Category: Education

Coming into life, we generally have to reach the point of understanding and relating ourselves to what’s gone before: finding our place, those things that interest or concern us, the aptitudes or talents we have to contribute, and a sense of purpose to integrating ourselves with the structures of society.

That relationship between individuals, society and those mediating our understanding of it can be a fascinating reality to contemplate as much as a daunting one (see Notes One). Arguably, life itself is largely based around our relationships and the meanings we assign to all the aspects of that bigger picture – life being what we make of it, how we respond to all that we encounter and the choices we have (Notes Two).

Ideas we hold in our minds around what’s important or acceptable seem to really define the lives we’re going to lead. And much of education can be seen as imparting essential information and training individuals to think in a certain way. It’s a process that hopefully prepares people for life, giving them a sense of their own worth and all the ways they’re valued within society.

Of course, that’s highly idealistic. In reality, it seems questionable at this point how well modern education is serving individuals or society. Yet, regardless of how well it’s currently working out, the ideas we’re offering young people still inform their understanding and appreciation of all the systems we’ve been upholding.

In the past, it seems there was once an attitude of respect toward elders as young people listened obediently to the authority or insight of those who’d experienced life and grasped which qualities best enable individuals to operate wisely within their world. There was this trust, this listening to the accumulated wisdom of those inclined and prepared to impart it to following generations.

Which apparently then shifted more toward rebellion as people began rejecting, challenging or disregarding that input and the parameters of society itself. It’s an approach to life that’s persisting into the present day, possibly in part through the very expectation of those now parenting that ‘it’s the way things go’. Anticipating rebellion seems a little strange however, as a side note.

Personally, it seems right that society was called into question rather than blindly accepted. It may well be that the ideals placed at its foundation have become contorted over time, creating realities quite far from the original intent. But then, what’s the best way of dealing with that? Is there a way of questioning, re-evaluating, shoring up social principles without tearing apart our social institutions and relationships? (Notes Three)

The problem may also be that adults themselves – those in positions of authority, with an expectation of how such functions should be respected – are as much the ‘victims’ of society’s failings as they might be viewed responsible for them. We can only think with the ideas we’ve been handed, and it’s surely very hard to dismantle a system that your own psychological, intellectual or economic security is built around.

Notes and References:

Note 1: Writings on Education
Note 1: The social metaphor of education
Note 1: Common knowledge
Note 2: How we feel about society
Note 2: Relating to one another
Note 3: Dystopia as a powerful ideal
Note 3: Dealing with imperfection

With society, we need to know what’s important: paths taken, decisions made, values put at the forefront, and ways life’s evolved. It’s a lot of information. There’s history in all its grand arcs, little moments and general trends. There’s knowledge of the world, through the sciences; knowledge itself in maths, reasoning or philosophy; then culture, with all its expressions of experience and emotion.

As the volume of information being created increases, it may be tempting to forget all that and focus on what’s presenting itself to us now (see Note One). In the overwhelming chatter of a few billion people talking at once – possibly pursuing worthwhile and important things – how can we be sure of what matters?

Modern life’s essentially this massive conversation of competing agendas. On global as much as social levels, many things really do matter: how we treat others; impacts our actions are having; ideas we’re living by; and the standards being tolerated, encouraged or fuelled. Now we’re able to have a fairly open conversation, it’s surely absolutely right that many of those problems, imperfections and injustices get brought to the fore.

But what then? We cannot change the past. While the paths of Western civilisation are without doubt highly problematic, they’ve brought the scientific, technical and economic activities that now shape the globe in terms of communication, trade, international relations, exploitation, waste, and countless other terribly significant human and natural consequences (Note Two).

An arguably quite careless pursuit of wealth and power has created this global web of unequal relationships and questionable justifications that may take a while to unpick and even out (if that’s even permissible). Generations have now been guided, conditioned and informed by this way of thinking and acting: stories we’ve been told about our interests, acceptable ways of being, and expectations to have of life.

People generally seem to accept what’s handed down, adopting something like that way of thinking and stepping into established social and economic patterns. So, year on year, this is slipping into how we are as people, rippling out into the wider national and international worlds we’re all operating within (Note Three).

Identities are shaped by ideas we receive and the meaning with which they’re imparted. So are the full heritage of the past, the lifetimes of effort behind vast leaps of recent centuries, and the responsibilities of power all being conveyed? Or do we tend to focus on conclusions, outcomes and their current applications?

