Schumacher Center for a New Economics

We are pleased to share an outstanding opportunity from one of our European affiliates, Schumacher Action Labs!

The Schumacher International Summer School is a 4-day residential learning journey taking place from August 18 – 21 in Boxtel, Netherlands. This is an experiential learning opportunity that will explore commons, regeneration, bioregionalism, place, care, governance, and non-extractive futures.

Land stewards, commoners, artists, activists, educators, and anyone else seeking to explore how commons-based practices can nurture social and ecological renewal are encouraged to attend!

We are especially enthusiastic that our European Commons Program Director, Natasha Hulst, is helping organize and facilitate this program, while our Reinventing the Commons Program Director, David Bollier, is serving as a guest contributor!

We encourage anyone who is interested in learning more to attend the online meetup on Wednesday, August 12 at 1:00 PM CEST (12 PM BST / 7 AM EDT). To receive the meetup link, please email [email protected].

More information about the event can be found here: https://hipsy.nl/event/220860-schumacher-international-summer-school-2026

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Schumacher Action Labs an international initiative that develops practical approaches to regenerative economics, the commons, bioregionalism and systems change through education, convening and collaborative action. The Schumacher Center for a New Economics is proud to be a founding partner of Schumacher Action Labs.

Assumptions about human nature have long shaped the way we think about economics and, in turn, how we structure our economic systems. Among these assumptions, competition has repeatedly been presented as the defining law of both nature and human society.

For example, Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism, which supplied a moral defense of individualism, helped popularize the case for neoliberalism in the late 20th century.

But do these ideas tell the whole story?

Pyotr Kropotkin, a Russian anarchist political philosopher, offered a different perspective. In his 1902 book, “Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution,” Kropotkin looked across the animal world and throughout human history to argue that cooperation is not an exception to the struggle for existence, but one of the principal means by which life endures and flourishes.

We invite you to read our entry on Pyotr in our Decentralism File, where you can also read an excerpt from “Mutual Aid.” You can access the entry here: https://centerforneweconomics.org/publications/mutual-aid-a-factor-of-evolution/

What if communities built stronger economies not by attracting outside investment, but by producing more of what they already consume?

This idea rests at the intersection of Jane Jacobs' theory of Import Replacement and E. F. Schumacher's vision of a "rational economy," where local resources meet local needs.

Jane Jacobs, an author and activist in urban economics, coined the term “Import Replacement.” Import replacement is a broad strategy for community economic development that, at its core, asks the question: What goods and materials are being imported to the region that could be produced locally? In her book “Cities and the Wealth of Nations,” Jacobs stated:

“Economic life develops by grace of innovating; it expands by grace of import-replacement.”

Jacobs rejected the now-widespread economic development model where cities use subsidies and incentives to attract the the largest corporations possible, hoping that outside investment will drive local prosperity. Instead, Jacobs believed that the most sustainable and efficient way to grow the economic life of city-regions was to reduce reliance on imports by incubating new import-replacing enterprise within the community, allowing city-regions to build productive capacity from within rather than relying on outside investment.

Similarly, E. F. Schumacher made the famous claim in “Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered” about what constitutes a rational economy:

“Production from local resources for local needs is the most rational way of economic life.”

Put together, these ideas offer an alternative vision of economic development through import replacement plans that ask communities to identify what they currently import, then create the conditions for local entrepreneurs and enterprises to produce those goods and services themselves.

At the Schumacher Center, we recognize that the elements of any economic system are land, labor, and capital. We advocate for import replacement strategies that build the conditions for productive local enterprise by ensuring communities have access to affordable land, locally controlled capital, and opportunities for worker ownership.

Two particular tools for which the Schumacher Center has been a pioneering voice include Local Currencies and Community Land Trusts— but such institutions cannot, on their own, direct a regional economy. As explained by Jacobs in "The Nature of Economies,"

“Nobody commands an economy that has vitality and potential. It springs surprise upon surprise instead of knuckling down and doing what’s expected of it, or wished for it.”

