James Robertson grew up in Scotland and Yorkshire, and then studied
classics, history and philosophy at Oxford. In the 1950s he worked
in the Colonial Office, as the remaining British colonies came
towards independence. Development plans for Mauritius and
Seychelles introduced him to the UK Treasury and public
policy-making on money. Three years in the Cabinet Office led to
his first book, Reform of British Central Government (1971). James
then worked setting up the Inter-Bank Research Organisation (IBRO)
for the big banks.
As a writer and adviser on future economic, social and ecological
change, he combined his earlier experience and a new interest in
ecology, feminism, futures studies and the ‘convivial society’ and
‘small is beautiful’ ideas of Ivan Illich and E. F. Schumacher. His
book The Sane Alternative followed in 1978. Then in 1983 James
helped Jonathon Porritt and Paul Ekins to set up The Other Economic
Summit (TOES), later the New Economics Foundation (nef).
James has worked and lectured for many organisations and people,
including the World Health Organisation and the European
Commission. In 2003 James received a gold medal from the Pio Manzù
Centre, an international institute for the in-depth study of the
main economic and scientific aspects of the relationship between
man and his environment. Its Scientific Committee, whose President
is Mikhail Gorbachev, called James “an outstanding example of a
modern thinker at the service of society”.
www.jamesrobertson.com
Transforming Economic Life will be seen as the first economics text
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