Henk Thomas, Harini (at the computer) and Manuel Thomas during their presentation
“After we presented in October 2013 our book Economics for
People and Earth – The Auroville Case 1968-2008, we left Auroville with a modest
hope that its economy would improve. Today, seeing what has happened to
Auroville’s economy over the subsequent period 2008-2015, we realize that much
of this hope was in vain,” says Manuel Thomas.
It’s February 25th. The conference hall of SAIIER is packed
to listen to the presentation and conclusions of 'the two Thomases”, chartered
accountant Manuel Thomas from Chennai and Professor Henk Thomas from The
Netherlands, two people who have been closely studying what has been happening
to the Auroville economy over the last 47 years. “We had no intention to extend
our initial study of the first 40 years,” says Henk. “But when Harini from
Auroville’s Social Research Centre presented us with the data she had been
collecting over the last seven years, usin...
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1 Comments
Comparing this with the other article in this issue, on the question of the extent to which Auroville is becoming "a market economy", is fascinating.
In this article, we seem to see Thatcher's "TINA" - There is no alternative.
If there is anybody else reading these comments, (I see there are 10 views as of now, 6:30 AM, eastern standard time, in the US), I wonder if perhaps the reason the present model is failing is that branding and increasing production and marketing int he conventional sense may not be the economic model most suited to Auroville?
I imagine whatever model emerges, some kind of pluralism will be necessary for a considerable period of time - maybe the branding/marketing model may have to co-exist with a number of other experiments.
But this kind of pluralistic approach already exists within numerous communities around the world experimenting with alternative economies. I don't see why Auroville has to be following from behind when it could be a leader amongst all of these researchers for the future.