00:00:28.560 --> 00:00:33.920
This economic system is utterly
mismanaging our planetary home.

00:00:35.520 --> 00:00:38.640
We are destroying the life
supporting systems

00:00:38.760 --> 00:00:42.000
of the only known
living planet in the universe.

00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:50.080
So this system is not working
and we need to transform it

00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:55.480
so that our economy enables us
to belong and thrive on planet earth.

00:01:35.080 --> 00:01:38.360
"Change the system, not the climate"

00:01:38.360 --> 00:01:41.720
is a common demand
in the climate movement.

00:01:43.640 --> 00:01:46.880
But what does systemic change
actually mean?

00:01:53.400 --> 00:01:57.320
How can we transform the dysfunctional
system that we have today

00:01:57.320 --> 00:02:02.960
to one that can be of service
to both people and the planet?

00:02:05.601 --> 00:02:06.398
Thank you!

00:02:06.400 --> 00:02:08.360
We are going to meet economic thinkers

00:02:08.480 --> 00:02:11.400
who try to find answers
to these questions.

00:02:11.480 --> 00:02:15.080
I am an associate senior lecturer
in Human Ecology.

00:02:15.320 --> 00:02:17.040
When you're an ecological economist,

00:02:17.040 --> 00:02:20.000
you're trying to study the interaction
between the economy and nature.

00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:24.520
We will explore new economic models
and theories:

00:02:25.760 --> 00:02:28.520
Doughnut economics, degrowth,

00:02:28.720 --> 00:02:30.520
economic democracy,

00:02:30.600 --> 00:02:34.680
participatory economy
and the Not-for-Profit World.

00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:37.800
You need to have the grassroots.

00:02:37.840 --> 00:02:41.240
They represent the seeds
of a radically different economy.

00:02:41.320 --> 00:02:44.880
BRAC is a development organization
that was founded in Bangladesh.

00:02:46.160 --> 00:02:51.160
We will visit companies, grassroots
organizations and municipalities

00:02:51.280 --> 00:02:54.480
that are trying to play their part
in this large transition.

00:02:56.120 --> 00:02:58.240
Can we imagine alternative systems?

00:03:04.280 --> 00:03:05.840
Yes, new economic thinking.

00:03:05.920 --> 00:03:08.560
Not just thinking, new economic doing.

00:03:08.720 --> 00:03:10.600
Let's put this into practice.

00:03:32.520 --> 00:03:38.200
The challenges humanity faces today
are immense and complex.

00:03:41.280 --> 00:03:46.720
The effects of climate change and biodiversity
loss are getting more and more severe

00:03:46.880 --> 00:03:50.480
and are already affecting
millions of people around the globe.

00:03:52.720 --> 00:03:58.000
Traditional economic theories have treated
the environment as an externality,

00:03:58.160 --> 00:04:03.120
something that is external to the price
agreement between consumer and producer,

00:04:03.240 --> 00:04:08.440
and therefore it has been
left out of the calculation.

00:04:12.040 --> 00:04:17.000
This means we find ourselves talking about
the ongoing death of much of the living world,

00:04:17.200 --> 00:04:21.160
economists would say "Yes, yes, that's
what we call an environmental externality."

00:04:21.400 --> 00:04:24.440
Well, I'm sorry if we're going to talk
about the death of the living world

00:04:24.560 --> 00:04:29.320
as an environmental externality,
that is information enough to me

00:04:29.560 --> 00:04:33.320
that this framework does not
work for our times.

00:04:33.480 --> 00:04:36.080
The death of the living world
is not an externality.

00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:40.520
It is the foundation of all life
on which everything depends,

00:04:40.640 --> 00:04:43.640
including, of course,
the success of an economy.

00:04:43.760 --> 00:04:46.920
So we need to overthrow that framing
and start somewhere else.

00:04:54.360 --> 00:04:56.760
But where should we start?

00:04:57.080 --> 00:05:00.080
What other frameworks are there?

00:05:04.640 --> 00:05:11.120
A common misunderstanding is that there are only
two ways to organize an economy.

00:05:13.480 --> 00:05:16.600
If you're against the system we have,
you're a communist.

00:05:16.640 --> 00:05:18.240
Which is like...

00:05:18.280 --> 00:05:24.200
Choosing an economic system is not a multiple
choice questionnaire with two answers.