The human legacy is weighty. Faced with that, deciding to externalise knowledge and learn instead how to access it appears logical. Otherwise, you’d either have to spend time learning everything or trust someone to offer a manageable yet truthful overview. Balance is challenging to achieve; hence why education might tie itself in knots.

Ultimately, the past places in our hands stunning capacities alongside considerable difficulties; and, situations shifting fast, it may be tempting to push aside much of that and forge onward (Notes Four). But would doing so be running some serious risks?

Notes and References:

Note 1: Technology & the lack of constraint
Note 2: At what cost, for humans & for nature
Note 3: The conversation of society
Note 4: Can we reinvigorate how we’re living?
Note 4: Dealing with imperfection

What do we have in common? What agreed experiences, perspectives, conclusions, values or ways of being unite us under a banner of common sense, community, or national identity? It’s presumably one aim of education: to create a shared appreciation of society and the paths it’s taken, alongside a commitment to act in ways that sustain our way of life.

Yet, by having curriculum, practices and priorities largely established by the government, this must almost inevitably tend to align with particular social viewpoints. It seems unlikely to be neutral, given how party policies are laid out to appeal to the outlook and interests of certain portions of the voting population.

I find myself picking at that fact quite a bit (see Notes One), but it seems significant. After all, if a diverse and unequal society hopes to find fair representation and a balanced, respectful understanding of their place in that system, then having political agendas setting the tone of what they receive seems troubling.

As soon as we conceive of education as a means to maintain a specific formation of society, we’re veering into territory of social engineering and manufactured outcomes. And while we’re arguably all products of our society – its norms, reference points, history, and relationships – is that to say formal education should fight a particular corner too?

Maybe it’s little wonder young people sense an agenda and distrust authority. If you’re to look back on what you were told in youth and come to realise it was part of some scheme to shape things a certain way, having made life-defining choices based on that understanding, it might be painful to see you weren’t being given the whole truth.

Of course, I understand government stepped in to ensure greater consistency and accountability for educational standards; but, as with anything, you can swing the other way. Also that trying to ‘plan’ any area of activity must place you into a swirl of statistics, opinions, formulas, definitive solutions, and so on. At what cost?

Rather than attempt political outcomes through education, might it be better to impart young people with a thorough, realistic understanding of the society they stand within, its journey and its place in world systems? And, rather than conveniently telling that from whatever perspective suits for now, to see it for what it is within the shifting flows of time (Notes Two).

How can we act responsibly within society if we don’t fully, impartially and freely understand it? Without a living sense for this human-made set of systems, agreements and theories, I don’t see how we can ever be expected to act intentionally within it.

That social understanding is, to me, what we need to be aware of. Because viewing society as a collective project – its citizens as beings capable of understanding and worthy of respect – surely reveals our shared existence to be a profoundly complicated and delicate balance. Those ties that bind us, now and into the future, seem so important for us to get to grips with.

Notes and References:

Note 1: Writings on Education
Note 1: Ideas around education & responsibility
Note 1: “Brave New World Revisited”
Note 2: “Towards a New World View”
Note 2: “New Renaissance”
Note 2: Need to stand alone & think for ourselves
Note 2: People, rules & social cohesion

It could be said that education reflects the best understanding of a given society: what we consider most important; the attitudes, values and knowledge deemed essential for sustaining society and leading individuals towards a fulfilling life; how best to meet the challenges and uncertainties of our existence.

Clearly other times and cultures have approached that in different ways, effectively shaping the societies this process of instruction serves. The conversations we have, the ways we relate to one another, the value we place on ourselves and our actions in life – all this is surely informed by what we’re presented in youth and the way in which the body of human knowledge is treated, framed, and related to everyday living.

How well that project relates to society – to the concerns of parents, realities of community, demands of modern economics, priorities of government, or feelings of individuals – is interesting to consider, although possibly futile. So much is defined by ever-shifting political agendas, often acting in alignment with economic projections and promises. So much in society seems shaped by forces outside our control.

It seems at times that society is really at odds with itself, all these conflicting concerns struggling to find common ground. Yet education is truly this crucial function which strongly influences how young people will come to understand and stand within their social relationships and, more broadly, within the world and all its complex interconnections (see Notes One).

