E. F. Schumacher, "SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL: Economics as if People Mattered"

"Man is small, and, therefore, small is beautiful."

"Small Is Beautiful" looks deeply into current economics and large-scale development, focusing on the deterioration and wholesale waste of human and ecological resources that it causes. According to Schumacher, developed countries are driven by a materialistic cycle of limitless greed and unquenchable envy. The inevitable result is alienation, urban decay, empty rural lands, stagnant masses of poor people, and ecological devastation. In order to address these modern problems, Schumacher seeks practical solutions via metaphysical, Buddhist, Christian, and Gandhian principles. He unfolds a qualitative and humane economic point of view that defies current quantitative economic theories based solely on mass production and consumption. His ideas and solutions are both inspiring and practical. Schumacher focuses on the real need to "reconstruct rural culture," promote education that envelopes metaphysics into its curriculum and seeks to clarify our "central convictions," sustain our natural resources, aid developing countries with intermediate technologies to increase local self reliance, and balance small scale freedom in organizations with large scale orderliness. Summarily speaking, this work is about shifting our current economic "emphasis from goods to people," making "peace and permanence" a realizable goal for the future.

Citation Information:
Schumacher, E. F. (1975). Small is beautiful: Economics as if people mattered. New York: Harper & Row.

Links:
E.F. Schumacher Foundation
Practical Action (formerly the Intermediate Technology Development Group)

See Also:
Schumacher, E. F. (1979). Good work. New York: Harper & Row.