00:05:24.320 --> 00:05:26.880
It's more like picking a movie on Netflix.

00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:31.080
You have everything available and you
could have like an infinity of other systems.

00:05:31.080 --> 00:05:32.800
We just need to invent them.

00:05:33.040 --> 00:05:37.520
So I think today what we need
is not one theory to rule them all

00:05:37.760 --> 00:05:40.400
and just to replace mainstream economics.

00:05:40.480 --> 00:05:42.720
We just need to realize that

00:05:42.840 --> 00:05:46.000
this transition we're talking about
is so complex

00:05:46.200 --> 00:05:49.440
that it will require
interdisciplinary thinking.

00:05:51.840 --> 00:05:54.640
We can invent whatever economy we want.

00:05:54.760 --> 00:05:57.120
Anything that has been
socially constructed,

00:05:57.240 --> 00:06:00.240
can be socially deconstructed.

00:06:04.480 --> 00:06:07.120
So if there are other ways,

00:06:07.640 --> 00:06:15.160
how can we design a system that works
for both people and the environment?

00:06:16.800 --> 00:06:19.800
One person who has
given this a lot of thought

00:06:19.960 --> 00:06:25.240
is Kate Raworth, creator of Doughnut Economics.

00:06:27.840 --> 00:06:31.920
So I worked for many years at
the United Nations and with Oxfam,

00:06:32.160 --> 00:06:36.360
working on issues of human rights,

00:06:36.520 --> 00:06:38.720
workers rights in global supply chains,

00:06:38.840 --> 00:06:44.080
working on issues of protecting the environment,
stopping climate change.

00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:47.880
And then one day I saw a diagram
which had been drawn up

00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:51.600
by some earth system scientists, in fact
led by a Swedish scientist

00:06:51.720 --> 00:06:54.280
who I know is very well known,
Johan Rockström.

00:06:54.520 --> 00:06:59.440
And this diagram was a circle showing
that there were nine planetary boundaries,

00:06:59.520 --> 00:07:03.520
nine life supporting systems
for planet earth that keep this

00:07:03.680 --> 00:07:06.920
delicately balanced,
living planet in a stable state

00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:09.000
that's so benevolent to humanity,

00:07:09.160 --> 00:07:15.080
but that we were already overshooting
multiple of these planetary boundaries.

00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:24.960
A few examples of the planetary boundaries

00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:30.560
are climate change,
freshwater use and ocean acidification.

00:07:37.160 --> 00:07:41.440
Sitting at my desk in Oxfam,
I was struck by this diagram.

00:07:41.520 --> 00:07:42.600
It hit me

00:07:44.080 --> 00:07:50.080
that economics needs to be practiced
within that circle.

00:07:50.480 --> 00:07:55.000
We need to create economies that work
within the planetary boundaries.

00:07:55.080 --> 00:07:56.760
That seems so obvious.

00:07:57.440 --> 00:07:59.400
But at the same time
I was thinking, well,

00:07:59.480 --> 00:08:01.920
if there's an outer limit of pressure that

00:08:02.080 --> 00:08:05.120
human economies
should put on this planet,

00:08:05.520 --> 00:08:09.040
for each person, there's also an inner
limit of resource use

00:08:09.400 --> 00:08:12.040
that's required to meet our human rights.

00:08:12.120 --> 00:08:15.120
And so inside their circle,
I drew a second circle

00:08:15.200 --> 00:08:17.200
and it turned into a doughnut.

00:08:21.320 --> 00:08:24.880
So put it in the simplest of terms,
here's the goal of the doughnut:

00:08:25.280 --> 00:08:28.720
Leave no one falling short on the essentials
of life in the hole in the doughnut,

00:08:28.840 --> 00:08:30.760
but don't overshoot

00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:35.240
the life supporting systems
of this delicately balanced living planet.

00:08:36.040 --> 00:08:38.760
And when we start there,
with that as our goal,

00:08:39.520 --> 00:08:41.800
the shape of progress
is utterly transformed.

00:08:41.880 --> 00:08:45.200
It's not never ending growth,
it's balance.

00:08:45.360 --> 00:08:48.160
It's finding that balance
between the social foundation

00:08:48.240 --> 00:08:51.120
and the ecological ceiling of the doughnut.

00:08:51.880 --> 00:08:53.280
Thriving in balance,

00:08:53.360 --> 00:08:55.200
that's where health lies.

