May 24, 2013
New York City’s Left Forum is the largest annual conference of left and progressive intellectuals, activists, academics, organizations, and interested public. This year, the Forum is exploring ways that we can confront climate change and global economic crisis by “mobilizing for economic and ecological transformation” in order to create a more equitable and ecologically resilient … Continued
May 7, 2013
Judy Wicks’ 2004 Annual E. F. Schumacher Lecture described the White Dog Café and the vision and principles that inspire similar locally-based businesses that treat employees fairly, source materials regionally, and support other community businesses. “Let me capsulize the local-living-economy movement for you by contrasting what it is and what it is not, what it … Continued
April 7, 2013
In the 1950s Father José María Arizmendiarrieta, the village priest of Mondragón in the Basque region of Spain, inspired the development of a series of cooperatively owned industries to employ youth in his parish. His vision was that, through ownership by the workers, the wealth created by new industries would be distributed to the workers … Continued
March 27, 2013
Identifying a Strategy Building a responsible movement for a new economy will require planning how to create new jobs without increased growth. One approach is a strategy of import replacement, with more labor intensive, smaller batch production, transported over shorter distances. The goal would be to create more jobs, but not more “stuff,” with a … Continued
December 5, 2011
On Saturday we received a copy of a letter from one of our members to his grandson. The twenty-two year old had just left college to join an Occupy group full time. The grandfather wrote: Dear Sam, I think the various Occupy Wall Street groups have been effective in highlighting an unjust condition. I was … Continued
November 25, 2011
In September of 2011 the European Spirituality in Economics and Society Forum convened “Responsibility in Economics and Business: The Legacy of E. F. Schumacher” in Antwerp, Belgium—one of many events marking the Centennial of Schumacher’s birth. We have posted keynote talks by Simon Trace, Barbara Wood, Susan Witt, and Stewart Wallis on our website. SIMON … Continued
October 28, 2011
Last week, the staff at the Schumacher Center for a New Economics’ New York City office returned to Zuccotti Park, where Occupy Wall Street has been based for over a month. We brought a selection of the thirty years of Annual E. F. Schumacher Lecture pamphlets to contribute to the growing OWS library on new economic … Continued
October 26, 2011
In June 2011 Gar Alperovitz wrote: “as citizen uprisings from Tunisia to Madison remind us, judgments that serious change cannot take place often miss the quiet buildup of potentially explosive underlying currents…there are reasons to think that new economy efforts have the capacity to gather momentum as time goes on.” As Occupy Wall Street enters … Continued
August 23, 2011
In this age of onrushing bigness— in government, business, labor, education, religion, and many other areas of what we call Western civilization, Fritz Schumacher’s inspiring and evocative arguments for decentralism, human scale and the human spirit remain well worth reading.
July 25, 2011
August 16th is the 100th Anniversary of E. F. Schumacher’s birth. Together with his family and other organizations around the world, we are celebrating his legacy. Posted online are: Our favorite quotes from his 1973 book “Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered;” Multiple translations of the universally favorite essay “Buddhist Economics;” Barbara Wood’s … Continued
June 5, 2011
In October 1981 I attended the First Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures, the propitious beginning of a tradition that has lasted for thirty years. Although I was already heading in the right direction, hearing Wendell Berry, Hazel Henderson, and Wes Jackson speak that day opened my mind to a larger, more promising view of the … Continued
March 17, 2011
The Laurel Hill Association in the town of Stockbridge in the Berkshire region of Massachusetts is the nation’s oldest Village Improvement Association. Founded in 1853 and still operating, its members pulled weeds, laid sidewalks, installed lamps, planted trees, and helped construct the town library. It owns the park-like Laurel Hill near the center of town … Continued