And it’s something that’s very much drifted into the realm of government; politics defining our collective priorities and attempting to address life’s challenges, inequalities and opportunities. Rather than heeding the voice of experience, the practical engagement with community or the more philosophical insight of some writers (Notes Two), we’re apparently micromanaging the profession based on quite different ways of thinking.

Maybe it’s a path society has to take: this distrust of others, questioning of authority, and regulation through a central body of ideas. As an attempt to redress inequality and ensure even standards, it has its merits. But as a system that removes independent judgement, creates volumes of unnecessary work in the name of accountability, and stiffens relationships to the point of degrading human worth it’s not without its problems.

It clearly matters, to me and to most people. Parents, young people and society at large are hugely invested in this process that affects us all in so many ways, now and for years to come. It essentially comes down to the meaning of life, the roles we all play, the ideas holding society together, and the value we place on our individual and collective existence (Notes Three).

Reflecting on why my writing here is more direct, more openly critical, I think it’s because it really matters (Note Four). Education may well reflect the understanding of society and the best ways we’ve developed so far for acting on that; but as a microcosm of that society it also seems to be shedding light on much wider problems we might well wish to avoid.

Notes and References:

Note 1: Complexity of life
Note 1: Education, society & the individual
Note 1: Economics and the task of education
Note 1: Education’s place within Society
Note 2: Writings on Education
Note 2: “Brave New World Revisited”
Note 2: “Education’s End”
Note 3: Learning to be human
Note 3: Education with the future in mind
Note 3: People, rules & social cohesion
Note 4: Ideas around education & responsibility

It’s been a while since I wrote about education directly, although it can be seen as implicit in many ideas around society, values and life itself: education being that which prepares us, hopefully bringing us to a workable understanding of the world we live in, our value in it as a human being, and all that we can contribute and enjoy within our communities.

Packed into all that there’s clearly a lot to be done and much of it incredibly important (see Notes One). With that in mind, how might we best approach such a task and enable people to meet modern life with a balanced sense of worth and responsibility?

As mentioned in the posts above, it’s my view that this kind of learning happens much more widely than the walls of formal institutions: that the task of education takes place within communities, cultural forms, social realities, and all the attitudes and ideas more generally embodied within how we live and relate to one another and the world around us.

To expect young people to pick up certain ideas at school yet experience life quite differently outside those walls seems odd, but then life’s much more fragmented and unaccountable than it seemingly used to be. I mean, without social cohesion built around trust and commonly held values then it may seem reasonable to act differently in different settings and experience few consequences.

Yet, if society’s to be peopled by those capable of fully understanding and responding well to all they meet in life, then preparing them to do so seems pretty essential. All the decisions we make, ideas we entertain, words we utter, and things we buy into will shape our world and impact others (Notes Two); arguably making the task of education significant beyond merely economic chances.

Being able to think for yourself; relate healthily to the opportunities of life; contribute intentionally; understand things thoroughly and compassionately; speak wisely; treat everyone with the utmost respect; and act independently are emerging as crucial qualities for engaging constructively with our times.

It seems remarkable to place much of that largely at the door of overstretched and under-resourced systems of education. And while I see that policies in this area are one of the earliest points governments can attempt to influence social outcomes, I personally question if making schools a venue for fluctuating political agendas is ultimately wise.

That said, schools are clearly where much of this conscious and deliberate shaping of future humanity takes place. And I generally have incredible respect for those working in the profession, given the diverse agendas and social problems currently impacting their capacity to effectively meet the undeniably pressing needs of individuals and society as a whole.

Finding ways for educators to respond powerfully, for society to pull together a more coherent picture of what it is to be human, and for young people to step responsibly into the complexities of the world awaiting them are perhaps some of the weightiest challenges of modern society.

Notes and References:

Note 1: Learning to be human
Note 1: Education with the future in mind
Note 2: History as a process of changes
Note 2: Culture and the passing of time
Note 2: People, rules & social cohesion
Note 2: Selective intelligence in what we do
Note 2: Zimbardo & the problem of evil
Note 2: The web and the wider world

The centrality of education in allowing us to rise to modern challenges also emerged out of the dark wanderings of “Brave New World Revisited”.

It seems that in the past ‘education’ was a shared project of sorts between family; local community in all its forms; social and cultural life; apprenticeship or involvement in the workplace; and some element of more formal instruction. Between all that, people came to understand the society they lived in and their roles within it.

