So again, my wildlife art hero,
Robert Bateman, Canadian painter of wildlife and an environmental
spokesman, often speaks of the influences of E. F. Schumacher. http://collections.batemancentre.org/artists/notebooks
Fritz
Schumacher was a German-born English economist who has become very
influential in Europe and North America as well as establishing
development projects in the Third World, particularly in India.
Initially, his views and writing were somewhat controversial. His
concerns include philosophy, economics, land-use and education in the
First World and international development issues in the Third World.
E. F. Schumacher's best known book is "Small is Beautiful; a Study of Economics as if People Mattered" (1973).
This book challenged the authodox and established thinking about the
primary goals of econmic growth and created a new focus: small scale
economics. Today, his "new economics" is sometimes called Human-scale
Economics.
His next book offers a new look at philosophy and has the wonderful title of "A Guide for the Perplexed" (1977).
For a really good overview of the influence of E. F. Schumacher I highly recommend "Small is Beautiful in the 21st Century; the Legacy of E. F. Schumacher" (2011), by Diana Schumacher, his daughter-in-law. It is No.17 in a series called the Schumacher Briefings published by The Schumacher Society. http://www.schumacher.org.uk/
Here, in the U.K., one organisation closely based on the concepts established by E. F. Schumacher is the New Economics Foundation, NEF, who's corporate branded message is: "Economics as if people and the planet mattered".
NEF were given to responsibility of responding the U.K. Government study called the "Mental Capital & Well-being Report 2008". This report had a truely transformative effect on charity and NHS mental health services and been a real boon to the ideas of The Third Sector and The Big Society.
Instead
of a focus on the curative medical model and waiting for problems to
develop a medical need, the focus has become preventative well-being.
This also means the benefits of a well-being focused approach are
available to more people.
As
with most "hearts and minds" campaigns, there are two ways to challange
the authodoxy and to raise awareness of otherwise unrecognised
problems. You can campaign hard to change the 'negatives' at
organisational, governmental and societal level and/or you can create
the 'positive alternatives', giving individual people the choice,
allowing them to 'vote with their feet', so to speak.
In the charity sector, here in the U.K. the issues of mental health awareness have been taken up by recent campaign called "Time To Change", http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/,
a campaign to challange the negatives of stigma and discrimination and
also make known the real facts and stats of mental health today, ready
for acceptance, stating for example; 1 in 4 of us will experience a
mental health problem in any given year.
In
Norwich, this campaign has been spear-headed by Oz Osbourne from the
charity Rethink. He has done a fantastic job locally, even introducing
another creative idea from Denmark, in Europe, called The Human Library. http://humanlibrary.org/living-library-confirmed-in-norwich-england..html
The Human Library was
originally established to help the rehabilitation of ex-offenders in
Copenhagen, Denmark, by supporting them in discussing the discrimination
they may face when re-entering society. It has proved eminently
adaptable to addressing the stigma and experiences of those dependant on
support for various mental health conditions.
As a visitor the Human Library,
you get an oportunity to 'borrow' a 'book' with whom you can sit and
enjoy a cup of coffee for a few minutes and ask about that person's
experiences, perhaps asking those questions you might never ask in any
other setting for risk of causing offense. Often you will hear about all
those small actions that most people do on a daily basis that you might
never have thought cause a difficulty or frustration for someone less
fortunate or able. The discussions can be fascinating!
To address the 'positives' and to seek new ways to create positive alternative experiences to promote well-being, NEF produced a pilot campaign in responce to the government report of "Mental Capital and Well-being Report 2008". The new public campaign was called "5-ways to Well-being". http://www.neweconomics.org/projects/entry/five-ways-to-well-being
NEF claim this proposal was modelled closely on the pre-existing NHS public health campaign of "Eat Five Fruit & Veg a Day". NEF are
clear that this is designed to be a public campaign and therefore,
there are certain areas or issues which can be addressed by individuals,
while some require changes at societal, organisational or governmental
level. However, for a public campaing these are ommited those as not
relevent. NEF have focussed on simple goals which are achieveable and attainble by individuals in their daily lives.
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