What Kate Raworth Missed in Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist

Welcome to my blog! I've been taking a class called Econ: Risking value, with its focus on...you guessed it, economics. This unit, called Sustainability, we have read the book Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist by Kate Raworth. With each chapter, a few of my classmates gave a mini lesson and interactive game to better interpret what it was Raworth meant. For this action project, we were asked to write what we think the eighth chapter of the book should be. For my final chapter, I decided to talk on how people need to change the way we handle conflict.

 A discussion on chapter eight:

John Maynard Keynes was a well-known and celebrated economist who supported the idea of eugenics. This idea is in direct opposition to the point made in the eighth chapter of Kate Raworth's book. This idea says that rather than trying to come to compromising solutions, eugenists want to change other people’s characteristics to fit the eugenists’ standards. 

John Paul Lederach, “explores how destructive conflict can change and become relatively constructive” in his book Little Book of Conflict Transformation: Clear Articulation Of The Guiding Principles By A Pioneer In The Field (Justice and Peacebuilding). While Lederach’s convictions come from a Christian background, this does not minimize the quality of information, contradictory to what some people tend to believe. 

“For over 70 years economics has been fixated on GDP, or national output, as its primary measure of progress. That fixation has been used to justify extreme inequalities of income and wealth coupled with unprecedented destruction of the living world. For the twenty-first century a far bigger goal is needed: meeting the human rights of every person within the means of our life-giving planet.” 

Kate Raworth speaks on this topic of collaboration a lot in her book, as shown in the quote above. In her book, Doughnut Economics, she makes a case as to why GDP growth has been unsustainable as of yet. She gives nuanced perspectives that point toward a new measurement of prosperity in our society. This quote correlates well with the eighth chapter because it is critical to think about the issue we face and how we can corporate with one another. 

Sustainable Development Goal 16, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, looks to “promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development.” One of their targets, 16.5, is to “substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms.” This correlates to the eighth chapter because of its focus on building relationships with each other to work towards peace through transformed conflict.

Works cited:

“Goal 16 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs.” United Nations, United Nations, https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal16.

Lederach, John Paul. The Little Book of Conflict Transformation: Clear Articulation of the Guiding Principles by a Pioneer in the Field. Good Books, 2003.

Raworth, Kate. Doughnut Economics Seven Ways to Think like a 21st-Century Economist. Penguin Books, 2022.

Singerman, David Roth. “Keynesian Eugenics and the Goodness of the World: Journal of British Studies.” Cambridge Core, Cambridge University Press, 10 June 2016, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-british-studies/article/keynesian-eugenics-and-the-goodness-of-the-world/1D1FE14255DA18E1DA28ED94E9680198.