Which is what education’s about really: preparing people for life; for their economic, social, cultural, emotional, political responsibilities. It’s giving people the knowledge, skills, broader sense of how things are, and the capacity to stand within it all as balanced, healthy human beings acting responsibly within their various environments and relationships.

These days, much of that’s placed in the hands of the education system, with its task of imparting what’s considered essential for society and individual fulfilment. And, without going too much into whether all those earlier functions are incorporated or the extent to which community, culture, social life and employment have also changed in that time (see Notes One), how well does this prepare people for modern life?

What’s needed in order to be prepared? Is it exposure to technologies; historical knowledge; social awareness; creative or analytical thinking; practical life skills; adaptive capacities; or simply self-confidence? That list’s not even exhaustive, but can any one institution provide it all in lieu of the broader, collective cooperation of the old ways?

It’s little wonder policy regarding education is so contentious and realities so difficult, given how much rests in the hands of schools at a time when society itself is struggling. And then, do we educate for the social system as it is; as we imagine it might become; as industry wants it to be; or as we hope it will be? Given it’s a government concern, it’s clearly a planned future of sorts and probably one with industry involvement (Notes Two).

Deciding – let alone agreeing on – what’s going to be needed for the future seems an almost impossible task. And the education system itself has a history, so it may not be the most responsive or unified entity. But is it right for government to manage learning for its shifting political agendas, considering how much it shapes us as individuals?

Aldous Huxley talked about education for freedom (Note Three). How we might enable people to stand independently within society; knowing how things are, how we got here, and how to handle the fruits we’ve attained; applying a sense of discernment and intention to their participation in economic, social and cultural life. Essentially, imparting a detailed picture of human civilisation and the self-assurance to live into the current reality of that.

Because one of the main certainties for the future must be that things change (Note Four). Rather than attempt to predict those changes, we could foster a living understanding of what it is to be human and all we’ve achieved so far; so people know society, flaws and all, and are able to work with or alter aspects of it should the need arise.

Notes and References:

Note 1: Community – what it was, what we lost
Note 1: Laws and lawlessness
Note 1: Missing something with modern culture?
Note 2: Learning to be human
Note 2: Economics and the task of education
Note 3: “Brave New World Revisited”
Note 4: History as a process of changes

In many ways, this ties in with Need to stand alone & think for ourselves and the importance of independent thinking.

What does it mean to be human? In many ways we’re all living, breathing responses to that question as we find our own paths through life. But the question of how we learn to do so may be simpler to answer.

Clearly there’s education itself, which I’ve spoken of a few times already (see Notes One); then, alongside that, the influences of family, community, society, culture and so on. All these encounters surely shape our ideas, our sense of what matters and how we should act, our picture of what life’s about and how it all works.

What I find interesting is how conscious and coherent those messages are. Are we pulling ourselves in different directions, entertaining contradictory standards and expectations; or are these voices all more or less on the same page?

As touched upon in the posts mentioned above, there’s this sense that education serves society and particularly the economy: imparting essential skills and knowledge for young people to take their place in the workforce, as well as general attitudes that will hopefully sustain a stable way of life. Which has its place and makes sense in terms of government provision, but is it enough?

With life, issues of authenticity or self-actualisation must also deserve consideration: how are we best able to be ourselves, draw on our talents, and overcome our challenges? That hesitation over whether we are simply cogs in a machine, or if there’s more to life and what we’re able to offer it by our presence.

While our personal journeys are shaped by living within society (Notes Two), surely our participation in it also matters as our attitudes and contributions to community and society in turn shape the realities we share. Our feeling of fairness, ethics and the value of life undoubtedly impacts all that we do; becoming the face we turn to others and the actions we choose to engage in.

So where do we draw the line as to what matters most at the end of the day? Of course economic realities matter, both individually and collectively, but so does the bigger picture of what we’re doing and why (Notes Three); the forming of which must come from education itself or from those other influences that surround and contextualise it.

Beyond economics and education for basic social cohesion, what values are we upholding and imparting in how we live? Could formal learning dovetail better with other areas so families, communities and social realities work more harmoniously together? Could our cultural reference points serve us better with the standards, narratives and meanings they offer society to live by?

