OUR MISSION -
To envision a just and regenerative economy; apply the concepts locally; then share the results for broad replication.
Founded in 1980 the Schumacher Center for a New Economics works to envision the elements of a just and regenerative global economy; undertakes to apply these elements in its home region of the Berkshires in western Massachusetts; and then develops the educational programs to share the results more broadly, thus encouraging replication.
We recognize that the environmental and equity crises we now face have their roots in the current economic system.
We believe that:
- a fair and sustainable economy is possible and that citizens working for the common interest can build systems to achieve it
- our natural commons are best held by the regional community
- money issue can be democratized
- ownership should be more diversified and that labor should have a part in the ownership structure
- E. F. Schumacher, economist and author of Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered;
- Robert Swann, carpenter, founder of the community land trust movement, and founding President of the Schumacher Center for a New Economics;
- MANAS Journal, a publication of independent inquiry capturing voices of intelligent idealism; and
- Lindisfarne Association, whose collection of recordings of conversations about culture, society, technology, and economy offer a vision of a new planetary culture.