Manfred Max-Neef

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Manfred Max-Neef (b. October 26, 1932 in Valparaiso, Chile) is a Chilean economist and environmentalist. Max-Neef started his career as a teacher of economics at the University of California, Berkeley in the early 1960s. He then travelled through Latin America and the United States, as a visiting Professor in various universities, as well as living with and researching the poor. He worked with the problem of development in the Third World, describing the inappropriateness of conventional models of development, that have lead to poverty, debt and ecological disasters for Third World communities.

In 1981, he wrote the book From the Outside Looking In: Experiences in Barefoot Economics. It is a narrative of his travels among poor communities in South America, describing his approach to 'economics as if people matter.' In the same year, he founded the organization CEPAUR (Centre for Development Alternatives).

In 1983, Max-Neef won the Right Livelihood Award, known as the "Alternative Nobel Prize", for his work in poverty stricken areas of developing countries, in the area of "Human Scale Development" based upon fundamental human needs. Max-Neef ran for President of Chile as an independent in the 1993 election. He achieved 4th place, with 5.55% of the vote. In 1993, he was appointed rector of the Universidad Austral de Chile in Valdivia. He served in that position for eight years.

Memberships: European Academy of Sciences and Arts, The Club of Rome, New York Academy of Sciences, Leopold Kohr Academy of Salzburg.

Awards: In addition to the Right Livelihood Award. University Award of Highest Honour, Soka University, Japan. Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Jordan, Jordan. National Prize for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, Chile.

[edit] Books

From the Outside Looking In: Experiences in Barefoot Economics (1981, Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation) ISBN 1-85649-188-9
Human Scale Development 1991, the Apex Press, New York and London, ISBN 0-945257-35-X
Real-Life Economics: Understanding Wealth Creation, with Paul Ekins, 1992, Routledge, London, ISBN 0-415-07976-4