Interested in learning more about the Import Replacement? Our Executive Director, Susan Witt, explores the philosophy behind import replacement and the institutions that make it possible in her 2010 essay "The Grace of Import Replacement." Read the full essay on our website: https://centerforneweconomics.org/publications/the-grace-of-import-replacement/

🎧 Frontiers of Commoning, Episode 77

Taking Co-Living Seriously in Architecture & Design

In this month’s Frontiers of Commoning podcast, David Bollier speaks with architects Neeraj Bhatia and Antje Steinmüller, whose research explores how co-living can help address the growing affordability crisis in housing. As real estate markets increasingly cater to upscale buyers, they argue that co-housing, housing cooperatives, intentional communities, communes, and other shared living arrangements deserve far greater attention from architects, policymakers, and the public. Together, they discuss how thoughtful design, commoning, and municipal policy can set the stage for more affordable, resilient, and socially connected ways of living.

Listen to Frontiers of Commoning on your favorite podcast platform, or go to the following link: https://david-bollier.simplecast.com/episodes/bhatia-steinmuller-taking-co-living-seriously-in-architecture-design

It is with great sadness that we share the passing of Richard Heinberg in July.

Over the course of his life, Richard became one of the clearest and steadiest voices addressing fossil-fuel dependence, ecological limits, and the cultural changes required to build a more resilient world.

Richard also delivered his lecture “Fifty Million Farmers” at the 26th Annual E. F. Schumacher Lecture. Delivered in October 2006, his lecture was framed by the peak oil debates of the early 2000s, calling attention to the prevailing food system’s vulnerable state in light of cheap energy, mechanization, long-distance transport, and centralization. Richard identified four converging pressures on that system: fossil-fuel depletion, the declining number of farmers, freshwater scarcity, and an increasingly unstable climate.

We invite you to read our recent newsletter exploring the key takeaways from Richard’s lecture: https://centerforneweconomics.org/newsletters/in-memoriam-richard-heinberg/

The Schumacher Center was pleased to host the First Envisioning Workshop for a Hudson-Berkshires Bioregional Financing Facility last week, bringing together leaders in the bioregionalism movement to explore how capital can better serve the long-term health of communities and ecosystems.

The first day of this two-day workshop was held at the Schumacher Center library, co-hosted by Tyler Wakefield, Samantha Power, Alex Forrester, Susan Witt, and Sarah Davidson. 30 participants from across the Hudson-Berkshire region convened over collaborative dialogue and interactive exercises exploring what a bioregional financing facility in this region may look like.

Key discussion points included identifying gaps in the current financing ecosystem, considering how a bioregional financing entity could be designed to strengthen the commons and direct financial gains to the community, exploring practical first steps that could turn this vision into a reality, and examining current projects and initiatives in the region that could benefit from access to appropriate capital.

We look forward to seeing how these conversations evolve in the months ahead and bring about a more just, sustainable, and regenerative financing system in our own region.

A Tour of the Commons – Finance & Money💰

What does commoning look like with respect to the most fundamental economic tool— money? Swipe to discover projects that are reimagining banking, exchange, and community finance.

COOPERATIVE FINANCE: A broad category of financial institutions owned by its members or despositors, such as credit unions and mutual banks, enabling greater community control over lending and orienting priorities toward community needs.

PUBLIC BANKS: Government-owned financial institutions that are legally obligated to operate in the interest of the public, where investment decisions are focused on growing the real, wealth-producing local economy.

COMMUNITY CURRENCIES: An alternative medium of exchange designed to fortify local economies and community bonds while advancing social and environmental objectives.

TIME BANKING: An alternative exchange system using time as a medium of exchange, allowing people to earn time credits by performing services, which can be spent on goods/services with other members.

