In his most famous book, Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, E F Schumacher argued the modern obsession with economic “growth”, achieved via bigger and better technologies, is killing the world. We need first to ask fundamental questions of an essentially metaphysical kind: What are our values? What do we really care about? What really matters? In particular, says Schumacher, we should be seeking as the Buddhists recommend “to obtain the maximum of wellbeing with the minimum of consumption”. Small is Beautiful was published in 1973 and the world has changed radically since then – and, says Neal Harris, senior lecturer in sociology at Oxford Brookes University, Schumacher’s ideas are not above criticism. But, says Dr Harris in this interview with Colin Tudge, Schumacher’s central message is now more relevant and urgent than ever.