Doughnut Economics summary

Introduction: A New View on Economics

Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth What is in it for me? A new view on economics from an environmental envoy. Kate Raworth's Doughnut Economics presents a breakthrough model to meet 21st century challenges. Instead of endless growth, she visualizes the economy as a classic doughnut.

The inner ring represents the social foundation, ensuring everyone has basic needs like food, water and housing. The outer ring represents the ecological ceiling which protects the vital systems that sustain life on earth. The goal of Doughnut Economics is to live in the space between these two rings where humanity can thrive without destroying our planet. In this summary, you will find out why the answer to our present problems resembles a doughnut.

How a great theorist of economics failed to credit his mother's cooking and why a sense of fairness can trump self-interest. This is Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth.

The Doughnut is a New Way of Thinking

The doughnut is a new way of thinking about sustainable economics in the 21st century. Economics is the world's lingua franca spoken by both business and government. Yet many of its basic assumptions are flawed.

Crises like the 2008 financial crash have proved as much economists just did not see it coming. Then there are the slow burning issues of climate change and global inequality. If it wants to meet the challenges of the 21st century head-on, economics needs to change. Fresh thinking is the order of the day.

So where do we start? One idea that might help us out of our current predicament is the author Kate Raworth's concept. As we heard, it consists of two circles, a social foundation and an ecological ceiling. Let's unpack the first concept.

The doughnut's social foundation includes everything that humans need in order to live. That covers basics such as access to clean water and food, but there is more to it than that. We do not just want humans to simply survive, we want them to thrive. A full human life is about more than just having enough to eat.

It also requires more abstract social goods like support networks, a sense of community, political representation and gender equality. And what about the ecological ceiling? Essentially, this is the ecological boundary. We have to respect if we also want the earth to thrive.

In 2009, scientists identified nine processes vital to our planet's ability to sustain human life, ranging from climate change to biodiversity loss. The outer ring of the doughnut functions as a guardrail to protect these key processes. If we cross it, we risk environmental catastrophe. The problem, however, is that we have already leaped over the rail at least four times.

Climate change, nitrogen and phosphorus loading, land conversion and biodiversity loss are already well underway. The clock is already ticking and time is in short supply. If we want to get humanity into the doughnut, we have to act now. But before we do anything, we need to change the way we think about the world.

And that starts by challenging our obsession with endless growth.