Small Is Beautiful in the 21st Century

An influential economist and profound thinker, E. F. Schumacher is widely known for his bestselling book Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered. In his later years he became an iconic figure who played an influential part in the development of the environmental movement.

In the thirty-five years since he died, many other organizations have been established that trace their primary inspiration back to Schumacher. Small Is Beautiful in the 21st Century traces this legacy through the activities and outreach of those pioneering organizations that, over the years, have been working on practical solutions to our interrelated global crises.

Schumacher’s particular contribution was to bring a profound wisdom and humanity to bear on the practical challenges of his time, and the "Briefing" illuminates his thinking, showing the ways in which we can work to turn our present crisis into the opportunity to build a more kind, just, and ecologically sustainable society.

About the Author

Diana Schumacher

Diana Schumacher, OBE, has worked for the British Council and subsequently for the University of Chicago's Department of Business Studies. Her deep commitment is to nonviolence and to exploring the interrelationships between education, economics, and the environment and their interaction with social justice and people's well-being. Diana has served on the executive councils of numerous educational and environmental charities, including the Environmental Action Group for Europe (ECOROPA); the Parliamentary Alternative Energy Group (PRASEG); the Other Economic Summit (TOES); the New Economics Foundation (NEF); the Green Alliance; the Schumacher Society; the Gandhi Foundation; and the India Development Group. In 1991 she ...

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