Doughnut Economics, by Kate Raworth

Doughnut Economics, by Kate Raworth. Book cover.
First publication: 02/23/2017

“Faced with a multifaceted crisis – the capture of governments by billionaires and their lobbyists, extreme inequality, the rise of demagogues, above all the collapse of the living world – those to whom we look for leadership appear stunned, voiceless, clueless. Even if they had the courage to act, they have no idea what to do.

The most they tend to offer is more economic growth: the fairy dust supposed to make all the bad stuff disappear. Never mind that it drives ecological destruction; that it has failed to relieve structural unemployment or soaring inequality; that, in some recent years, almost all the increment in incomes has been harvested by the top 1%. As values, principles and moral purpose are lost, the promise of growth is all that’s left.

. . . We cannot hope to address our predicament without a new worldview. We cannot use the models that caused our crises to solve them. We need to reframe the problem. This is what the most inspiring book published so far this year has done.” (Finally, a breakthrough alternative to growth economics – the doughnut. George Monbiot, The Guardian, Wed 12 Apr 2017)

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Chapters

INTRODUCTION: Who Wants to Be an Economist?

Ch. 1: CHANGE THE GOAL – From GDP to the Doughnut

Ch. 2: SEE THE BIG PICTURE – From self-contained market to embedded economy

Ch. 3: NURTURE HUMAN NATURE – From rational economic man to social adaptable humans

Ch. 4: GET SAVVY WITH SYSTEMS – From mechanical equilibrium to dynamic complexity

Ch. 5: DESIGN TO DISTRIBUTE – From “growth will even it up again” to distributive by design

Ch. 6: CREATE TO REGENERATE – From “growth will clean it up again” to regenerative by design

Ch. 7: BE AGNOSTIC ABOUT GROWTH – From growth addicted to growth agnostic