Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think like a 21st Century Economist, by Kate Raworth, was published in early April. The Resilience website has a quick summary of what the book is about, this is a YouTube overview, and here is brief (17 minute) explanation in an RSA video.
These are Raworth’s 7 ways:
1. Change the goal: from GDP growth to the Doughnut.
2. See the big picture: from self-contained market to embedded economy.
3. Nurture human nature: from rational economic man to social adaptable humans.
4. Get savvy with systems: from mechanical equilibrium to dynamic complexity.
5. Design to distribute: from ‘growth will even it up again’ to distributive by design.
6. Create to regenerate: from ‘growth will clean it up again’ to regenerative by design.
7. Be Agnostic about Growth: from growth-addicted to growth-agnostic.
Section 6, about regenerative design, understandably draws on circular economy ideas, and as such it seems appropriate to see what the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Head of Innovation, Ken Webster, has to say about it. Ken begins his review like this:
“I admit to having not really liked Kate Raworth’s doughnut image when I first saw it. After all, a doughnut is a deadly mix of white flour, sugar and fat. Then again, that’s sort of apt if you think of life in high income countries today: attractive but easy to overdo and in the end not that satisfying. However, Kate’s choice of image had impact. In development circles it became a very useful illustration of that sweet spot between alleviating poverty and eroding the ecological support system. …”
… addends it in this way:
“Doughnut Economics is an excellent book, supported by a number of equally creative short animations that will soon become, I predict, a frequently used stimulus in educational workshops across the world. Even if you are minded to reject some of the arguments presented you will have learnt a lot about economics, its history, its significant present challenges, and the way in which a consistent and well-framed narrative can literally change the world.”
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