00:08:55.320 --> 00:08:58.960
And I believe this is the shape
of progress for the 21st century.

00:09:12.840 --> 00:09:18.120
The challenge here is if this is progress
and the state of balance,

00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:21.000
we are very far from that right now,

00:09:21.200 --> 00:09:22.840
as all of the red
in this picture shows.

00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:27.720
This, I call it the selfie of humanity
and our planetary home.

00:09:28.120 --> 00:09:31.920
Billions of people in the world are
falling short on the essentials of life.

00:09:32.400 --> 00:09:35.480
11% of people worldwide
don't have enough food to eat every day.

00:09:35.560 --> 00:09:39.600
So this little red wedge goes 11%
of the way to the center of the circle.

00:09:39.880 --> 00:09:42.680
We want to eliminate all of the red,

00:09:42.920 --> 00:09:46.400
so that nobody is left
falling short on the essentials of life.

00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:48.680
But we've got to do that while recognizing

00:09:48.760 --> 00:09:52.640
that we've already overshot
multiple planetary boundaries.

00:09:57.640 --> 00:10:00.640
Today, a worldwide movement has emerged,

00:10:01.160 --> 00:10:04.480
where changemakers across the globe
come together

00:10:04.760 --> 00:10:07.360
through the Doughnut Economics Action Lab,

00:10:07.920 --> 00:10:12.000
turning the ideas of the doughnut into action.

00:10:17.640 --> 00:10:22.840
Several cities in the world
have passed legislation to implement the model.

00:10:23.760 --> 00:10:29.760
Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Melbourne
are a few examples.

00:10:34.920 --> 00:10:37.760
We are going to visit
a newly started initiative

00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:40.800
in a small town in the south of Sweden,

00:10:41.880 --> 00:10:42.881
Tomelilla.

00:10:44.840 --> 00:10:49.400
This is the first place in Sweden to work
with the doughnut model.

00:12:16.920 --> 00:12:18.600
Look at your wildland next door.

00:12:18.680 --> 00:12:21.800
What they mean is look around
Tomelilla and see what is...

00:12:21.920 --> 00:12:23.680
What do we have here?
We have maybe forests,

00:12:23.760 --> 00:12:26.840
I heard about wetlands or
maybe other types of...

00:12:27.120 --> 00:12:32.920
By starting with the rights of every person
and the integrity of the living planet.

00:12:33.120 --> 00:12:36.160
This just changes
the economic conversation.

00:12:36.320 --> 00:12:38.240
Because the first question we ask is:

00:12:38.360 --> 00:12:40.440
What kind of economy can we design,

00:12:40.560 --> 00:12:43.720
that will actually
bring humanity into this space?

00:12:44.040 --> 00:12:48.440
And it sets a completely different vision
for what success looks like.

00:13:14.040 --> 00:13:15.800
Economy.

00:13:16.640 --> 00:13:20.360
The word means household management.

00:13:21.720 --> 00:13:25.920
To manage scarce resources.

00:13:28.760 --> 00:13:34.200
But how well do we actually manage
our resources right now?

00:13:36.760 --> 00:13:39.840
An economy, and that's in the word,

00:13:39.960 --> 00:13:42.720
it's supposed to economize resources.

00:13:43.640 --> 00:13:47.200
Now, I look like I'm saying something
that should be obvious to anyone.

00:13:47.280 --> 00:13:48.281
But like,

00:13:49.200 --> 00:13:52.760
if your economy does not economize resources,

00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:54.920
then it's not working well.

00:13:55.200 --> 00:13:57.000
What does that mean
to economize resources?

00:13:57.080 --> 00:14:01.400
It means that year after year,
as we better organize together

00:14:01.520 --> 00:14:05.400
to have this thing we call an economy,
we should be able to work less.

00:14:05.760 --> 00:14:09.560
We should be able to safeguard
natural resources so we can have

00:14:09.720 --> 00:14:13.120
national parks and beautiful forests
instead of having to cut them down.

00:14:13.400 --> 00:14:17.240
So over years, we should see this economy
actually getting smaller,

00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:19.360
because it's getting more efficient.

00:14:19.760 --> 00:14:23.640
So we have to dedicate less
and less of our lives and natural resources

00:14:23.760 --> 00:14:26.840
to that very, you know, material thing,
that is the economy,

00:14:26.920 --> 00:14:30.080
which is just here to coordinate
the satisfaction of our needs.

