Doughnut Economics for University Courses

KEY READING:

• K. Raworth (2017), 'Doughnut Economics: seven ways to think like a 21st century economist'. This book is the introductory text for exploring the issues covered in these teaching materials. This current topic focuses on Chapter 1: Change the Goal. This first chapter is available open access. 

DIVE DEEPER:
The following materials take a deeper exploration of the many issues covered in the chapter and beyond. They include materials that are useful as preparation for teaching, and also articles, books, videos and podcasts for students to explore.

On the history and present of GDP growth as a goal:

• W. W. Rostow (1960), The Stages of Economic Growth: a non-communist manifesto, Cambridge University Press. In this historically influential book Rostow sets out his understanding of the necessary stages of a nation's economic growth - these five stages are also briefly summarised on Wikipedia. 
• R. F. Kennedy (1968), Remarks at the University of Kansas. This is an audio recording clip, along with a full transcript of Bobby Kennedy's widely cited speech in which he challenges the dominance and relevance of GDP as a metric for prosperity. 
• M. Schmelzer (2016), The hegemony of growth: the OECD and the making of the economic growth paradigm, Cambridge. This book explores the history of the rise of GNP growth as the overiding policy goal in Europe and the US in the latter half of the 20th century. 
• US Chamber of Commerce (2024), The Growth and Opportunity Imperative for America. This contemporary statement from the heart of US business interests epitomizes the continuing prioritization of GDP by dominant economic and business institutions, and provides a useful summary of the pro-growth argument. 

On critiques of GDP growth as an economic goal:

• V. Bivar (2022), Historicizing Economic Growth: an overview of recent works. This review article explores the emerging themes of debate arising from critiques of economic growth being made by scholars across multiple disciplines. 
• J. Livingstone (2019), Self-devouring growth: a planetary parable as told from Southern Africa, Duke University Press. This book, centred on Botswana as a parable for the world, shows how fundamental human needs for water, food, and transportation become harnessed to 'self-devouring growth': an unchecked and unsustainable global pursuit of economic growth that threatens catastrophic environmental destruction. 
• S. Barca (2020) Forces of Reproduction: notes for a counter-hegemonic Anthropocene, CUP. In this concise book Barca provides a feminist political ecological critique of contemporary narratives of the Anthropocene by centering the forces of reproductive, or the 'earthcare labour', that keep humans and the living world alive. 
• E. Masood (2021), GDP: the world's most powerful and why it must now change, Icon Books. In this book - and also in this 28min radio programme, Masood explores what went wrong with GDP as a metric and how it must be reformed to reflect critical social and ecological realities.
• R. Hoekstra et al (2022), This is the Moment to go Beyond GDP, WWF, WEAll and EEB. This short briefing for policymakers summarises the problems of GDP as a guiding metric and presents some of the alternative indicators and dashboards currently in around the world.
• A. Jansen et al (2024) Beyond GDP: a review and conceptual framework for measuring sustainable and inclusive wellbeing, Lancet Planetary Health 8: e695-705. This article reviews 50 years of literature on 'beyond GDP' metrics and provides a structured analysis of over 60 proposed alternatives.

On exploring the pluriverse of economic alternatives:

• C. Alves and I. Harvold Kvangarven (2021) Does Economics need to be 'decolonised'? This blog concisely explores the far-reaching implications of the colonisation of economic theory, and how decolonisation is now being approached in contemporary theory, teaching and research.   
• A. Kothari et al (2019), Pluriverse: a post-development dictionary. This book presents short entries on a myriad of worldviews, approaches and movements - from local to global - that offer an alternative to the current global economic paradigm, such as buen vivir, deep ecology, degrowth, ecofeminism, ubuntu, and many others.
• S. Arora and A. Stirling (2020) Don't 'save the world' - embrace a pluriverse, STEPS Centre blog. This blog explores the history of conceptions of development and encourages a pluriversal perspective. 
• The Global Tapestry of Alternatives. This co-created platform seeks to build bridges between networks of Alternatives to the current economic system around the globe and promote the creation of new processes of confluence.
• Vikalp Sangam: the search for alternatives. This website sets out the movement's philosophy and principles, creating a confluence of alternative worldviews and practices emerging from within the context of India. 
• 'Āina Aloha Economic Futures. This website introduces a vision for Hawaiʻiʻs economic future that is grounded in a core set of values reflecting the islands' unique culture and identity. 
• A. Parvez Butt et al (2023), Radical Pathways Beyond GDP: why and how we need to pursue feminist and decolonial alternatives urgently, Oxfam Discussion Paper. This paper explores the challenges to replacing GDP with metrics that promote a radically more equal, kinder, greener and feminist world in the present, while offering redress for historical damage and inequalities.
• M. Max-Neef et al (1989), Human Scale Development. In this article MaxNeef and colleagues set out their theory of fundamental human needs, distinguishing these from many different kinds of needs 'satisfiers' (see pp31-39). Max-Neef also gives an overview in this 6min video and this Wikipedia page likewise provides a concise summary. 
• D. Meadows (1994) Down to Earth. In this 9min clip from a now-classic talk, Donella Meadows speaks of the importance of having goals and a vision for the future if we are to have a chance of realising it. 
• Economy for the Common Good. This website introduces the philosophy and application of ECG - an economic model, which makes the Common Good, a good life for everyone on a healthy planet, its primary goal and purpose.
• K. Klomp and S. Oosterwaal (2021), Thrive: fundamentals for a new economy. This edited volume contains many concise contributions on new economic thinking written by leading protagonists of those views. 
• Wellbeing Economy Alliance. This website gives an overview of WEAll as an international movement, network, and advocate for economies based on wellbeing. This article by Fioramonti et al (2022) introduces the concept while Bärnthaler et al (2024) explores the barriers, in structure and agency, to creating a wellbeing economy (pertinent to all new economic thinking) 
• Exploring Economics is an open-access e-learning platform on pluralist economics, with excellent resources and summaries of many schools of thought, ranging from neoclassical and Austrian economics to ecological, feminist, complexity, and institutional economics. 
• Rethinking Economics is a global network of students and organisers fighting for a new way of teaching and practising economics so that it truly helps to deal with the real-world challenges we all face today like climate collapse and inequality.
  
