Linked with Manfred Max-Neef – Chile, with The Max-Neef Model of Human-Scale Development, with Statements at the World Future Council.
CEPAUR is largely dedicated to the reorientation of development in terms of stimulating local self-reliance and satisfying fundamental human needs. More generally, it advocates a return to the human scale. CEPAUR acts as a clearing-house for information on the revitalisation and development of small and medium-sized urban and rural communities; it researches new tools, strategies and evalutive techniquest for such development, assists with projects aiming at greater local self-reliance and disseminates the reulsts of its research and experience. In Human Scale Development, published in 1987 in Spanish and later in English, Max-Neef and his colleagues at CEPAUR outline a new development paradigm based on a revaluation of human needs. Needs are described as existential (having, doing, being) and as axiological (values) and the things needed to satisfy them are not necessarily dependent upon, or commensurate with, the kinds or quantities of economic goods available in any given society. The book seeks to counter the logic of economics with the ethics of well-being. (full text on the website of The Right Livelihood Awards).
The Center is described also on the following websites:
Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation;
Foundation for deep ecology;
Peace Proposal.com;
Globalization and Megatechnology.