E. F. Schumacher: Small is Beautiful

Small is Beautiful, first published in 1973, has become a classic text for critics of the massive scale and environmental depredations of the modern industrial economy. The author was the Chief Economic Advisor to the British National Coal Board, a founder of the Intermediate Technology Development Group, and an enthusiast for Catholic Social Teaching. Many of the ideas presented in Small is Beautiful remain both relevant and controversial. We will discuss selected chapters of this short and easy-to-read book, their current implications, and the broader economic, ecological, and political questions that they raise.

 

The meetings will be online.  All are welcome. Register here.

The group will be led by Edward Hadas, a Research Fellow at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford University. He is the author of Counsels of Imperfection: Thinking through Catholic Social Teaching, published by Catholic University of America Press in 2021, and Money, Finance, Reality, Morality, published by Ethics International Press in 2022.

For further information, contact Edward at edward.hadas@bfriars.ox.ac.uk

 

Week One (January 18): “The problem of production” (Chapter 1) – the illusion of unlimited powers

Week Two (January 25): “The role of economics” (Chapter 3) – is “growth” good?

Week Three (February 1:) “A question of size” (Chapter 5) – small and large cities and countries

Week Four (February 8): “The greatest resource – education (Chapter 6) – human “capital”

Week Five (February 15): “The proper use of land” (Chapter 7) – in favour of farmers

Week Six (February 22): “Technology with a human face” (Chapter 10) – Appropriate tools

Week Seven (March 1): “The problem of unemployment in India (Chapter 14) – a theory of development

Week Eight (March 8): Organisation, socialism, and property (Chapters 16-18) – small is often beautiful

 

Contact:
Las Casas Institute
lascasas@bfriars.ox.ac.uk