The 1980s: Mapping the Local Economy Movement

⭐️ 1980: The Schumacher Center for a New Economics was founded to envision a just and regenerative economy, apply the concepts locally, and then share the results for broad replication. (Source: https://buff.ly/eapqSdp)

⭐️ 1985: Robyn Van En introduced the first Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm in the U.S. at Indian Line Farm in South Egremont, Massachusetts. Despite her untimely death soon after, the CSA movement has led to the adoption of the model for over 13,000 farms in North America alone. (Source: https://buff.ly/WupuGrt)

⭐️ 1987: Margrit Kennedy published “Interest and Inflation Free Money: Creating an Exchange Medium That Works for Everybody and Protects the Earth,” which has been translated into over 20 languages. In 2011, Kennedy led the initiative for the ‘Occupy Money’ movement. (Source: https://buff.ly/ymDyVNs)

⭐️ 1989: Slow Food International was founded by Carlo Petrini in response to the opening of a fast food restaurant in Rome, Italy. It has evolved into a global movement to ensure that everyone has access to good, clean, and fair food. (Source: https://buff.ly/XNkHYvS)

In 1994, Wendell Berry delivered a talk at the 23rd annual meeting of the Northern Plains Resource Council. Included in his remarks was a list of enduring principles for communities seeking “to cohere, to flourish, and to last.” Rooted in care for the land, our neighbors, local culture, and common wealth, these seventeen tenets paint a picture of what a truly sustainable economy requires.

His words remain deeply relevant to the Schumacher Center’s guiding principles and our work of building thriving and resilient local economies.

⬇️ Check out Berry’s 17 tenets for a local economy below

1. Always ask of any proposed change or innovation: What will this do to our community? How will this affect our common wealth?

2. Always include local nature – the land, the water, the air, the native creatures – within the membership of the community.

3. Always ask how local needs might be supplied from local sources, including the mutual help of neighbors.

4. Always supply local needs first (and only then think of exporting products – first to nearby cities, then to others).

5. Understand the ultimate unsoundness of the industrial doctrine of ‘labor saving’ if that implies poor work, unemployment, or any kind of pollution or contamination.

6. Develop properly scaled value-adding industries for local products to ensure that the community does not become merely a colony of national or global economy.

7. Develop small-scale industries and businesses to support the local farm and/or forest economy.

8. Strive to supply as much of the community’s own energy as possible.

9. Strive to increase earnings (in whatever form) within the community for as long as possible before they are paid out.

10. Make sure that money paid into the local economy circulates within the community and decrease expenditures outside the community.

11. Make the community able to invest in itself by maintaining its properties, keeping itself clean (without dirtying some other place), caring for its old people, and teaching its children.

12. See that the old and young take care of one another. The young must learn from the old, not necessarily, and not always in school. There must be no institutionalised childcare and no homes for the aged. The community knows and remembers itself by the association of old and young.

13. Account for costs now conventionally hidden or externalised. Whenever possible, these must be debited against monetary income.

14. Look into the possible uses of local currency, community-funded loan programs, systems of barter, and the like.

15. Always be aware of the economic value of neighborly acts. In our time, the costs of living are greatly increased by the loss of neighborhood, which leaves people to face their calamities alone.

16. A rural community should always be acquainted and interconnected with community-minded people in nearby towns and cities.

17. A sustainable rural economy will depend on urban consumers loyal to local products. Therefore, we are talking about an economy that will always be more cooperative than competitive.

How do indigenous cultures and traditions interact with the commons? Swipe through to discover some projects shaping the indigenous and traditional commons!

EARTH JURISPRUDENCE: An international movement to secure formal legal rights for nature in the workings of government and courts to counter unchecked environmental abuses by corporations and markets.

TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE DATABASES: Shared databases that prevent multinational corporations from patenting genes, plants and knowledge that have been long shared by indigenous peoples.

SEED SHARING: A diverse movement of farmers, plant breeders, indigenous peoples and others seeking to protect the legal sharing of seeds in light of companies promoting crop monocultures and proprietary seed.

BUEN VIVIR: Literally “good living,” Buen Virir describes the worldview and spirituality of indigenous communities in the Americas and their ancient relationships of living together and with nature.

Want to learn more about the commons? Check out the Schumacher Center's "Reinventing the Commons" program here: https://centerforneweconomics.org/apply/the-commons-program/