  

On planetary boundaries:

• Stockholm Resilience Centre, Planetary boundaries.This webpage, provides a very useful overview of the evolution of the concept since 2009, along with links to key publications.
• Planetary Healthcheck 2024. This website launches an annual reporting initiative focused on monitoring the planetary boundaries and the health of the Earth system. 
• Rockström et al (2024) Planetary boundaries guide humanity's future on Earth, Nature Reviews Earth and Environment 5: 773-788. This overview article summarises the conceptual creation of the framework and its implementation to date in economics, business, policy and beyond. 
• SDG Academy, MOOC on Planetary Boundaries: free online course taught by leading experts in this field. 
• J.Rockström (2024) A concise overview of the planetary boundaries concept, as described by Johan Rockstrom, one of the lead authors, in an interview on the Great Simplification podcast with Nate Hagens. Rockström's description of planetary boundaries begins @06.56mins

• J. Rockström (2023), Planetary boundaries: scientific advances. In this 40min video lecture Rockstrom gives an overview of the concept and presents the most recent scientific insights. 

• F. Biermann and R.E. Kim (2020), The boundaries of the planetary boundaries framework: a critical appraisal of approaches to define a 'safe operating space' for humanity, Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Vol 45: 497-521. This article explores criticisms of the concept from different perspectives, and reflects on the implications for governance and policymaking. 
• F. Sultana (2023) 'Whose growth in whose planetary boundaries? Decolonising growth in the Anthropocene', Geography and Environment, vol 10: 2. This article critiques contemporary economic growth in the context of planetary boundaries by centring climate justice and Global South perspectives. 
• J. Rockstrom et al (forthcoming) The science of planetary boundaries as a guide to humanity's future on Earth, Nature. This extensive review article gives a detailed overview of the concept's evolution and influence in many domains since 2009, and responds to several criticisms often made of the planetary boundaries framework. 

On the Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries:

• K. Raworth (2012), A safe and just space for humanity: can we live within the doughnut? Oxfam International. This discussion paper presents the first conceptualisation of the Doughnut, making the case that it is essential to combine ecological integrity with social justice for a 'safe and just' future. 
• K. Raworth (2017), A Doughnut for the Anthropocene, Lancet Planetary Health 1:2 This short article updates the Doughnut concept and visualisation and provides detailed supplementary information on the dimensions and indicators used.

• TED Talk by Kate Raworth (2018). A healthy economy should be designed to thrive, not grow. This 18min video gives an overview of Doughnut Economics and its seven ways to think.
• Conceptual origins of the Doughnut. This 10min video, presented by Kate Raworth, sets out the conceptual origins of the Doughnut, starting at 24.30mins

On workshop activities for exploring the Doughnut

• Dimensions of the Doughnut. This deck of printable slides introduces each of the 12 social foundations and 9 planetary boundaries in an easy-to-understand way, making this a good tool for exploring the Doughnut in depth in workshop settings. 
• 'People People Planet'. This is an energising group activity for physically embodying the social and ecological tensions held by the Doughnut's boundaries - all you need is 20-80 people and some open space. 
• 'Step into the Doughnut'. This simple, fun and accessible group activity is a great starting point for introducing the Doughnut in a workshop, whether in a community or classroom setting. You'll need 15-70 people and 2 long ropes. 
• 'Take a Stand: can humanity get into the Doughnut?' This group activity invites participants to take a position on the question, and to listen and reflect on the diversity of views in the room. It works well for groups of 10-50 people, ideally able to move around an open space.

 

On national Doughnuts:

• Exploring National Doughnuts. These web-based resources, curated by Andrew Fanning, DEAL's Research and Data Analysis Lead, set out the concept and measurement of national Doughnuts with an introductory video, presentation slide deck, and online interactive tools for exploring how a wide range of countries perform with respect to the Doughnut’s social and ecological boundaries.
• A Goodlife For All Within Planetary Boundaries. This data-rich interactive website - hosted by the University of Leeds - introduces the concept and methodology of nationally downscaled Doughnuts, and invites users to explore national doughnuts and charts for 150 countries.
• M. R. Gómez-Alvarez Díaz et al (2024), How close are European countries to the doughnut-shaped safe and just space? Evidence from 26 EU countries. Ecological Economics vol 221. This article assesses and visually compares all 26 EU countries against aggregated quantifications of the Doughnut's social and ecological metrics. 