And how can all those threads even be drawn together? Maybe that’s why this post has drifted into the territory of question marks: the answers are down to us. Being human and learning to do it well seems to rest within the social communities we create and how we organise them; which I suppose means we must collectively chart that path, or individually find our way.

Notes and References:

Note 1: Education’s place within Society
Note 1: Economics and the task of education
Note 2: Mirrors we offer one another
Note 2: Community – what it was, what we lost
Note 3: The motivation of money
Note 3: Values and the economic

Need to stand alone & think for ourselves also considered that last question of individual or collective convictions, in a slightly different light.

The challenge of education can clearly be seen in many different lights. There’s the root of the word itself, to lead out; with its sense of those able to bring others from one state to another. Then there’s the question of competing priorities and agendas, based on our own differing ideas of what’s important (see Education’s place within Society). Education also highlights and embodies a lot of the struggles we’re now facing; many of which seem to come down to money.

In this day and age so much is defined by money: home, security, health, appearance, social worth, opportunities, career prospects, influence. It often seems the less money you have the more invisible you are, which I find strange (see Note One). But, while I might disagree with it in terms of wisdom and ethics (Notes Two), it’s undoubtedly the society and world we’re creating.

But how much influence should economics have in shaping education systems? Is learning to be co-opted into the economy itself, seen increasingly as a preparatory workshop of sorts where businesses and employers dictate what they think they’re looking for? Are schools the places governments and industries start planning what they want to create?

It seems we’ve largely accepted the view that education arose as a way of creating a workforce and building a stable society. That’s certainly one way of looking at history, and may well be true to some degree; but does that define forever the nature of these relationships? Widespread education may have begun in response to industrialisation and, at that time, it may have been seen as a way to harmonise society and strengthen the economy; but does that make it right to embrace the concept of social engineering to the extent we do?

As suggested in the post linked above, it could be that a different conceptualisation of education might lead to greater freedom and possibly even a truer and more responsive economy. Surely, if people are informed and strengthened to truly understand the world around them, free of any agenda or prescriptive path, then they would be able to meet the challenges of reality and decide how to engage constructively with that.

What I’m trying to get at is that there is a relationship between economics and education, but is it the right one? Should current economic operators be guiding what comes next or should our activities simply be guided by intelligent, independent minds? One of those paths seeks to perpetuate its own ideas, while the other encourages people to think for themselves. That second path might seem less stable, but it may be wiser in many ways.

Of course, practical realities arise out of our current systems and the necessities created by them: industries exist and have plans, and ends must be met one way or another. But what I’m saying is that maybe this is a relationship we could challenge to some degree by having a slightly different conversation about human society, shared priorities, and possible ways forward.

Notes and References:

Note 1: Value of each human being
Note 2: Morality and modern thought
Note 2: Values and the economic

Also Writings on Education, which explores the path we’ve taken into modern times and how education strives to meet that.

This could go a number of ways. So far in talking about education I’ve sketched out some challenges (Education, Society & the Individual), and then taken a broader philosophical view (Writings on Education); which leads me here.

I could take the perspective of how education arose and progressed toward the form we now know; looking at industrialisation, welfare, and the changing nature of a system seeking to extricate learning from its religious trappings, redress inequality, and build a stable and “successful” society. In that light, possibly looking at the increasing power of market forces; attempts at social engineering; or a systemic model that seems to subsume education into the balance sheet of social economics as a whole.

Alternatively, I could focus on the perception of education and the status it holds within society: the social value we place on learning, knowledge, self-development, independence, and understanding. The esteem in which educators are held and the respect accorded them by legislators, parents, or the young. Maybe asking what social attitudes are developing towards the privilege of education and the creative responsibility of both knowledge and power; and to what extent we are using these precious resources wisely, reverently, respectfully.

Without knowledge of the path humanity has taken, of the fierce physical or intellectual battles fought for the bodies of understanding we hold, on what ground does society stand? Are we happy to detach ourselves self-assuredly from what’s gone before, looking only to our own economic opportunities and various illusions of security? What is the right way to relate ourselves to life, unfold our capacities, and rightly assess the world we are walking into and those we find around us?

Of course, education fits within society and our collective sense of what’s important; and in facing up to the myriad developments of recent history, we undoubtedly face challenges and consequences.

