Doughnut Economics
Also known as Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist
Kate Raworth's 2017 book: an economy that meets everyone's needs within the planet's limits.
At a glance
Key ideas
Change the goal, See the big picture, Nurture human nature …
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Erik Schokkaert, Branko Milanović
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Kate Raworth and Branko Milanović
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- Raworth argues that economics should start from its goals, not its mechanisms, and swaps the goal of endless GDP growth for "thriving in balance".
- Her doughnut has an inner ring of 12 social foundations and an outer ring of 9 planetary boundaries.
- The space between is where both people's needs and the planet's are met.
- The book is laid out as seven ways to think, from "Change the Goal" to "Be Agnostic about Growth".
Why it matters
- It expands the doughnut model she first set out in a 2012 paper; reviewers such as Branko Milanović question how a no-growth economy could work.
Key facts
- Author
- Kate Raworth1
- Published
- 20171
- First paper
- "A Safe and Just Space for Humanity: Can we live within the Doughnut?", 13 Feb 2012, ahead of the Rio+20 UN conference1
Key ideas
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Change the goal1
Replace endless growth with a compass: meet social foundations without crossing planetary boundaries.
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See the big picture1
The economy is embedded in society and the living world, and runs on a one-way flow of energy.
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Nurture human nature1
People are not "rational economic man": we are the most cooperative species on the planet.
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Design to distribute1
Inequality will not fix itself as people get richer, so taxes on income and land need rethinking.
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Be agnostic about growth1
Natural systems follow an S-curve; the economy needs a landing point, not endless growth.
Criticism
Connections
Links
Sources
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