On quantifying the feasibility of 'living well within limits': 

• J. Hickel (2019), Is it possible to achieve good lives for all within planetary boundaries? Third World Quarterly 40:1. This analysis draws on the database of national Doughnuts to argue that it would be feasible for low-income nations to move into the Doughnut, while necessitating a 40-50% reduction in the biophysical footprint of high-income nations to make it possible.
• J. Hickel and D. Sullivan (2024) How much growth is required to achieve good lives for all? Insights from needs-based analysis, World Development Perspective. Starting with a needs-based approach to development, this paper argues that the essential needs of all people could be met with around 30% of today's global energy and material demand, and that achieving this should be the focus of economic policymaking, entailing significant transformations of policy pathways required in both low- and high-income nations. 
• H. Schlesier et al. (2024), Measuring the Doughnut: A Good Life for All Is Possible within Planetary Boundaries. Journal of Cleaner Production 448: 141447. This article aims to quantify, for the first time, the feasibility of meeting basic human needs for over 8bn and 10bn people while remaining within planetary boundaries - and finds there is relatively high probability it could be possible, if accompanied by a global shift to fossil-fuel-free energy, near-vegan diets and no further crop expansion. 
• J.Vogel et al (2021), Socio-economic conditions for satisfying human needs at low energy use: an international analysis of social provisioning. Global Environmental Change. This article analyses data from 100+ countries to assess which socio-economic conditions might enable societies to satisfy human needs at low energy use - finding that factors such as public services, greater income equality, democracy, and access to electricity may play a significant role in doing so.

• J. Millward-Hopkins and Y. Oswald (2023), Reducing global inequality to secure human wellbeing and climate safety: a modelling study. Lancet Planetary Health, 7:2. This article explores how universal decent living could be achieved in a climate-safe, low energy-demand future, but only in a context of far greater equality, intra- and inter-nationally.

On Doughnut applied in practice:

• Integrating Doughnut Economics into Business Education. This tool created by DEAL introduces ideas and materials for incorporating Doughnut Economics into business education. 
• Doughnut Unrolled. These tools, created by DEAL, are designed for downscaling the Doughnut locally, whether for a neighbourhood or city, district or nation. 
• Examples of cities engaging with the Doughnut Unrolled tools and DEAL's report Cities and Regions Let's Get Started
• Examples of community groups engaging with DEAL's Doughnut Unrolled tools

Overview
The character at the heart of 20th century economics—‘rational economic man’—presents a pitiful portrait of humanity: he stands alone, with money in his hand, a calculator in his head, ego in his heart, and nature at his feet. Worse, when we are told that he is like us, we actually start to become more like him, to the detriment of our communities and the planet. Human nature is far richer than this, as emerging sketches of our new self-portrait reveal: we are reciprocating, interdependent, approximating people deeply embedded within the rest of the living world. It’s time to put this new portrait of humanity at the heart of economic theory so that economics can start to nurture the best of human nature. Doing so will give us—all ten billion of us to come—a far greater chance of thriving together.

Topics addressed in this section:
The historical creation of 'rational economic man' - WEIRD societies - five shifts in the portrait of humanity - isolated to interdependent - self-interest to prosocial - fixed preferences to fluid values - rational to heuristic - dominant over to dependent upon the living world - morals and markets - questions and reflections on the emerging portrait.

GET STARTED

• Download the slide deck in Powerpoint or Googleslides. You are welcome to present or draw upon any sections or slides that are useful to your lecture or course. The speaker notes beneath each slide contain greater detail and sources, along with suggested activities and topics for discussion.
• Check the key reading and the deeper-dive resources below for possible pre-readings and activities to set for the students.

KEY READING:

• K. Raworth (2017), 'Doughnut Economics: seven ways to think like a 21st century economist'. This book is the introductory text for exploring the issues covered in these teaching materials. This current topic focuses on Chapter 3: Nurture Human Nature. 

DIVE DEEPER:
The following materials take a deeper exploration of the issues covered in the chapter. They include materials that are useful as preparation for teaching, and also articles, books, videos and podcasts for students to explore.

On the creation of rational economic man:

• M. Morgan (2012) The World in the Model (CUP), Chapter 4: Character Making. This book chapter gives an authoritative academic overview of the evolution of rational economic man, from Adam Smith to Milton Friedman.
• Economic man vs. Humanity: a puppet rap battle. This 7 minute animation, playfully critiques the traits of rational economic man; the lyrics can be downloaded and are fully referenced to historical materials.
• Nurture Human Nature: this 90 second animation swiftly summarises the contrast between rational economic man and humanity's more nuanced nature. 
• D. Urbina and A. Ruiz-Villaverde (2019) A critical review of Homo Economicus from five approaches, The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 78:1 This article critically reviews rational economic man from the perspective of behavioral economics, institutional economics, political economy, economic anthropology and ecological economics. 

