Paul Schafer | The Cultural Age | Global Citizenship Education Interview Series with Emiliano Bosio
October 16th, 2026
D. Paul Schafer
This video welcomes Paul Schafer, Founder and Director of the World Culture Project in Canada, to discuss his new book, The Cultural Age: Heart, Soul, and Centre of the World, and explore his vision for moving beyond an economic-centred worldview toward a future in which culture, human dignity, sustainability, and the well-being of people and the planet become central to human civilization.
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Abstract/Description
Cultural scholar D. Paul Schafer draws on a lifetime of research to make the case that culture, not economics and economies, should be placed at the core of our civilization, and that only by doing so can humanity ensure a peaceful and productive future.
Schafer does not dispute the importance of the current "economic age," which he characterizes as humanity's greatest accomplishment and whose beginnings he dates to Adam Smith's 18th-century book The Wealth of Nations. The past 250 years have seen tremendous gains in human health, wealth, and well-being. But making economics the centrepiece of the world system, and relegating everything else to secondary status -- including the natural environment on which we ultimately depend -- is a prescription for disaster.
Schafer does not dispute the importance of the current "economic age," which he characterizes as humanity's greatest accomplishment and whose beginnings he dates to Adam Smith's 18th-century book The Wealth of Nations. The past 250 years have seen tremendous gains in human health, wealth, and well-being. But making economics the centrepiece of the world system, and relegating everything else to secondary status -- including the natural environment on which we ultimately depend -- is a prescription for disaster.
