Dr. Henrique Schneider is the chief economist at the Swiss Federation of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises. He is also professor of economics at Nordakademie University of Applied Sciences in Germany.
The Grassroots Way
“Measure the self with the self, the family with the family, the neighborhood with the neighborhood, the country with the country, and the world with the world.” We read this in Chapter 54 of the classic Chinese text, the Daodejing — often misunderstood as a metaphysical treatise on methods of self-improvement but better understood as a work of political philosophy.
Is Small Still Beautiful? A Swiss Perspective
From a Swiss perspective, small is beautiful. As important as recognizing this is, it is also worth considering the reasons behind this. There are three concepts rooted in economic anthropology that can help us understand this better: first, ‘scarcity and alertness’; second, ‘bonding and bridging’; and third, ‘competition’.