On WEIRD societies:

• J. Henrich et al (2010) 'Most people are not WEIRD', Nature 466: 29 This journal article sets out the core thesis on WEIRD societies and recoginising that they represent the global minority. 
• J. Siliezar, 'How the West became WEIRD' Harvard Gazette, 2020. A 7 minute read article interviewing the anthropologist Jo Henrich on his research and findings. 
• 'What is WEIRD?' (2021) This is a 9 min video interview of Jo Henrich talking with Coleman Hughes about his research.
• Joseph Henrich on WEIRD societies. A concise 2 minute video summary of his findings

Exploring five shifts in the portrait of humanity:

1. Self-interest to prosociality:

• S. Bowles and H. Gintis (2011) A Cooperative Species: human reciprocity and its evolution, Princeton University Press. This book explores the notion of strong reciprocity in societies
• The Ultimatum Game. This 3 minute video explains the game and its insights into human motivations especially fairness versus utility.
• Superchickens: a National Geographic article interviewing William Muir on his study and findings. 
• M. Heffernan (2015) This 16 minute TED video focuses on the Superchicken study and implications for the world of work.
• D. Sloan Wilson et al. (2020). 'Core design principles for nurturing organisation-level selection', Scientific Reports 10. This journal article sets out Ostrom's 8 core design principles and argues that they are relevant in the formation of effective human groups across many domains. 
• D. Sloan Wilson et al 2023, Multilevel cultural evolution: from new theory to practical applications, PNAS 120:16. This paper explores the societal ramifications of multilevel selection at the level of culture, turning it into a general principle for understanding the effectiveness and dynamics of human organisation. 
• D. Sloan Wilson (2022) This 3 minute video clip concisely summarises Ostrom's 8 Core Design Principles
• David Sloan Wilson and David Bollier - a podcast on Prosocial behaviour and Commoning 
• F. de Waal (2019) Great apes and the gift of Empathy: a 3 minute animation
• The Evolution of Trust - a 30min clever online game for exploring game theory and pro-social behaviours, created by Nicky Case
• We Become What We Behold - a playful 5min online game by Nicky Case, showing how what the media focuses on reshapes our perceptions, values and behaviour. 

2. Fixed preferences to fluid values:

• How to Control What People Do: Propaganda. An 8 minute animation summarising the 1928 book on this topic by Edward Bernays on this topic. 
• Public Interest Research Centre (2011), The Common Cause Handbook. This report on universally recognised human values sets out Schwartz's wheel of universal values and explores how these can be actively nurtured in society
• Self-determination Theory. This wikipedia page gives a summary of SDT, a theory of human motivation and personality which explores intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, and focuses on the degree to which human behaviour is self-determined and self-motivated. 

3. Isolated to interdependent

• Salganik et al (2006), 'Experimental study of inequality and unpredictability in an artifical cultural market, Science 311:5762. This journal article presents research findings indicating that people's preferences are significantly influenced by knowing the preferences of others.
• T. Veblen, (1898), The Theory of the Leisure class. This is a pdf of Veblen's book, which includes his theory on conspicuous consumption in chapter 4.
• T. van Treeck,  Varieties of the rat race: conspicuous consumption in the US and Germany. This 19 minute video introduces conspicusous consumption and compares social norms and economic outcomes in the US, UK and Germany.  

• Thorstein Veblen and the theory of the leisure class. This 3 minute video clip concisely summarises Veblen's theory of conspicuous consumption.

4. Rational to heuristic

• D. Kahneman (2012) Thinking Fast and Slow (Penguin)
• Commonly recognised cognitive biases: this wikipage gives examples of many such biases
• H. Neth and G. Gigerenzer (2015) 'Heuristics: tools for an uncertain world'. In this book chapter the authors explain why heuristics are an effective tool for decision-making under uncertainty. 
• Gerd Gigerenzer on Bounded Rationality. This 6 minute video introduces the concept
• Gerd Gigerenzer on Heuristics. This 7 minute video introduces the concept and its application

5. Dominant over to dependent upon the living world:

• R. Wall Kimmerer (2013) Braiding Sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants (Penguin). This book contrasts the Western worldview of human-nature separation with an indigenous worldview of interconnectedness.
• Oren Lyons (2003) Our Mother Earth (pdf of essay)
• Oren Lyons - We are Part of the Earth - 8 minute video. In this video Lyons powerfully articulates a worldview in which humans are interdependent with all of nature. 
• Lyla June Johnston (2022) 3,000 year old solutions to modern problems, TEDx Kansas City, 29 September 2022. In this talk Lyla June demonstrates, contrary to the notion that 'Earth would be better off without humans' that indigenous societies act as a keystone species, cultivating gardens, creating abundance and ecosystem health.
• Christiana Figueres and Isabel Cavelier Advare (2024), Our Story of Nature. This miniseries podcast of 3 x 50 minute episodes features voices from many cultures and perspectives discussing humanity's disconnection and reconnection with the erst of the living world. 
• A. Stebbe (2020) Ecolinguistics: language, ecology and the stories we live by. (Routledge) This book explores the role of language and naming and its impact on our lived realities.
• H. Daly (2014) on three contrasting framings of economics and ecology. In this blogpost Daly contrast three alternative approaches to integrating economics and ecology.

On insatiability versus sufficiency

• J. Maynard Keynes (1930) Economic possibilities for our grandchildren. In this essay Keynes (wrongly) anticipates that human desires will reach a point of satiation within a few generations.
• S. Deweerdt (2022) Economists assume the desire for wealth is insatiable. What if they are wrong? Anthropology Magazine. This short article summarises experimental research indicating that people do not have insatiable desires. 
• J. Lage et al (2023) Citizens call for sufficiency and regulation - a comparison of European citizens assemblies and National Energy and Climate Plans, Energy Research and Social Science, vol. 104. This articles demonstrates that citizens assemblies call for significantly higher share of sufficiency policies than national governments propose to enact, as also discussed here.
• Unlimited wants, limited resources, a video lecture by Robert Skidelsky (2019), INET. In this 17min lecture Skidelsky explores Lionel Robbin's definition of economics as 'the science which studies behaviour as a relationship between unlimited wants and limited resources which have alternative uses'.

