chaplin, made his first “talking” film. Called The Great Dictator it is the story of a barber mistaken for the dictator of the fictional state of Tomainia. The barber is expected to give a speech to his followers. Chaplin was said to have labored over … Continued
December 4, 2020
An illuminated page from the Lindisfarne Gospels. Source: The British Library On a rocky outcropping off the northeastern coast of England, the monastery of Lindisfarne once stood as an outpost of religious, philosophic, and intellectual study against the “dark” times of early medieval Europe. With Northumberland to its back and the expanse of the … Continued
November 11, 2020
In February of this year, the Schumacher Center hosted a two-day meeting of representatives of foundations and organizations concerned about the climate crisis. The gathering sought to probe the roots of the crisis and in doing so, better access where to put our collective energies and resources to create change. The title of the gathering … Continued
November 3, 2020
George Monbiot delivered the 40th Annual E. F. Schumacher Lecture on October 25th. Titled Private Sufficiency, Public Luxury: Land is the Key to the Transformation of Society, the talk was followed by a question period hosted by Jodie Evans and joined by Greg Watson.
October 26, 2020
Thank you for joining us this summer for the Schumacher Conversation series highlighting past Schumacher Lecturers. Recordings of the Conversations can be viewed for free on our YouTube channel. George Monbiot of London’s The Guardian will deliver the 40th Annual E. F. Schumacher Lecture on Sunday, October 25, 2020. The title of his talk is … Continued
October 19, 2020
Leah Penniman saw in the history of Black farming cooperatives a way for Americans of color to re-establish a connection with the land and rebuild a culture disrupted by the systematic exclusion from land ownership. She turned to the story of the emergence of the community land trust movement out of the civil rights movement … Continued
September 24, 2020
Since the early 1980’s Hazel Henderson’s name has been synonymous with impact investing. Probably more than any other person, Henderson has been responsible for creating and promoting a set of social and environmental indicators by which to judge the real health of an economic system including the well-being of its citizens and its ecosystem. These … Continued
September 8, 2020
In her 2010 E. F. Schumacher Lecture Neva Goodwin imagined the economy of 2075 and what we might hope to see. She identified current corporate structure, designed to increase profits for shareholders, as an obstacle to achieving a more diverse and resilient economy. She highlighted the importance of transitioning to distributed production of energy from … Continued
September 1, 2020
Otto Scharmer understands the stages of consciousness that are necessary to achieve transformation – whether that be transformation of the self, transformation of a group initiative, transformation of a business, or systemic change. His Theory U training is a step by step exploration of these stages in different settings. An economist by training, his application … Continued
August 14, 2020
Nwamaka Agbo is a nationally respected voice for impacted communities, working to ensure they are not left behind with the growing New Economy movement. Her approach, which she names Restorative Economics, is strategically focused on community-owned and community-governed projects to bring residents together to create shared prosperity and self-determination and in turn build collective political power. In her words: … Continued
August 7, 2020
Wes Jackson is a geneticist. He thinks in terms of generations. His work to restore the prairies, devastated by the effect of tractors turning over the sod to plant corn and soybeans, began in 1976 with the founding of The Land Institute. It has taken forty-four years to breed and test a perennial grain sufficiently … Continued
August 3, 2020
The Berry Center in Kentucky, led by Mary Berry, is a leading advocate for farmers, land-conserving communities, and rural economies. Bill McKibben has devoted decades as an author, educator, and activist to the case for a cleaner environment. They have protested together, spoken at conferences, fought for policy change, won acclaim for their work, and … Continued