Global Citizenship
Module 3
Doughnut Economics
11 Courses
Global Prosperity Beyond GDP Platform: FutureLearn Institution: University College London Started: 01/01/2018 Finished: 02/02/2018 Exploring Economics: Will the Next Generation Be Worse Off? Platform: FutureLearn Institution: Griffith University Started: 02/01/2017 Finished: 03/02/2018 Earth Economics Platform: Coursera Institution: Erasmus University Rotterdam Started: 28/02/2023 Finished: The Global Financial Crisis Platform: Coursera Institution: Yale University Started: 05/07/2016 Finished: 02/09/2016 The Power of Microeconomics: Economic Principles in the Real World Platform: Coursera Institutions: University of California, Irvine Started: 13/10/2015 Finished: 15/08/2016 The Power of Macroeconomics: Economic Principles in the Real World Platform: Coursera Institution: University of California, Irvine Started: 15/08/2016 Finished: 17/05/2017 The Politics of Economics and the Economics of Politicians Platform: FutureLearn Institution: University of Nottingham Started: 12/04/2017 Finished: 21/04/2017 Understanding economic policymaking
Trade, Immigration and Exchange Rates in a Globalized World
International Business I Platform: Coursera Institution: University of New Mexico Started: 19/01/2016 Finished: 02/02/2016 International Business II Platform: Coursera Institution: University of New Mexico Started: 02/02/2016 Finished: 12/03/2016
8 Books
Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist Author: Kate Raworth Publisher: Random House Audiobooks Published: 2017 Started: 11/05/2018 Finished: 27/06/2018
Economics: The User's Guide Author: Ha-Joon Chang Publisher: Pelican Published: 2014 Started: 19/09/2014 Finished: 17/01/2016
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created Author: Charles C. Mann Publisher: Random House Audio Published: 2011 Started: 22/07/2017 Finished: 01/11/2017
The Worldly Philosophers Author: Robert L. Heilbroner Publisher: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster (NY) Published: 1972 Started: 01/08/2017 Finished: 07/09/2017
Capital in the Twenty-First Century Author: Thomas Piketty Publisher: Audible, Inc Published: 2014 Started: 16/06/2020 Finished: 22/05/2021
Debt: The First 5,000 Years Author: David Graeber Publisher: Gildan Media, LLC Published: 2015 Started: 29/01/2021 Finished: 29/05/2021
Debt or Democracy: Public Money for Sustainability and Social Justice Author: Mary Mellor Publisher: Pluto Press Published: 2015 Started: 26/02/2020 Finished: 17/05/2020
Utopia for Realists: The Case for a Universal Basic Income, Open Borders, and a 15-hour Workweek Author: Rutger Bregman Publisher: The Correspondent Published: 2016 Started: 11/08/2016 Finished: 06/05/2017
“Acknowledging the difficulties involved in changing the economic status quo should not cause us to give up the fight to create an economy that is more dynamic, more stable, more equitable and more environmentally sustainable than what we have had for the last three decades. Yes, changes are difficult, but, in the long run, when people fight for them, many ‘impossible’ things happen. Just remember: 200 years ago, many Americans thought it was totally unrealistic to argue for the abolition of slavery; 100 years ago, the British government put women in prison for asking for votes; fifty years ago, most of the founding fathers of today’s developing nations were being hunted down by the British and the French as ‘terrorists’.
As the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci said, we need to have pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will.“
Ha-Joon Chang, Economics: The User’s Guide, 2014:460
Economics has a fundamental influence on our long-term and day-to-day lives. In many ways, the global economy is the beating heart of human civilization. If it is not kept in good health, the whole planet suffers.
As much as I wanted to use my postgraduate studies as an opportunity to gain a full-fledged education in politics, I also wanted to use it to gain a solid understanding in the production, consumption and transfer of wealth.
However, I wanted to study economics from a progressive and constructive point-of-view. This led me to Kate Raworth’s masterful Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist, a book and economic philosophy so impressive, I named this module after it.
Doughnut Economics presents the case for a new economic paradigm shaped like a doughnut. The doughnut provides for every person’s basic needs while also safeguarding the living world on which we all depend.
“Below the Doughnut’s social foundation lie shortfalls in human well-being, faced by those who lack life’s essentials such as food, education and housing. Beyond the ecological ceiling lies an overshoot of pressure on Earth’s life-giving systems, such as through climate change, ocean acidification and chemical pollution.
Between these two sets of boundaries lies a sweet spot – shaped unmistakably like a doughnut – that is both ecologically safe and socially just space for humanity. The twenty-first century task is an unprecedented one: to bring all of humanity into that safe and just space.“
Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a Twenty-First Century Economist, 2018:44-5
Using the doughnut as my economics compas, not only pointed me in the right direction for making the world a more fair and just society, but its radicalism encouraged me to jump back and examine the successes and failings of classical and neoliberal economic thinking.