On morals and markets:

• M. Sandel (2012), What Money Can't Buy: the moral limits of markets (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• M. Sandel (2015) TED talk. In this 15 min video Sandel argues the importance of excluding market relations from some areas of social and civic life. 
• U. Gneezy and A. Rustichini (2000) ‘A Fine is a Price’, Journal of Legal Studies. This journal article documents research findings on the impact of daycare centres introducing fines for late parents. 
• Rode, J., Gómez-Baggethun, E. and Krause, T. (2015), Motivation crowding by economic incentives in conservation policy: a review of the empirical evidence, Ecological Economics 117, pp. 270–282. This paper systematically reviews empirical studies of the use of economic incentives in ecosystem conservation to assess the extent that this causes motivational crowding in or crowding out. 
  
  

Overview
In the 20th century, economic theory whispered a powerful message when it comes to inequality: it has to get worse before it can get better, and growth will eventually even things up. But extreme inequality, as it turns out, is not an economic law or necessity: it is a design failure. Twenty-first century economists recognize that there are many ways to design economies to be far more distributive of value and opportunity among those who help to generate it. And that means going beyond redistributing income to pre-distributing wealth, including through the design of cities and places, through the design of technology, and through the deep design of business.

GET STARTED

• Download the slide deck in Powerpoint or Googleslides. You are welcome to present or draw upon any sections or slides that are useful to your lecture or course. The speaker notes section under each slide contains narrative, explanation and sources on the slide contents.
• Check the key reading and the deeper-dive resources below for possible pre-readings and activities to set for the students.

KEY READING:

• K. Raworth (2017), 'Doughnut Economics: seven ways to think like a 21st century economist'. This book is the introductory text for exploring the issues covered in these teaching materials. This current topic focuses on Chapter 5: Design to Distribute. 

DIVE DEEPER:
The following materials take a deeper exploration of the issues covered in the chapter. They include materials that are useful as preparation for teaching, and also articles, books, videos and podcasts for students to explore.

On the history of the Kuznets Curve:

• S. Kuznets (1955) Economic growth and income inequality, American Economic Review, 14:1. In this classic article Kuznets sets out his hypothesis, along with many thoughtful caveats concerning his findings - caveats which were subsequently ignored as 'the Kuznets Curve' became a powerful political narrative.
• L. Cameron et al (2010) The Kuznets Curve, in M. Blaug and P. Lloyd (eds) Famous Figures and Diagrams in Economics, Edward Elgar. This book chapter gives an overview of the rise and widespread influence of the Kuznets Curve. 

On global and national trends in inequality - and why it matters:

• L. Chancel et al (2022) The World Inequality Report 2022. World Inequality Lab. This report provides an authoritative summary of global trends in income and wealth, with excellent graphics and analysis.
• R. Wilkinson and K. Pickett (2010) The Spirit Level: why equality is better for everyone, Penguin. This book draws on empirical evidence across many high-income countries to highlight the damaging effect of inequalities on a wide range of health and social outcomes. Richard Wilkinson's 2011 TED talk sets out the argument in 17mins. 
• T. Piketty (2022) A Brief History of Inequality, Harvard University Press. In this book Piketty summarises centuries of data within and between nations to reveal a 'rough march' towards more equitable societies, notwithstanding significantly widening inequalities in many HICs since the 1980s. 
• BBC News (2016) How much inequality is too much? Interview with four well-known economists. This short news article provides good quotes and differing perspectives for debate and discussion.

On redistributive and predistributive policies:

• L. Chancel et al (2022), World Inequality Report 2022, World Inequality Lab. See pp. 34-37. Analysis finds that countries with better pre-distributive policies achieve better redistributive outcomes. In others words, pre-distributive and redistributive policies are complements, not substitutes. 
• T. Piketty et al (2020) Predistribution vs. redistribution: evidence from France and the US, CEPR. This short article summarises research drawing on Piketty's long-term trend analysis of national income distributions to demonstrate the importance of pre-tax income inequalities in shaping post-tax outcomes.
• A. Bozio et al (2023) Predistribution vs. redistribution: evidence from France and the US, PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris. This working paper  gives an indepth and updated account of the above findings.
•  M. O'Neill (2019) Power, predistribution and social justice, Philosophy 95:1. This article explores the challenge of defining redistributive vs predistributive policies and suggests the most useful distinction lies in the objectives of the policy. 
• D. Amaglobeli and C. Thevenot (2022), Tackling inequality on all fronts, Finance and Development, IMF. This article summarizes the IMF's cross-country findings on the role of predistributive and redistributive fiscal policies in shaping national inequalities. 

On capital, wealth and power:

• M. Shotter and K. Koram (2024), Risks of Extreme Wealth, The Good Ancestor Movement and Patriotic Millionaires. This concise report explores seven ways in which extreme wealth is a threat to the wider world - such as through media, law, democracy and the economy.  
• G. Stevenson (2023) What is Wealth? and Why Rich People Get Richer, Gary's Economics. In these two short videos Gary Stevenson explains the difference between income and wealth, and the resulting dynamics of accumulation.

