Kenneth Ewart Boulding (1910-1993) was an English-born American economist, educator, peace activist, and interdisciplinary philosopher. A prolific author, he published over thirty-...voir plusKenneth Ewart Boulding (1910-1993) was an English-born American economist, educator, peace activist, and interdisciplinary philosopher. A prolific author, he published over thirty-six books and over 112 articles. Boulding was the author of two Citation Classics: The Image: Knowledge in Life and Society (1956) and Conflict and Defense: A General Theory (1962). He was cofounder of general systems theory and founder of numerous ongoing intellectual projects in economics and social science.
Born on January 18, 1910 and raised in Liverpool, England, the only child of William C. Boulding and Elizabeth Ann Boulding, he attended Liverpool Collegiate School on a scholarship. He also won a chemistry scholarship to Oxford University at New College in 1929, but soon transferred to Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He then won a Commonwealth Fellowship to the University of Chicago (1932-1934), returning to the UK in 1934 for three years to take up a position in economics at the University of Edinburgh. He later returned to the U.S. and was granted citizenship in 1948.
After teaching posts at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee (1942-1943) and Iowa State College (1945-1949), Boulding joined the University of Michigan as professor (1949-1967), and retired as Distinguished Professor Emeritus from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1980. He served as president of several organizations, including the American Economic Association in 1968, the International Peace Research Society from 1969-1970 and the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1979.
He died in Boulder, Colorado on March 18, 1993, aged 83.voir moins