Scientists tend to be pretty sniffy about economists: economics seems like the pseudo-science which explains anything after it happens and yet predicts nothing about to happen. So why would anyone want to think like an economist? And yet economics is about values and about what sort of world we want to live in – something on which science is rather poorly equipped to comment.
I enjoyed this book very much. It’s a very accessible but intellectually satisfying read. Much good use is made of diagrams such as the one of a ring doughnut on the book’s cover. We need to live in the ring doughnut: the smaller circle representing a floor of economic activity which ensures that human needs are met, and the outer circle representing the limits to economic activity set by maintaining the environment. The doughnut is a safe and just place for us to live.
Of course it’s a bit more complicated that that in reality but the doughnut is the stepping off point for the book and a destination for human life. It’s a a good start and a good destination in this good book.
We aren’t living in the doughnut at the moment as our species as a whole is living beyond the outer ring of the doughnut and yet too many people are simultaneously living below that inner ring. Draw that!
This book is just what environmental campaigners need to feel confident to shout ‘That’s nonsense!’ at the next economist they hear talking on the radio. It is a clear guide to why traditional economic thinking helped to get us into this mess and how it is unlikely to help us out of it. And it is quite fun too.
Doughnut economics: seven ways to think like a 21st-century economist by Kate Raworth is published by Penguin.
Remarkable Birds by Mark Avery is published by Thames and Hudson – for reviews see here.
Inglorious: conflict in the uplands by Mark Avery is published by Bloomsbury – for reviews see here.
Behind the Binoculars: interviews with acclaimed birdwatchers by Mark Avery and Keith Betton is published by Pelagic – here’s a review and it’s now out in paperback.
I heard Kate Raworth discussing her book on Radio 4’s Start the Week a while back. It was extremely interesting and made a great deal of sense.
Sounds like a good book. Does it point out that living within the doughnut depends not just on our consumption but also on how many children we have?