Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist

By: Kate Raworth

Narrated by: Kate Raworth

Economics is the mother tongue of public policy. It dominates our decision-making for the future, guides multi-billion-dollar investments, and shapes our responses to climate change, inequality, and other environmental and social challenges that define our times.

Pity then, or more like disaster, that its fundamental ideas are centuries out of date yet are still taught in college courses worldwide and still used to address critical issues in government and business alike. That's why it is time, says renegade economist Kate Raworth, to revise our economic thinking for the 21st century. In Doughnut Economics, she sets out seven key ways to fundamentally reframe our understanding of what economics is and does. Along the way, she points out how we can break our addiction to growth; redesign money, finance, and business to be in service to people; and create economies that are regenerative and distributive by design.

Named after the now-iconic "doughnut" image that Raworth first drew to depict a sweet spot of human prosperity (an image that appealed to the Occupy Movement, the United Nations, eco-activists, and business leaders alike), Doughnut Economics offers a radically new compass for guiding global development, government policy, and corporate strategy, and sets new standards for what economic success looks like.

Raworth handpicks the best emergent ideas - from ecological, behavioral, feminist, and institutional economics to complexity thinking and Earth-systems science - to address this question: How can we turn economies that need to grow, whether or not they make us thrive, into economies that make us thrive, whether or not they grow?

Simple, playful, and eloquent, Doughnut Economics offers game-changing analysis and inspiration for a new generation of economic thinkers.

Download the accompanying reference guide.©2017 Kate Raworth (P)2017 Chelsea Green Publishing

Definitely read this

This book is an eye opener to the kinds of visionary ways of thinking about economics that are already out there. It’s a must read for anyone interested in thinking about what it will take to transform our world. And Kate herself narrates it - absolutely wonderful.

Finally a book focused on a global solution

I have been worried about climate change, wealth inequalities (and the gap growing), rich countries exploiting poor ones, animal welfare, and the race to bigger companies, bigger economies, bigger profits (at all costs). it's been hard to engage in meaningful discussions with friends and acquaintances because I always felt I didn't have enough data on hand, and not a lot to propose as a potential solution. this book is the answer to all my wishes. so grateful someone spent their life studying these important issues, and took the time & effort to summarize it in a book. wow.

Must read

One of the best books I have ever read on economics. A full overview of what is possible and how it is being implemented today. It brought some hope and concrete direction on how to unfold a regenerative future in real time.

An Important Book

A fascinating and timely look at how economics needs to change in order to foster a sustainable and equitable world. As the author herself states, this book is meant to outline a model whereby specific applications can be pursued, not provide specific solutions to every problem we are currently facing, although examples are regularly explored. The model is compelling, and it offers a way forward that is neither naïve or defeatist. Highly recommended.

How to Change Economics to Fix the Woy

Raworth argues that classical economics is wrong and if it were done correctly, we could fix many of the world's problems. She is very persuasive, but it seems she is fighting an uphill battle. She reads her book like an audio artist, and she has a great accent.

Wonderful

This book was wonderful in so many ways. Like many people who studied a little economics as an undergraduate, I have been uneasy with the methods and assumptions of the discipline, but lacked the tools and perspective for an incisive critique. This book provided them. Better, it sketched what an alternative economics could look like, and how it could help to make the real world better. This part of the book gave me so much to think about... the role that commons can play in the economy, the ways in which complementary currencies can help achieve specific goals, and so much more. Read this book. It will expand your mind, your sense of what’s possible and of where solutions to our problems might lie.

Compelling

This book is on so many new howling I need all while not planning to have the answers. He does a great job showing a balance argument and both sides of the challenge ahead. At the same time she also offers many examples in case studies of house changes being implemented love this work from cover to cover

This is what I've been trying to say

I've had a few conversations with my friends about how our current economy has very little to do with reality. This book does much better than I ever could in making this argument. Raworth covers all of the relevant fields, providing starting points, goals, and questions that need to be answered to get humanity on track to live for another 50,000 years.

What an Eye Opener!

The author is also the delightfully dynamic reader.
Raworth's depiction is a system that not only could work to save our grandchildren but also has been shown to work in real life situations. The book refers to online illustrations for clarification.

How our current world culminated

I found Kate’s narration to be engaging, exciting and understandable. I really appreciate how as an author she gives a simple, but technical timeline that leads up to the current state of our modern world.

Donut Economics isn’t only a book on circular economics vs linear economics, but really ties together the two ways of thinking to illustrate a more intuitive and regenerative road from the past to the present to the future.

Thanks, Kate!