00:14:30.200 --> 00:14:33.120
It's not like
the end purpose of civilization.

00:14:33.240 --> 00:14:37.240
Who cares about the economy?
It should be something peripheral in social life.

00:14:41.400 --> 00:14:44.840
The problem today is that
we've inverted this.

00:14:45.040 --> 00:14:48.800
We've considered the economy
the pinnacle of human civilization,

00:14:49.280 --> 00:14:51.960
and we tend to subordinate

00:14:52.080 --> 00:14:57.160
the social, the cultural, the political,
and especially the ecological

00:14:57.440 --> 00:14:58.720
to the economic.

00:14:59.760 --> 00:15:01.480
In the mainstream debate,

00:15:01.960 --> 00:15:06.520
a common position is to advocate
for so-called green growth.

00:15:08.120 --> 00:15:12.640
Statistically, there is a tight bond
between economic growth

00:15:12.880 --> 00:15:15.880
and increasing climate emissions.

00:15:18.880 --> 00:15:24.080
Proponents of green growth believe
that it's possible to disconnect these two

00:15:24.360 --> 00:15:26.720
so that the economy can keep growing,

00:15:26.920 --> 00:15:29.640
while the emissions go down.

00:15:30.400 --> 00:15:33.040
This is called decoupling.

00:15:33.160 --> 00:15:35.800
When I was a kid,
I believed in the Loch Ness Monster.

00:15:35.960 --> 00:15:38.720
I really liked this.
It was a nice story, but...

00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:40.760
At some point, growing up as an adult

00:15:40.880 --> 00:15:45.400
and facing the lack of evidence concerning
the existence of the Loch Ness Monster,

00:15:45.680 --> 00:15:47.000
I mean, I had to give it up.

00:15:47.080 --> 00:15:49.160
I think green growth is precisely
the same.

00:15:49.280 --> 00:15:53.440
It's a nice and appealing story
because it doesn't force you to

00:15:53.600 --> 00:15:55.200
change anything to the system.

00:15:55.320 --> 00:15:57.600
Just something, at some point
in the future

00:15:57.720 --> 00:16:00.600
will happen,
that will just green the economy.

00:16:00.680 --> 00:16:03.840
You will have just people,
profit, planet, everything,

00:16:03.920 --> 00:16:06.320
triple bottom line, win, win, win.

00:16:06.320 --> 00:16:08.360
You don't have to choose.
Everything is fine.

00:16:09.240 --> 00:16:12.240
All scientific evidence
we have on decoupling,

00:16:12.440 --> 00:16:15.480
and we're talking about around
900 empirical studies

00:16:15.560 --> 00:16:18.720
since the emergence of the term
in the 1990s,

00:16:18.920 --> 00:16:22.760
has shown us that this green growth

00:16:22.880 --> 00:16:26.240
politicians and corporate leaders believe in

00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:28.120
does not exist.

00:17:00.960 --> 00:17:04.360
And considering the gap between,
you know, the gains we're having

00:17:04.440 --> 00:17:08.000
and the gains scientists tell us
we should be having,

00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:11.880
to limit global warming
to 1.5 degrees, for example,

00:17:12.040 --> 00:17:15.680
that requires nothing less
than total systemic change.

00:17:47.200 --> 00:17:54.560
Degrowth is an idea that criticizes the
current system's need for constant growth.

00:17:55.400 --> 00:18:00.160
The degrowth movement is made up of
researchers and activists

00:18:00.400 --> 00:18:06.200
who advocate for societies that prioritize
social and ecological well-being

00:18:06.640 --> 00:18:12.600
over corporate profits, overproduction
and excess consumption.

00:18:15.520 --> 00:18:20.320
Timothée Parrique is an economist,
specialized in degrowth.

00:18:21.280 --> 00:18:25.440
We need another economic system
and we need it to be way smaller.

00:18:25.520 --> 00:18:28.480
So we need that process of degrowth
as a biophysical diet

00:18:28.560 --> 00:18:33.160
applied to rich, high income,
large GDP economies,

00:18:33.280 --> 00:18:36.880
so that they can reach a sustainable,
steady state,

00:18:37.080 --> 00:18:40.080
where these economies could prosper
without growth.

00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:49.520
It means that right now the goal
is to shrink the footprint,

00:18:49.720 --> 00:18:51.920
to stabilize it to a sustainable level.

