From December 2025 through June 2026, this sabbatical takes the argument of Small Steps on the road — to twelve countries across five continents, with stops at roughly twenty universities and research sites. The book argues that poverty reduction works through the inverse of what development orthodoxy prescribes: not through scale, urbanization, advanced technology and accumulation (GUTA), but through small-scale enterprise, appropriate technology, rural and small-town development, and a focus on sufficiency rather than growth. Mainstream economics treats GUTA as obvious; the evidence suggests otherwise.
Fieldwork in Barbados opens the main leg, followed by presentations across Germany, Switzerland, and four North American universities (Brown, Columbia, Occidental, Oregon), then an extended fellowship at the Australian National University with research visits in Australia, Vietnam and Taiwan. Earlier in the sabbatical, work in Botswana and the Harare Conference in Zimbabwe opened the larger arc.
The puzzle that animates the project recurs at each stop in different form: Why did Guizhou province achieve world-record poverty reduction (1985–2005) by promoting small-scale, low-tech, rural opportunities — then abandon that model for an indebted, infrastructure-heavy growth strategy that has produced neither commensurate growth nor commensurate poverty reduction? Why have Barbados, Switzerland and Bhutan reduced poverty without following the GUTA playbook? The sabbatical gathers fresh evidence and submits the argument to the scholars best placed to challenge it.
Writing this from Canberra, Australia, as of May 17, 2026.