Small is Beautiful in the 21st Century traces Fritz Schumacher’s legacy through the activities and outreach of those pioneers who, over the years, have been working on practical solutions to our interrelated global crises. In particular, it describes how several flourishing organisations, some large and some small, have remained closely linked with his ideas and work, and have since become associated as the Schumacher Circle.
 
The particular contribution of E. F. Schumacher was to bring a profound wisdom and humanity to bear on the practical challenges of our time, and the Briefing both illuminates Schumacher’s thinking and shows the ways in which each of us can help to turn our present crisis into the opportunity to build a more kind, just and ecologically sustainable society.

Diana Schumacher OBE worked for the British Council and the University of Chicago School of Business Studies, and is now co-director of Work Structuring Ltd. She has been co-founder of the Schumacher Society, the Gandhi Foundation UK, the New Economics Foundation (nef) and the Environmental Law Foundation, and has served as a trustee of many other environmental organisations. She is the author of Energy: Crisis or Opportunity?, and has contributed chapters to numerous international publications on ethics, ecology and the environment. She is married to Christian Schumacher, the eldest son of E. F. Schumacher.