Schumacher Center for a New Economics

The Schumacher Center for a New Economics is dedicated to an economics that supports both people and the planet.

We believe that a fair and sustainable economy is possible and that citizens working for the common interest can build systems to achieve it. We recognize that the environmental and equity crises we now face have their root in the current economic system.

Our approach therefore must be from the ground up. We combine theoretical research with practical application at the local, regional, and international levels -- deliberately designing transformative systems and communicating clearly the principles that guide them.

The Schumacher Center for a New Economics is heir to the legacy programs of the E. F. Schumacher Society founded in 1980.

Our work includes:

• E. F. Schumacher Annual Lectures — highly regarded lecture and publication program founded in 1981;
• Schumacher Library — research library including books and archives of Dr. Schumacher and other new economics thinkers as well as collections on worker ownership, community supported agriculture, local currencies, the commons, and appropriate technology, all with searchable online catalogue;
• Events – Lectures, Conferences, and Seminars
• Commons — history, theory, and application of community land trust model and other new land tenure approaches;
• Local Currencies — history, theory, and application of this community financing tool;
• BerkShares Local Currency Program — best known contemporary example
• SHARE Micro-Credit Program — The Self-Help Association for a Regional Economy (SHARE), a model community-based nonprofit that offers a simple way for citizens to create a sustainable local economy by supporting businesses that provide products or services needed in the region (1981-1992)
• Agrarian Trust — Working with Greenhorns, a young farmers advocacy group, the goal of the Agrarian Trust is to move land into the hands and care of next-generation farmers who are building resilient regional food economies.
• Community Supported Industry — an online library of business plans and financial statements from successful regionally-scaled business, with a focus on food, clothing, shelter and energy, as a foundational element of a future BerkShares loan program.

We are inspired by those who paved a path ahead of us including:

• 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 E. F. Schumacher Society; and
• MANAS, a journal of independent inquiry capturing voices of intelligent idealism.
• Lindisfarne Association, whose collection of recordings of conversations about culture, society, technology, and economy offer a vision of a new planetary culture.

We appreciate the contributions of staff and board of directors:

• Board of Directors
• Advisory Board
• Staff