Manfred Max-Neef is a Chilean economist who has gained an international reputation for his work and writing on development alternatives. In addition to a long academic career, Max-Neef achieved an impressive minority vote when he stood as candidate in the Chilean Presidential election of 1993. He was subsequently appointed Rector of the Universidad Austral de Chile in Valdivia.
The book for which he is best known, From the Outside Looking In: Experiences in Barefoot Economics, describes his experiences as an economist attempting to practise ‘economics as if people matter’ among the poor in South America. In the same year he set up in Chile the organisation CEPAUR (Centre for Development Alternatives) dedicated to the reorientation of development in terms of stimulating local self-reliance and satisfying fundamental human needs. In Human Scale Development, Max-Neef and his colleagues at CEPAUR outline a new development paradigm based on a revaluation of human needs.