00:18:52.280 --> 00:18:54.920
And then we'll be shifting to
a post-growth economy,

00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:56.880
where actually production will fluctuate.

00:18:56.960 --> 00:19:00.520
If there's a new need emerging
at some point, then we can produce more.

00:19:00.680 --> 00:19:04.440
We can mobilize a bit more of our time
and resources to match that need.

00:19:04.760 --> 00:19:06.480
But when that need is matched,

00:19:06.600 --> 00:19:09.600
or if we find new technologies
to produce more efficiently,

00:19:09.680 --> 00:19:14.040
then we can do what an economy is supposed
to do: economize resources.

00:19:15.840 --> 00:19:18.720
And you know, we can have,
instead of a 40 hours workweek,

00:19:18.800 --> 00:19:23.160
we can transition to a 30 hour workweek
and to a 20, into a 15...

00:19:23.240 --> 00:19:26.280
And I call that economic progress.

00:19:27.080 --> 00:19:27.838
An economist would be:

00:19:27.840 --> 00:19:28.840
"Oh my God, that's terrible.

00:19:28.920 --> 00:19:30.720
That's unemployment."

00:19:30.840 --> 00:19:34.160
But from our
community economics perspective,

00:19:34.240 --> 00:19:38.040
we would see that time
we managed to free

00:19:38.120 --> 00:19:40.160
means you can start a sports association.

00:19:40.280 --> 00:19:42.600
You can teach badminton
to kids in your neighborhood.

00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:48.560
You will be able to be more active in local politics,
which would enrich democracy.

00:19:48.720 --> 00:19:51.640
You would like volunteer to different NGOs.

00:19:51.720 --> 00:19:54.560
You would start to, you know, spend
more time with your neighbors,

00:19:54.640 --> 00:19:58.520
which would increase trust systems
in a specific city.

00:19:58.600 --> 00:19:59.760
You would do all these kinds of stuff

00:19:59.840 --> 00:20:03.800
that creates huge amount of value,
even though there's no money numbers on it.

00:20:05.560 --> 00:20:06.880
So when I look at this,

00:20:06.960 --> 00:20:11.080
I don't see like, just all of a sudden
the economy stops.

00:20:11.360 --> 00:20:12.960
No, the economy shifts.

00:20:15.880 --> 00:20:20.360
We would shift from this pursuit of
abstract monetary values

00:20:20.480 --> 00:20:25.200
to the pursuit of
concrete needs satisfaction.

00:20:26.520 --> 00:20:29.160
So we would be forced to ask ourselves

00:20:29.280 --> 00:20:31.800
the very deep question of political economy:

00:20:32.280 --> 00:20:35.200
What do we want to produce? And how?

00:20:35.320 --> 00:20:36.520
What do we value?

00:20:36.600 --> 00:20:38.160
What do we really need?

00:20:53.840 --> 00:20:57.840
Another important aspect
when talking about our economic system

00:20:58.280 --> 00:21:00.880
is the question of democracy.

00:21:02.600 --> 00:21:06.360
Who is actually governing
the economy today?

00:21:09.800 --> 00:21:12.360
The thing that you become
very clear about

00:21:12.440 --> 00:21:15.920
is that multinational corporations
control our global economic system

00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:18.640
and are governing our
global economic system and

00:21:19.440 --> 00:21:22.440
every government is just trying
to compete against one another

00:21:22.520 --> 00:21:26.560
to attract or appease these giants.

00:21:26.640 --> 00:21:31.320
And so we have a system now
where nearly every sector in the world

00:21:31.400 --> 00:21:34.720
is now controlled by less than a
handful of corporations.

00:21:35.160 --> 00:21:39.560
So the bigger a company becomes,
the more profit it can get.

00:21:39.640 --> 00:21:41.360
So there's a built-in incentive
for companies

00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:44.200
to become quite large and powerful.

00:21:44.320 --> 00:21:48.040
And there's also a built-in incentive
to use that wealth and power

00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:52.960
to influence policy in order
to protect the profits of the company.

00:21:53.120 --> 00:21:55.400
And we're seeing that as well
all over the world,

00:21:55.520 --> 00:21:59.880
that companies are investing
in lobbying politicians

00:22:00.120 --> 00:22:02.840
in order to get subsidies

00:22:02.920 --> 00:22:08.400
or fight down regulations and taxes
that would take away from their profit.

