Decentralism

Description

The E.F. Schumacher Institute:

"Transcending traditional categories of “right” and “left,” decentralism has been the logical meeting place for those who believe that preserving human scale and encouraging a spirit of community are essential for the human spirit to thrive. In a world afflicted with giantism in its social, economic, and political institutions, decentralism is often mistakenly identified as radical, but it is in fact based on many traditional values. Decentralists are a diverse group, but they share a common belief in restoring community self-reliance and bringing economic and social activities back to a more human scale.

Over the centuries, human scale has had many eloquent advocates, ranging from Lao Tzu and Aristotle to Kropotkin and Jefferson, Gandhi and Chesterton. Fritz Schumacher introduced the concept of human scale to mainstream industrial society in the book Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered. In it he called for an economy of permanence, based on human values and sustainable uses of natural resources, and this marked a cultural shift in our thinking about economics.

Schumacher’s ideas rekindled a modern interest in the human scale, decentralist approach; an interest which has been intensified by today’s social, economic, and environmental crises. The modern environmental movement has awakened an interest in the decentralized approach as issues of energy use, resource consumption, and bioregional preservation gain urgency. Intensified globalization has brought forth the need for cultural and community preservation and appropriate technologies. Many visionaries and activists in a variety of fields have opted to develop small-scale, community-based solutions to these problems. Together with the writings of Leopold Kohr, farmer Wendell Berry, economist Ralph Borsodi, regional planner Jane Jacobs, bioregionalist Kirkpatrick Sale, and many others, they continue to build a modern decentralist legacy."

(https://centerforneweconomics.org/events/the-first-decentralist-conference/)