The Legacy of Fritz Schumacher

The 6th Howard Liddell Memorial Lecture Series presented the Legacy of Fritz Schumacher. 2023 is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Small is Beautiful – Economics as if People Mattered. It provided an opportunity to investigate the legacy of its author the radical economist and eco-pioneer Fritz Schumacher. 

The Schumacher legacy embraces the now well understood critique of GDP and the less well explored discussion of the role of ‘appropriate’ technology in meeting human needs. At the lecture it was asked what economic system and what technologies are appropriate to a planet in climate and biodiversity crisis. 

Our context for the event was that Scotland is one of only four countries in the world that has committed to a well-being economy and the aim was to generate a better understanding of what this means for us as individuals, our communities, technologies and policies.

 At the lecture, the Keynote addressed The Legacy of E. F. Schumacher: Buddhist Economics and Economics of Wellbeing; In the Context of Small is Beautiful was delivered by Satish Kumar founder and Director of Programmes of the Schumacher College international centre for ecological studies and Editor Emeritus of Resurgence and Ecologist magazine.  There was also the contributions from the Doughnut Economics Action Lab, the Well Being Alliance and others.

To see the highlights of this lecture, follow the link here to watch on youtube or see the video below.