00:22:08.800 --> 00:22:14.560
And so we've got this state of what Oxfam
and others have called political capture.

00:22:17.480 --> 00:22:21.560
And we have these global legal instruments,

00:22:21.640 --> 00:22:23.920
I don't know if you're familiar with the ISDS,

00:22:24.000 --> 00:22:26.480
the investor state dispute settlement system.

00:22:27.240 --> 00:22:29.480
It sounds like it would be super boring.

00:22:29.560 --> 00:22:30.960
And I think that's intentional,

00:22:31.080 --> 00:22:37.400
because it is a clause that is written into
hundreds, like all of the trade agreements

00:22:37.480 --> 00:22:39.200
and bilateral investment agreements

00:22:39.480 --> 00:22:43.520
that allow for multinational corporations
to sue governments

00:22:43.800 --> 00:22:48.440
for the right to impose any policy
that might infringe on their profits.

00:22:48.880 --> 00:22:51.320
Ecuador, for example, got sued

00:22:51.440 --> 00:22:55.280
for the right to not drill in the Amazon,

00:22:55.720 --> 00:22:59.440
and they had to pay the equivalent
of their entire health budget

00:22:59.560 --> 00:23:02.880
for the right not to do that because they
had signed on to these agreements.

00:23:02.960 --> 00:23:08.040
And it makes you realize that we have
this global economic architecture

00:23:08.440 --> 00:23:11.600
that is working in service
of multinational corporations

00:23:11.720 --> 00:23:14.280
that could be used to actually
hold them accountable,

00:23:14.400 --> 00:23:16.080
but we're not using it that way.

00:23:16.160 --> 00:23:20.200
For me, that political capture
is something that's very prevalent

00:23:20.280 --> 00:23:21.800
and very clear

00:23:21.920 --> 00:23:25.640
and the sort of the limited policy space
that a lot of governments

00:23:25.720 --> 00:23:28.440
even have for sort of economic
self-determination.

00:23:28.520 --> 00:23:30.840
Let alone the people, and the communities

00:23:30.960 --> 00:23:33.600
that are really trying to just have
a voice over their livelihoods.

00:24:34.800 --> 00:24:39.880
A recurring idea when talking to
economic thinkers about systemic change

00:24:40.040 --> 00:24:43.520
is that the economy needs to become
more democratic.

00:24:44.920 --> 00:24:48.240
Where and by whom should
decisions be made?

00:24:48.640 --> 00:24:52.120
What resources should we use,
and for what?

00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:58.400
Today these decisions are often made
in closed boardrooms of large companies,

00:24:58.520 --> 00:25:03.000
with little to no possibility
for influence from the general public.

00:25:03.760 --> 00:25:08.000
These decisions could instead
be made democratically,

00:25:08.240 --> 00:25:11.920
by the people who are affected
by these decisions.

00:25:16.440 --> 00:25:19.160
Economic democracy is a concept

00:25:19.240 --> 00:25:22.640
that proposes to shift
decision-making power

00:25:22.720 --> 00:25:25.320
from corporate managers and shareholders,

00:25:25.400 --> 00:25:28.800
to a larger group that
includes workers, customers

00:25:28.880 --> 00:25:31.880
and the broader public.

00:25:34.120 --> 00:25:36.600
We're seeing the rise and return
of cooperatives,

00:25:36.720 --> 00:25:40.200
of employee-owned companies,
who then have a lot of voice

00:25:40.280 --> 00:25:43.640
in the governance,
in the decision-making of the board.

00:25:43.760 --> 00:25:46.920
To me, this is a really good example
of economic democracy

00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:50.720
that can arise up from the systems
we've inherited,

00:25:50.920 --> 00:25:54.760
but transforming how things are owned
and governed and financed

00:25:54.880 --> 00:25:56.600
brings back that democratic voice.

00:25:59.800 --> 00:26:05.440
Economic democracy is a theoretical framework
with many different branches.

00:26:05.800 --> 00:26:09.800
There are different ideas about the market
and what parts of society

00:26:09.880 --> 00:26:14.280
should be under democratic control and not.

00:26:16.360 --> 00:26:23.640
A common denominator is that companies
should be governed by their employees.

00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:28.600
We are going to visit
an employee-owned company

00:26:28.680 --> 00:26:31.400
in Sweden, called Tjeders.

