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Rethinking economics movement - Kate Raworth

22/12/2020

2 Comments

 
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Humanity’s 21st century challenge is to meet the needs of all within the means of the planet. In other words, to ensure that no one falls short on life’s essentials (from food and housing to healthcare and political voice), while ensuring that collectively we do not overshoot our pressure on Earth’life-supporting systems, on which we fundamentally depend – such as a stable climate, fertile soils, and a protective ozone layer.

The idea and model of Doughnut Economics
promoted and popularised by Kate Raworth is a scientifically-founded metaphor to help us think about how we can live sustainably on the planet (see figure).The environmental or ecological ceiling consists of nine planetary boundaries, as set out by Rockstrom et al, beyond which lie unacceptable environmental degradation and potential tipping points in Earth systems - the systems all life depends on. The twelve dimensions of the social foundation are derived from internationally agreed minimum social standards, as identified by the world’s governments in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. Between social and planetary boundaries lies an environmentally safe and socially just space in which humanity can thrive.

Doughnut Economics Synthesis 

The inner ring of the doughnut represents the basic needs of flourishing human society - which we often fall short of. The outer ring represents the limits of planetary resource use - which we often overshoot. The gap in-between the rings is the zone where we should be aiming for - what Raworth calls "the safe and just space for humanity", powered by a "regenerative and distributive economy".  In all Raworth's graphs this looks as if it may be a decently-sized zone to occupy. The trick of it is understanding that to meet all the factors of "social foundation" does not mean intensifying consumer society to the max. Beyond a certain level of income and consumption, our sense of satisfaction flatlines out, no matter how much more we earn and buy. If we grasp that, and answer our social needs in a non-conventional way, we can easily live "inside the ring of the doughnut". 

The inner ring of the doughnut represents the basic needs of flourishing human society - which we often fall short of. The outer ring represents the limits of planetary resource use - which we often overshoot. The gap in-between the rings is the zone where we should be aiming for - what Raworth calls "the safe and just space for humanity", powered by a "regenerative and distributive economy". 

In all Raworth's graphs this looks as if it may be a decently-sized zone to occupy. The trick of it is understanding that to meet all the factors of "social foundation" does not mean intensifying consumer society to the max. Beyond a certain level of income and consumption, our sense of satisfaction flatlines out, no matter how much more we earn and buy. If we grasp that, and answer our social needs in a non-conventional way, we can easily live "inside the ring of the doughnut". 

Raworth presents us with an inspiring target. But a study from the authoritative science magazine Nature (which is based on an impressive project from Leeds University) indicates just how far away from managing to live within the doughnut the vast majority of countries currently are. (Assuming, that is, their present ways of using resources don't improve). 

I really like this powerful advocacy for changing our view of growth economics.  "If we are going to do this we need to change the conversations in our parliaments about what the economy is and what its for and how it works and what success is."

Sources

Rockström, J., W. Steffen, K. Noone, Å. Persson, F. S. Chapin, III, E. Lambin, T. M. Lenton, M. Scheffer, C. Folke, H. Schellnhuber, B. Nykvist, C. A. De Wit, T. Hughes, S. van der Leeuw, H. Rodhe, S. Sörlin, P. K. Snyder, R. Costanza, U. Svedin, M. Falkenmark, L. Karlberg, R. W. Corell, V. J. Fabry, J. Hansen, B. Walker, D. Liverman, K. Richardson, P. Crutzen, and J. Foley. 2009. Planetary boundaries:exploring the safe operating space for humanity. Ecology and Society 14(2): 32. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss2/art32/

The Alternative UK https://www.thealternative.org.uk/dailyalternative/2018/3/7/living-in-the-doughnut-slm59




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Emergent thinking for a world in rapid but unsustainable formation

22/12/2020

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 I reconise that whenever I encounter a new thought/idea it triggers a process in which that idea keeps emerging and connecting with other thoughts and opening new possibilities. New ideas encounter a context and the right context will provide an environment in which I devote time and energy. So the context is trying to breathe more energy and purpose into Lifewide Education. In the last few months, with the help of our small supporters group we have undertaken a review of what we have achieved in the last 10 years and then tried to imagine how we might sustain our enterprise into the future. Like any organisation we have tried to create a vision of our future that we share and we have codified this vision in a 2 page statement that we can share. 
lifewide_education_vision___strategy.pdf
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The changes we are planning in our own activities are quite small – pragmatically they reflect the resources we have and our capacity to affect the world as it exists now. But we also realise that what we do now affects the future and so we are positioning our agency and the products of our work within an expanded vision of the way the world is evolving. We are seeing our modest efforts in the contexts of the powerful forces that are affecting the very sustainability of humanity, the ecosystems that enable all life on the earth. We are aligning our own moral purpose to encourage holistic concepts of learning and the fundamentally ecological nature of learning, to the need for humanity to learn how to learn and behave in a way that sustains the world that has yet to come into existence.  In order to do this we need to connect to and combine our modest efforts with more powerful national and international organisations. 


 
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Why is a picture is worth a thousand words?

8/12/2020

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They say a picture is worth a thousand words because of its power to convey complex relational and conceptual information that is easier and quicker to comprehend than by reading the written words. Sometimes there is also a poetry in a picture that connects us emotionally with the subject. I started my professional life as a geologist – a subject in which diagrams are often used to capture the dynamics of processes. I carried on making good use of diagrams when I became interested in educational theory.

I recently came across an invitation from Beau Lotto / labofmisfits to provide examples of artistic activities that changed perceptions. The first thing that came into my mind were the diagrams I create to convey complex meanings. This year I have been developing a visual aid or tool to explore different aspects of creativity. The well known and much referenced 4C model of creativity developed by James Kaufman and Ron Beghetto1 is provided as a textual description. Turning their words into a conceptual picture creates a visual aid that is much easier to understand. The diagram or map can be used to explore (play with) ideas, different questions and perspectives in a far more efficient and effective way than by words alone. A diagram like this is also a tool to encourage playful and exploratory thinking: it provides a framework within which ideas can be located, connected, related and communicated.
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​Last October while participating in an inquiry into learning ecologies in Harvard Universities Learning Innovations Laboratory I met a graphic facilitator called Sita Magnuson. I was impressed with the way she turned my talk into a narrative picture on the wall. I kept in touch and since then she has drawn a number of illustrations for me. I am quite capable of drawing a diagram in word or power point but the hand drawn illustrations she creates are far more interesting and poetic. She kindly produced the centre image in the panel and I was then able to derive a family of conceptual images using a combination of paint, snipping tool, powerpoint and lunapic software which I have used in my talks, articles and social media posts. 

In the last week we have had some stunning sunsets. So beautiful that I would not know how to begin to describe them and how they fill me with wonder. Its a wonderful illustration of why a pitcture is worth a thousand words.

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    Purpose

    To develop my understandings of how I learn and develop through all parts of my life by recording and reflecting on my own life as it happens.
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