Happy birthday, Fritz Schumacher!
Fritz Schumacher, the radical economist whose ideas inspired sustainable, community-based development all over the world and whose work is today carried on by the charity Practical Action, would have been 100 today.
I'm a great admirer of Practical Action's work and much of Schumacher's philosophy; the charity very much works on the basis of teaching local people in developing countries skills which they can use themselves, with materials locally available, to improve their own lives and then pass those skills and that development on - be that through more efficient irrigation, different designs of stoves which don't poison their users, latrines to improve hygiene, better farming practices, or many other ideas. The current issue of Small World, Practical Action's magazine, includes some quotes relating to Schumacher's work which I think are worth pondering in current times:
"The big area that interested Schumacher was 'what is the economy for?' Is economic activity an end in itself, or is it for delivering human-scale, quality of life, for enabling us to live as full, self-actualised individuals and communities?"
"Modern man talks of a battle with nature, forgetting that, if he won the battle, he would find himself on the losing side."
Happy centenary, Dr. Schumacher, and long may your ideas and those they inspired flourish.
I'm a great admirer of Practical Action's work and much of Schumacher's philosophy; the charity very much works on the basis of teaching local people in developing countries skills which they can use themselves, with materials locally available, to improve their own lives and then pass those skills and that development on - be that through more efficient irrigation, different designs of stoves which don't poison their users, latrines to improve hygiene, better farming practices, or many other ideas. The current issue of Small World, Practical Action's magazine, includes some quotes relating to Schumacher's work which I think are worth pondering in current times:
"The big area that interested Schumacher was 'what is the economy for?' Is economic activity an end in itself, or is it for delivering human-scale, quality of life, for enabling us to live as full, self-actualised individuals and communities?"
"Modern man talks of a battle with nature, forgetting that, if he won the battle, he would find himself on the losing side."
Happy centenary, Dr. Schumacher, and long may your ideas and those they inspired flourish.