To offer my perspective, I wish education could be freer; for example, from external influences such as economics or government policy. Because, for me, the knowledge and understanding spoken of above is a neutral asset. I don’t see education as merely funnelling new people into existing social and economic systems; but as equipping them to fully understand, appreciate, critique, and reshape that society. Without that degree of freedom, independence, and responsibility I’m unsure society can be truly resilient or responsive.

It seems we must recreate the basis for society with each generation, else face losing the threads that inform and sustain our way of life. As explored in “Education’s End”, we exist at the end of a chain of reasoning; the resultant ideas having formed society. Our systems aren’t perfect, and paths taken have often been flawed and beset with unforeseen implications; all this is simply the best attempts of the past at shaping reality in line with our ideals.

Education, to my mind, stands in relation to a society that must constantly evolve while remaining aware of its past; with this comes the immense responsibility of understanding, accepting, and confidently moving forward.

My post on Education, Society & the Individual became quite tangled in reality, so here I want to step back and consider the place of education within society through the words of E. F Schumacher in “Small is Beautiful” and Anthony Kronman in “Education’s End”.

Writing somewhat before our times, Schumacher highlighted the importance of education in “the transmission of ideas of value … for it is obviously somewhat foolhardy to put great powers into the hands of people without making sure that they have a reasonable idea of what to do with them”. In clarifying the significance of this, Schumacher elaborates “When we think, we do not just think: we think with ideas … All through our youth and adolescence, before the conscious and critical mind begins to act as a sort of censor and guardian of the threshold, ideas seep into our mind, vast hosts and multitudes of them”. So, through education people are seeking “ideas that would make the world, and their own lives, intelligible to them. When a thing is intelligible you have a sense of participation; when a thing is unintelligible you have a sense of estrangement”, the danger of which being how it “breeds loneliness and despair, the ‘encounter with nothingness’, cynicism, empty gestures of defiance.”

Within this context, philosophy is “an attempt to create an orderly system of ideas by which to live and to interpret the world” and education the ability to “choose between one thing and another” or “to know what to do”. However, in then reviewing the main ideas inherited from the nineteenth century (evolution, natural selection, the ideas of Marx and Freud, then the relativism and positivism which dissolved absolute standards and presented observable knowledge as the only standard of meaning) Schumacher reveals “a view of the world as a wasteland in which there is no meaning or purpose, in which man’s consciousness is an unfortunate cosmic accident”. Pointing out that while “to their originators, these ideas were simply the result of their intellectual processes … in the third and fourth generations, they have become the very tools and instruments through which the world is being experienced and interpreted.”

Discussion then passes onto how all subjects “are connected with a centre; they are like rays emanating from a sun. The centre is constituted by our most basic convictions … of metaphysics and ethics, of ideas that – whether we like it or not – transcend the world of facts.” Hence the need for education to produce such wholeness, as if neglected “the centre will not by any means be empty: it will be filled with all those vital ideas which, in one way or another, seeped into [the] mind”. Schumacher concludes our main task to be one of “metaphysical reconstruction” in order to “understand the present world, the world in which we live and make our choices” as “the problems of education are merely reflections of the deepest problems of our age.”

Turning briefly to “Education’s End”, Kronman picks up this concern alongside his experience of seeing “the question of life’s meaning lose its status as a subject of organised academic instruction” throughout his time as Dean of Yale Law School. The book argues the importance of the humanities in how they “study the world of human values … from within and compel those who follow their path to decide where they stand in this world and why” as “we are not prisoners of our upbringings … to varying degrees we are able, as adults, to gain some measure of detachment from the experiences of childhood and to assess them with a critical eye … to ask whether, on reflection, we wish to continue to endorse them”. In essence, Kronman is urging us to re-evaluate the humanities and recognise their essential role in directing and humanising modern life.

Once again posts on Education are hard to condense, and I’ve decided to let these ideas speak for themselves. Clearly education is a challenging task but being aware of the ideas we hold about life, where they’ve come from and led, and understanding our power to reflect upon and change them in shaping our collective future seem to really be at the core.

Reference: “Education’s End. Why Our Colleges and Universities Have Given Up on the Meaning of Life” by Anthony T. Kronman, (Yale University Press), 2007.

Reference: ‘The Greatest Resource – Education’ Chapter Six in “Small is Beautiful. A Study of Economics as if People Mattered” by Dr E. F. Schumacher, (Abacus edition, Sphere Books, London), 1974.