Kenneth Boulding

"Kenneth Boulding (1910-1993) was a notable economist and educator, best known for his contribution to General Systems Theory, ecological economics and conflict and defense. This text gives insight into the life and multidisciplinary work of Boulding. Boulding was born to a working-class family in Liverpool, England. He was greatly influenced by World War I as a child, which made him a lifelong pacifist, eventually leading him to join the Society of Friends (Quakers) while in college. Boulding defied class distinctions by earning a scholarship to study at Oxford University. After graduating he studied economics at the University of Chicago, and later settled in America taking a job at Colgate University where he wrote his bestselling textbook Economic Analysis. This book along with other publications won Boulding the John Bates Clark Medal in 1949. At this same time, Boulding took a job at the University of Michigan where he began to adopt a more transdisciplinary approach to economic as well as social problems, such as war and environmental sustainability. In 1968 he was elected president of the American Economics Association. Boulding's religious beliefs mixed with his general sy