Economist E.F Schumacher’s book of the early 70’s “Small is Beautiful” was a radical challenge to the 20th century’s intoxication with what the author described as “gigantism”. For several decades, mass production methods were producing cheaper goods than ever before and mass media and mass culture opened up new opportunities to a wider audience than ever. It was creating bigger markets and bigger political entities – his book came on the eve of the vote on the European Common Market in 1975 – but he believed such scale led to a dehumanisation of people and the economic systems that ordered their lives.
One of the recurrent themes through the book is how modern organisations stripped the satisfaction out of work, making the worker no more than an anonymous cog in a huge machine. Craft skill was no longer important, nor was the quality of human relationship. Human beings were expected to act like adjuncts to the machines of the production line. The economic system was similarly dehumanising, making decisions on the basis of profitability rather than human need. What Schumacher wanted was a people-centred economics because that would, in his view, enable environmental and human sustainability.
We yearn for economic systems within our control, within our comprehension and that once again provide space for human interaction – and yet we are constantly overwhelmed by finding ourselves trapped into vast global economic systems that are corrupting and corrupt.
In the sobering words of Schumacher; “Infinite growth of material consumption in a finite world is an impossibility”.
‘Small is beautiful’ is an idea that is more relevant today than ever! Small Business Saturday (last weekend) is a great example of local collaboration, co-operation and community support. Small businesses, of which there are over 5 million in the UK, teamed up to showcase the level of diversity, innovation and human talent that exists, helping reinforce the idea of sustainable local community and economy.
“Our first impressions and feedback in Kent is that small business Saturday was a big success. We’ve had loads of excellent feedback from small business owners and shoppers. The social media engagement was epic with 1,000’s of tweets, photos and shoppers expressing surprise & delight at the range of goods and produce available from independent retailers and market stalls “. Paul Andrews; Kent Business Radio & CEO JobsinKent, Small Business Champion
Part taken from an original article that appeared in The Guardian in November 2011 written by Madeleine Bunting; ‘Small is beautiful – an economic idea that has sadly been forgotten’