World Ark Magazine - May/June 2008 - (Page 39)

Mixed Media Food for Thought BUiLDiNG BETTEr CoMMUNiTiES We bemoan the loss of neighborliness and connections in our world. But we can be better neighbors and repair those connections, and we can do it sustainably. Small Is Beautiful By E. F. Schumacher Harper Collins Paperback | $14.00 Classic Clip Building Commons and Community by Karl Linn British economist E. F. Schumacher was an early proponent of the idea of sustainability. Schumacher is best known for the classic treatise Small Is Beautiful, first published in 1973, in which he refuted the idea that “bigger is better” and replaced it with his philosophy of “enoughness.” Below is an excerpt from this classic book. The Greatest resource—Education Throughout history and in virtually every part of the earth men have lived and multiplied, and have created some form of culture. Always and everywhere they have found their means of subsistence and something to spare. Civilizations have been built up, have flourished, and, in most cases, have declined and perished. This is not the place to discuss why they have perished; but we can say: there must have been some failure of resources. In most instances new civilizations have arisen, on the same ground, which would be quite incomprehensible if it had been simply the material resources that had given out before. How could such resources have reconstituted themselves? All history—as well as all current experience—points to the fact that it is man, not nature, who provides the primary resource: that the key factor of all economic development comes out of the mind of man. Suddenly, there is an outburst of daring, initiative, invention, constructive activity, not in one field alone, but in many fields all at once. No one may be able to say where it came from in the first place: but we can see how it maintains and even strengthens itself: through various kinds of schools, in other words, through education. In a very real sense, therefore, we can say that education is the most vital of all resources. Planning for Sustainability: Creating Livable, Equitable, and Ecological Communities by Stephen M. Wheeler Superbia!: 31 Ways to Create Sustainable Neighborhoods by Dan Chiras and Dave Wann The Creative Community Builder’s Handbook: How to Transform Communities Using Local Assets, Arts, and Culture by Tom Borrup Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future by Bill McKibben For more information, visit the E. F. Schumacher Society at www.smallisbeautiful.org. Reprinted with permission of the E. F. Schumacher Society. www.heifer.org May/June 2008 | WOrlD Ark 39 http://www.smallisbeautiful.org http://www.heifer.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Ark Magazine - May/June 2008

World Ark Magazine - May/June 2008 Contents Letters For the Record The Good Life Asked & Answered Why Water Matters The Carbon Hoofprint From Farm to Table Healing History Mixed Media Heifer Spirit Heifer Bulletin World Ark Market Calendar First Person

World Ark Magazine - May/June 2008

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