As attention moves to the lifting of the pandemic lockdown, there’s been lots of discussion about not going back to life as it was but building back better. One concept that’s been taking hold in response to COVID-19 is the principle developed by Oxford economist Kate Raworth of doughnut economics.
In her 2017 book, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist, Raworth lays out a model that jettisons the idea of constant economic growth and instead focuses on the minimum each of us need to live a good life – such clean water, sanitation, housing and education – and how that can be achieved whilst also living within our planetary means. Keeping within each of these boundaries is seen as ‘living inside the doughnut’:
Many economists and media commentators are embracing the concept. But the city of Amsterdam is now actually adopting doughnut economics as part of its recovery plan in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. Raworth’s principles are to be used to guide public policy decisions, identifying where residents’ basic needs are not being met – but also where planetary boundaries are being exceeded.
Priorities in the city’s plan, Amsterdam Circular Strategy 2020-2025, include ensuring affordable housing and jobs, revamping recycling programs, and cutting food waste. It also includes ambitious goals to cut use of raw materials in half by 2030 and phase them out completely by 2050.
Read more here: Amsterdam to embrace ‘doughnut’ model to mend post-coronavirus economy
One typical challenge in balancing the doughnut is how to meet Amsterdam’s new housing stock needs (about a fifth of tenants can’t afford rent) without overshooting its pollution targets. That requires using recyclable materials as much as possible in housing construction and accounting for carbon emitted in the production of those materials, wherever they come from in the world. Rather than focusing on the outcome for one city or country, thinking of the global implications of every economic action is key.
Some economists have criticized Raworth’s thinking, arguing that the ambitious programmes to meet social needs and protect the environment can’t be achieving without funding from massive economic growth. Yet her principles are now also being explored by other cities including Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Portland, Oregon.
Doughnut economics turns conventional economic thinking on its head. But maybe this is the scale of ambition and new thinking we need to achieve a new normal that’s worth pursuing.
Who are the groups/contacts in those two cities who are leading this charge?