• K. Pistor (2019) The Code of Capital: how law creates wealth and inequality: Princeton University Press. This book provides an excellent overview of the role of legal systems in 'coding capital' to ensure it has priority, durability, universality and convertability. She presents the book's key findings in this series of 7 short videos on the Laws of Capitalism, created by INET. 
• Scene On Radio podcast, Capitalism. These 12 episodes explore the history, impacts of, and some alternatives to capitalism in a highly engaging way.
• M. Kelly (2023) Wealth Supremacy: how the extractive economy and the biased rules of capitalism drive today's crises, Penguin Random House. 
• I. Robeyns (2024) Limitarianism: the case against extreme wealth, Allen Lane. In this book Robeyns argues from economic, political and moral perspectives for an upper limit of $10m on the accumulation of wealth.
• J. Limberg and L. Seelkopf (2022) The historical origins of wealth taxation, Journal of European Public Policy, 29:5. This article analyzes the contexts in which nations have introduced wealth taxes, finding that economic recessions tend to be a key factor. 

On distributive design for business: 

• M. Kelly (2012) Owning our Future: journeys to a generative economy (Berrett Koheler) This books sets out a simple yet powerful framework for understanding how extractive vs regenerative enterprise is designed through its purpose, membership, governance, finance and networks. 

• Integrating Doughnut Economics into Business Education. This tool, created by DEAL, introduces many ideas and materials for incorporating Doughnut Economics into business education. 
• E. Sahan et al (2023) What Doughnut Economics means for Business: creating enterprises that are regenerative and distributive by design. This paper presents DEAL's approach to enterprise transformation, focused on how distributed forms of ownership and governance can unlock many social and ecological benefits.
• Common Trust and Purpose Foundations (2024) Assets In Common. This book and website documents how to build purpose-driven enterprises in the US that are based on shared ownership and steward ownership. 

On community wealth-building:

• The Democracy Collaborative, Community Wealthbuilding. This webpage and report presents many concepts and US-based examples of CWB in practice.
• M. Brown and R. Jones (2021) Paint your town red, Repeater Books. This book tells the story of how the UK city of Preston began pioneering community wealth building through local council procurement policies and enabling local enterprise ownership. 
• Cooperation Jackson. This website documents the creating of a solidarity economy in Jackson, Mississippi, rooted in cooperatives and worker-owned enterprises. This 32min video documents their story.
• M. Lacey-Barnacle et al (2023) Community wealth building in an age of just transitions, Energy Policy 172. This journal article documents the rise of community wealth building as a strategy in multiple nations and the diversity of strategies it embraces, while seeking to build alignment with concurrent initiatives for just transition. 

On distributive design in urban contexts:

• K. Lang (2024) Vienna's co-housing model offer a key to keeping families in the city, Financial Times. This article tells the story of a co-housing development in Vienna and its implications for families end community.
• G. Biassette (2024) Exploring Mexico City's real-life 'utopias' at the heart of the metropolis, La Croix, 18 June 2024. This short article explores the project of '100 utopias' in low-income districts of Mexico City - projects of 'public luxury' that distribute opportunity for wellbeing, with more photographs from The Alternative. 
• J. Sadik-Khan and S. Solomonow (2016) Street Fight: handbook for an urban revolution, Penguin. This book tells the story of how Janette Sadik-Khan, as New York City's transport commissioner, transformed streets and public space for cyclists, pedestrians and the commons. She recounts the story in this 2016 33min public lecture. 
• A. Zilliacus (2016) Half a house builds a whole community: Elemental's controversial social housing, ArchDaily, 24 October 2016. This short article introduces the 'half-house' concept of Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena which has expanded the affordability of homeownership. Aravena has since also made the architectural plans distributive by design, sharing them open source. 

On distributive design and technologies:

• J. Rifkin (2015) The Zero Marginal Cost revolution, Griffin Books. In this book Rifkin argues that the rapid rise of distributed and 'nearly free' technologies will help drive an Internet of Things, a shift to access over ownership, prosumers and horizontal supply chains, and an 'eclipse of capitalism'. He summarises the message in this 58min DLD lecture.
• Fab City Global Initiative. This website documents the movement for cities to produce (almost) everything they consume, using distributed technologies towards a vision of cosmolocal production. The Fab City White Paper summarises the approach.
• Wikihouse. This website sets out Wikihouse's modular approach to building that thinks global, builds local, using open source design and distributed technologies to constructe low-carbon low-impact buildings, anywhere. See also this article on their work and this library constructed in rural China.

• How degrowth will reshape technology, podcast interview with Jason Hickel, 27 June 2024, discussing the implications of putting technology at the service of human needs.

On addressing global inequalities: 

• J. Hickel (2017) The Divide: a brief guide to global inequality and its solutions, Penguin. In this wide-ranging book Hickel documents how the current scale of global inequality is rooted in the history and design of the global economic system which integrates low income countries on profoundly unequal terms. He summarises the arguments in this 60min Talk at Google.  
• G. Zucman (2024) A blueprint for a coordinated minimum effective taxation standard for ultra-high-net-worth individuals, Report Commissioned by the Brazilian G20 Presidency. This report makes the case for a 2% minimum tax on billionaires, and sets out the importance and the feasibility of introducing such a policy. 
• A. Cobham et al (2020) The state of global tax justice 2020, Tax Justice Network. This report provides a data-rich analysis of the state of global tax havens and initiatives to counter them. The Tax Justice Network website has many excellent additional resources.

