Schumacher Institute Challenge Papers Series

This series of short papers by Schumacher Institute staff, fellows and associates aims to challenge, provoke and stimulate discussion. Each paper raises a practical or theoretical challenge for the sustainability movement and presents the author's personal take on the issue. The Challenge Papers Series is an ongoing activity at the Institute, with new papers posted online as they are completed. Titles and a brief summary are listed below; click on the links to view the full text in PDF format.

RESPONSIBILITY TO FUTURE GENERATIONS by Barbara Adam
As cultural and social beings we are inescapably future oriented. How we live and produce futures, however, is biographically, culturally and socially distinct. It changes historically, over our lifetime and with specific contexts. As knowledge practices, approaches to the future have consequences. Today the consequences of technological action in particular present us with a new context for accountability and responsibility. It is the challenge to moral conduct, presented by the contemporary context, I want to consider here.... [read full text]

MAKING AQUAPONICS ACCESSIBLE by Alice-Marie Archer
The need to rapidly intensify global food production, coupled with the declining availability and affordability of the fuels, fertilisers and other inputs on which our current agricultural systems depend, mean that we must now radically rethink the food system. If more food can be produced locally with fewer and more effectively used (and re-used) resources, it may be possible to improve urban food security and combat food poverty. Aquaponics - growing fish and plants symbiotically – is a food-production technique which vastly reduces the need for water and nutrients during production, can be undertaken close to the consumer, and can absorb multiple urban waste streams. The challenge is to make aquaponics more easily accessible to urban communities, and to do so in ways that support their local economies... [read full text]

RADICALIZING EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY by John Blewitt
When capitalism faltered and real change seemed possible, institutionalised Education for Sustainability (EfS) failed to overcome its organizational constraints and internal limitations and seize the opportunity to offer radical alternatives. If EfS is to resist further neoliberal corporatization and make a real contribution to the emergence of a more socially just and environmentally sustainable society it must embrace an alternative and radical critical pedagogy... [read full text]

LANGUAGE, IMAGES AND BOUNDARIES by Michael Clinton
For our society to adopt truly sustainable lifestyles will require informed and effective decisions and actions by people across the whole social spectrum. There is a growing realisation that in order to generate the necessary societal transformation, individuals, groups and organisations must be motivated to undertake what can often be difficult and fundamental changes to their behaviour. As both understanding and motivation can be strongly influenced by language, the focus of this paper is on the challenge of achieving effective communication between those with specialist knowledge and expertise and the wider public.... [read full text]

NUCLEAR ENERGY: ONE STRAND OF HOPE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL JUSTICE ON A CROWDED PLANET? by Steven Harris
On an increasingly crowded and polluted planet, dealing with the multiple impacts of global warming and continuing to work to improve global equity requires sufficient baseline energy supply to enable further advances in education, healthcare and human rights around the world while rapidly achieving large reductions in fossil-fuel combustion. Among the many scenarios for replacing a significant proportion of world fossil-fuel use, only those which pair a rapid expansion of renewables with steady increases in clean electricity generation through nuclear fission currently appear technically credible and economically feasible. Given the huge costs and likely catastrophic impacts of continued fossil-fuel combustion, opposition to nuclear energy technologies by sustainability activists may no longer be defensible on environmental, social or economic grounds... [read full text]

THE ROLE OF WORK IN A WORLD WHERE PEOPLE AND PLANET MATTER: BUILDING ON E. F. SCHUMACHER’S LEGACY  by Nicola Jones
This paper asks: ‘What needs to be done so that work is meaningful?’ For Schumacher, meaningful work is that which respects the dignity of human beings, contributes to our society, gives us purpose and challenges us to develop or grow. Schumacher's concept of growth was far removed from the unrealistic pursuit of limitless economic growth; rather, it focused instead on improving the overall quality of life. Such a focus requires that we have a better understanding of our relationship with ourselves and with others and with our relationship to the issues of responsibility and sustainability... [read full text]

APPROPRIATE NANO-INNOVATION  by Donald  Maclurcan
If nanotechnology is to play an appropriate role in addressing the health-related challenges faced the world's poorest people in the 21st Century, there will need to be a much greater focus on some of the more equitable ways in which it can be developed.... [read full text]

The overall coordinator of the Challenge Papers is Steve Harris - contact him here.