Schumacher Center for a New Economics

Our Mission

To envision a just and sustainable global economy; apply the concepts locally; then share the results for broad replication.

Founded in 1980 the Schumacher Center for a New Economics has a three-part strategy for promoting a new, just, and sustainable economy: first, by envisioning an economics based on universal principles of cooperation as well as respect for the Earth and for one another; then, applying these concepts in our home region of the Berkshires in western Massachusetts as a testing ground; and finally, developing the educational programs to share the results more broadly and thus encourage replication nationally and internationally.

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

We favor the face-to-face relationships fostered in local economies. We deliberately focus on transformative systems and the principles that guide them.