• Speech by Mia Motley, Prime Minister of Barbados, on debt and inequality, United Nations, April 2024. In this 12min speech PM Motley makes a powerful case for ending the inequitable impacts of the current international finance and debt regime. 
• K. Perry (2021) The new 'bond-age', climate crisis and the case for climate reparations: Unpicking old/new colonialities of finance for development within the SDGs, Geoforum 126 (2021): 361-371. This article presents the ways in which current climate finance creates new forms of coloniality and argues for climate reparations that can address both historic inequities and contemporary climate impacts.

• Rethinking Economics International (2023) Climate reparations teaching pack. This webpage provides a slide deck, readings and other resources for lecturers and students seeking to bring climate reparations into classroom teaching and discussion. 
• ActionAid (2023) The Vicious Cycle: connections between the debt crisis and climate crisis. Johannesburg. 
• UNCTAD (2024) A world of debt: a growing burden to global prosperity, UNCTAD: Geneva
• A. Fanning and J. Hickel (2023), Compensation for Atmospheric Appropriation. Nature Sustainability 6(9): 1077–1086. This article quantifies the financial compensation due from high-income to low-income nations, based on their appropriation of shared atmospheric space through their excessive CO2 emissions.
• M. Folly et al (2024) Strengthening citizen participation in global governance, Coalition for a Global Citizens Assembly.This paper sets out the case for establishing a permanent, globally representative citizens assembly as one step towards democratizing global governance.  
• A. Mohseni-Cheraghlou (2022) Democratic challenges at Bretton Woods institutions, Atlantic Council. This article documents the extent to which representation in contemporary institutions of global governance continues to be based on the post-WWII context, resulting in profound inequities of voice and representation.

Overview
To the alarm of governments and financiers, forecasts for GDP growth in many high-income countries are flat-lining, opening up a crisis in growth-based economics. Mainstream economics views endless GDP growth as a must, but nothing in nature grows forever, and the economic attempt to buck that trend is raising tough questions in high-income but low-growth countries. That’s because today we have economies that need to grow, whether or not they make us thrive. What we need are economies that make us thrive, whether or not they grow. That radical flip in perspective invites us to become agnostic about growth and to explore how our economies—which are currently financially, politically and socially addicted to growth—could learn to live with or without it.

Topics addressed in this section:
The concept of GDP growth - the 20th century rise of GDP as a policymaking priority - contemporary social and ecological dilemmas of pursuing growth - introducing concepts of green growth, post growth and degrowth - the debate over decoupling: concepts and evidence - green-growth policy proposals and challenges - post-growth/ degrowth policy proposals and challenges - 'between a rock and a hard place'. 

GET STARTED

• Download the slide deck in Powerpoint or Googleslides. You can present or draw upon any sections or slides that are useful to your lecture or course. Speaker notes under each slide give further explanation, narrative and sources.
• Check the key reading and the deeper-dive resources below for possible pre-readings and activities to set for students.

KEY READING:

• K. Raworth (2017), 'Doughnut Economics: seven ways to think like a 21st century economist'. This book is the introductory text for exploring the issues covered in these teaching materials. This current topic focuses on Chapter 7: Be Agnostic about Growth. 

DIVE DEEPER:
The following materials take a deeper exploration of the issues covered in the chapter. They include materials that are useful as preparation for teaching, and also articles, books, videos and podcasts for students to explore.

On national Doughnut analyses

• A Goodlife for all within Planetary Boundaries. This data-rich website introduces the concept and methodology of nationally downscaled Doughnuts, along with a database of results for over 150 countries.

• Exploring National Doughnuts.This video created by Andrew Fanning of the DEAL Team gives a valuable introduction and overview of the national doughnuts database.

 
On advocating green growth and its policies

• N. Bradley (2024) The growth and opportunity imperative for America, US Chamber of Commerce. This short memo by the US Chamber of Commerce usefully epitomizes the strongly pro-growth argument of mainstream US business. 
• A. Terzi (2022) Growth for Good: reshaping capitalism to save humanity from climate catastrophe (Harvard). This book argues that continual growth is imperative for renewing capitalism, maintaining democratic stability, and achieving decarbonisation. See Terzi present the core thesis in this 50min video lecture.

• E. Lonergan and C. Sawyers (2022) Supercharge Me: net zero faster, (Agenda Publishing) This short book makes the case for EPIC policies - extreme positive incentives for change - in speeding the adopting of low-carbon technologies. Hear them present their argument in this 30min podcast.

• S. Sharpe (2023) Five Times Faster: rethinking the science, economics and diplomacy of climate change. (Cambridge University Press) This book sets out an agenda for supercharging the decarbonisation of economies in ways, Sharpe argues, that are compatible with continued economic growth. See a summary of his thesis in this 30min video presentation. 

• H. Ritchie (2024) Not the End of the World: how we can be the first generation to build a sustainable planet, Vintage Books. This book argues that we should be optimistic about the possibility of solving the world's major environmental challenges, and can do so hand in hand with continued economic growth. See Ritchie present her core thesis in this 60min podcast.
• K. Young (2016) Ecologically sustaniable growth is possible: an interview with Robin Hahnel, TruthOut. In this online interview Hahnel argues that decoupling is feasible and green growth possible. 

On green growth vs post growth debates:

• 'Green growth vs Degrowth: how to save the planet?' video of Jason Hickel and Sam Fankhauser in debate, moderated by Kate Raworth, ECI Oxford, 2022 (90mins)
• T. Jackson and P. Victor (2019) Unravelling the claims for (and against) green growth, Science 366:6468. This short article critically explores the arguments made for green growth in light of current evidence.

