E. F. Schumacher (1911–1977)

J. E. King
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J. E. King: University of Lancaster

Chapter 10 in Economic Exiles, 1988, pp 212-233 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract To be the subject of a first leading article in the London Times is to receive a rare honour. E. F. Schumacher, whose memorial service in Westminster Cathedral was thus recognised in December 1977,1 was a most unusual economist. Initially an enthusiastic Keynesian of great technical ability, he turned against his profession and as the celebrated author of Small is Beautiful became known as one of its harshest critics. Schumacher argued that conventional economics had failed utterly to comprehend the potential energy famine which was facing the world and had completely misunderstood the real purpose of work, and thus of life itself. These are not small claims, and their implications — if indeed they are true — are profound, both for economic theory and for the society to which it purports to refer. Although by the time of his death many of Schumacher’s ideas had ‘almost dissolved into conventional wisdom’,2 very few professional economists have been prepared to take him seriously.3 His neglect, as this chapter attempts to show, is difficult to justify.

Keywords: Good Work; Full Employment; Professional Economist; Memorial Service; Intermediate Technology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1988
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-07743-4_10

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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-07743-4_10

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