Manfred Max-Neef

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Manfred Arthur Max-Neef (b. October 26, 1932, Valparaiso, Chile) is a Chilean economist and environmentalist. Mainly known for his human development model based on Fundamental human needs. Max-Neef started his career as a teacher of economics at the University of California, Berkeley in the early 1960s.

Career

Max-Neef travelled through Latin America and the United States, as a visiting Professor in various universities, as well as living with and researching the poor.^{[citation needed]} 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, Max-Neef wrote From the Outside Looking In: Experiences in Barefoot Economics, a narrative of his travels among the poor in South America. In the same year, he founded CEPAUR (Centre for Development Alternatives).^{[citation needed]}

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. 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, Max-Neef was appointed rector of the Universidad Austral de Chile in Valdivia. He served in that position for eight years.

Affiliations

• European Academy of Sciences and Arts
• Club of Rome
• New York Academy of Sciences,
• Leopold Kohr Academy of Salzburg

Awards/Honours

• University Award of Highest Honour, Soka University, Japan
• Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Jordan, *National Prize for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, Chile
• Kenneth Boulding Award (maximum recognition by the ISEE (International Society for Ecologic Economics), August 2008

Commencement speaker

On May 10, 2009, Dr Manfred Max-Neef received an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters and was Commencement Speaker to the 158th Graduating Class of Saint Francis University (Loretto, Pennsylvania).

Books

• From the Outside Looking In: Experiences in Barefoot Economics (1981, Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation) ISBN 1-85649-188-9
• Human Scale Development 1991, 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

External links

• WorldCat Identities
• Right Lifelihood Award's website
• Max-Neef on Human Needs and Human-scale Development
• Big Picture TV Free video clips of Manfred Max-Neef
• El desarrollo a la medida humana from Desarrollo y Cooperación (March/April 2002) (Spanish)
• Economic Investigation by Hermann Max, Manfred Max-Neef's son
• May 6, 2009 News Release from Saint Francis University

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