• 'Is green growth the future?' interview article and 38min podcast of Kate Raworth and Sam Fankhauser in debate for Prospect Magazine, 2023.

On interpreting evidence of GDP and resource decoupling: 

• H. Richie (2021) 'Many countries have decoupled economic growth from CO2 emissions', Our World In Data.This article is optimistic about GDP-CO2 decoupling, arguing that it is already underway.

• S. Singh (2024) 'The relationship in growth between GDP and CO2 has loosened; it needs to be cut completely'. This short commentary is based on analysis by the International Energy Agency, updated to 2022. It usefully shows relative / absolute decoupling by regions, though this is production-based and the analysis does not quantify the scale of the gap between current and sufficient absolute decoupling.

• J. Vogel and J. Hickel (2023) Is green growth happening? An empirical analysis of achieved versus Paris-compliant CO2-GDP decoupling in high-income countries, Lancet Planetary Health, 7:9.This article argues that the rate of decoupling to date is very far from sufficient, and is very unlikely to be achieved at the speed and scale required.

• T. Vadén et al (2020) Decoupling for ecological sustainability: a categorisation and review of research literature, Environmental Science and Policy vol 112.This article surveys the literature and concludes that CO2 decoupling is very far from sufficient, and resource decoupling has barely begun.

• T. Parrique (2023) Presentation at the May 2023 Beyond Growth conference. In this 10min video Parrique argue for the impossibility of green growth.

On degrowth and postgrowth

• P. Victor (2023) Escape from Overshoot (New Society) This is a much-needed textbook introduction to post-growth perspectives, models and policies. Hear his core thesis in this 45min video lecture. 

• J. Hickel (2020) What does degrowth mean? A few points of clarification. Globalisations 18:7 This article gives a clear definition of the meaning of degrowth by one of its best known advocates. 
• E. Remblance (2024) Introduction to Degrowth. This deck of 38 slides gives a concise introduction to motivations and policies of degrowth, including many graphics and quotes from leading scholars. 

• T. Jackson (2021) Post Growth: life after capitalism (Polity Press) This book combines philosophical reflections and social vision to imagine a post-growth post-capitalist future. 
• E. Gómez-Baggethun and J. Manuel-Naredo (2015) In search of lost time: the rise and fall of limits to growth in international sustainability policy, Sustainability Science 10: 385-395 This paper traces the evolution of international policy debates on growth and its limits since the 1970s, highlighting how discourse and framing has evolved. 

• J. Hickel (2021) Less is More: how degrowth can save the world (Penguin) This book sets out a compelling rationale, vision and agenda for degrowth. See Hickel's presentation of its core message in this 13min video. 

• M. Schmeizer et al (2022) The Future is Degrowth: a guide to a world beyond capitalism (Verso) This book sets out an in-depth and rigorous exploration of critiques of growth and an agenda for degrowth.

• F. Sultana (2023) 'Whose growth in whose planetary boundaries? Decolonising growth in the Anthropocene', Geography and Environment, vol 10: 2. This article critiques contemporary economic growth in the context of planetary boundaries by centring climate justice and Global South perspectives. 
• O. De Schutter (2024), Eradicating poverty beyond growth, report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, United Nations General Assembly, 1 May 2024. This report challenges the global fixation on GDP growth as a means to address poverty and calls for policies that achieve a human rights economy within planetary boundaries. 
• C. Marquis (2024) In Defense of Degrowth, Harvard Business Review. This article challenges the green growth community to face up to some myths around the hope of 'sustainable growth' and take the degrowth movement's analysis seriously.

• N. Hagens (2020) Economics for the future: beyond the superorganism, Ecological Economics 169. This article gives a concise big-picture overview of humanity's predicament in this unique 'carbon-pulse' era.

• K. Trebeck and J. Williams (2019) The Economics of Arrival: ideas for a grown-up economy (Polity Press) This book explores policies for adapting to post-growth economics in high-income countries.
• D. Holemans et al (2024) Enough: thriving societies beyond growth, Green European Foundation. This short book proposes 8 policies for creating a post-growth wellbeing economy in Europe.

On policies for a post-growth / degrowth future:

• J. Hickel et al (2022) Degrowth can work: here's how science can help, Nature 612, 400-403 (2022) This article proposes a range of post-growth/ degrowth policies for high-income countries - a useful starting point for discussion. 

• N. Fitzpatrick et al (2022) ‘Exploring degrowth policy proposals: a systematic mapping with thematic synthesis’ Journal of Cleaner Production. This article gives a very useful synthesis of the many policies themes proposed in pursuit of degrowth.

• C. Durand et al (2024) Planning beyond growth: the case for ecological democracy within ecological limits, Journal of Cleaner Production vol 437. This article recognises that, if degrowth is - by definition - to be a planned process, then far greater attention needs to be paid to how such planned reduction might come about. 

• S. Novkovic and T. Webb, eds. (2014) Co-operatives in a post-growth era (Zed Books) This book shows how cooperatives can conduct business with purpose primacy and so not contribute to a growth imperative

• R. Robert (2022) Unpicking growth's triple lock (7min article) This short blog explores some challenging growth dependencies and possible solutions
• R. Wouters et al (2024) Geopolitics of a post-growth Europe, Green European Foundation. This concise essay, with accompanying interviews, explores the geopolitical challenges Europe would face in pursuing post-growth policies, confronting the dilemmas and proposing possible solutions.