00:27:49.600 --> 00:27:52.600
In larger companies,
we can see economic democracy

00:27:53.080 --> 00:27:57.120
beginning to come into play
of bringing the workers voice,

00:27:57.200 --> 00:28:01.200
the union voice, into the board,
into governance, into decision-making.

00:28:01.280 --> 00:28:03.160
We can also bring in the voice of nature.

00:28:03.280 --> 00:28:05.240
How can nature have a seat at the table?

00:28:05.360 --> 00:28:07.880
How can future generations
have a seat at the table?

00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:11.040
So that things are governed
not only for the short-term interests

00:28:11.160 --> 00:28:14.360
of the financial owners,
but for the long term interests

00:28:14.440 --> 00:28:18.520
of society, of the workers,
of the living world.

00:30:16.760 --> 00:30:21.000
One branch of economic democracy
that goes further than the others,

00:30:21.160 --> 00:30:24.240
is called participatory economy.

00:30:24.920 --> 00:30:27.360
It proposes to replace the market

00:30:27.520 --> 00:30:32.160
with a participatory, decentralized
planning process.

00:30:33.840 --> 00:30:38.440
Participatory economy is unusual
as an alternative

00:30:38.520 --> 00:30:40.480
to capitalism and central planning,

00:30:40.600 --> 00:30:45.120
precisely because it does try to
propose a third way

00:30:45.240 --> 00:30:48.440
between markets and central planning

00:30:48.560 --> 00:30:52.280
to get the business of economics done.

00:30:52.880 --> 00:30:56.520
Reconciling supply and demand

00:30:57.800 --> 00:31:01.680
in a different, participatory way

00:31:01.760 --> 00:31:04.600
that puts workers,

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:07.720
as both producers and consumers,

00:31:07.840 --> 00:31:11.360
front and center in the
decision-making process.

00:31:13.120 --> 00:31:15.120
There is a need in any economy

00:31:15.200 --> 00:31:17.880
to balance aggregate supply and demand,

00:31:18.000 --> 00:31:20.560
to figure out what goods
need to be produced

00:31:20.640 --> 00:31:22.480
and where they need to get to.

00:31:25.720 --> 00:31:27.920
In a participatory economy,

00:31:28.120 --> 00:31:30.520
there would be a recurring
planning procedure.

00:31:32.560 --> 00:31:37.080
Such a procedure is coordinated by
consumer councils

00:31:37.240 --> 00:31:38.760
that express what is needed

00:31:38.920 --> 00:31:41.240
and worker councils that propose

00:31:41.320 --> 00:31:44.000
what they can produce.

00:31:47.480 --> 00:31:48.920
This information,

00:31:49.600 --> 00:31:52.040
what they want to produce and consume,

00:31:52.200 --> 00:31:55.160
is then compiled by a facilitation group

00:31:55.280 --> 00:31:58.120
and the prices of products are calculated

00:31:58.200 --> 00:32:00.240
and sent back to the councils,

00:32:00.440 --> 00:32:03.280
who then revise their suggestions.

00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:07.480
This process is repeated
over several rounds

00:32:07.640 --> 00:32:10.640
until a plan is attained.

00:32:13.000 --> 00:32:14.560
It's producing data

00:32:14.680 --> 00:32:19.840
based on what people say they want to do
and what they want to consume

00:32:20.240 --> 00:32:23.360
and it's producing the data
in a format

00:32:23.440 --> 00:32:28.040
that allows workers
to see the big picture, right,

00:32:28.120 --> 00:32:30.760
to allow them
to make an informed decision.

00:32:31.280 --> 00:32:35.160
What we have managed to do
is to figure out

00:32:35.560 --> 00:32:37.880
how could this process,

00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:40.760
of workplaces proposing
what they want to do,

00:32:40.920 --> 00:32:43.680
neighborhoods proposing
what they want to consume,

00:32:43.800 --> 00:32:48.920
how could this process arrive
at a feasible plan,

00:32:49.040 --> 00:32:53.880
where everybody could finally do
what their final proposal says?

00:32:54.360 --> 00:32:59.680
And under what conditions
would that feasible plan be efficient?

00:32:59.800 --> 00:33:04.160
Would it use the scarce, productive
resources in the economy efficiently?

00:33:05.400 --> 00:33:07.280
So you need a mechanism

00:33:07.440 --> 00:33:11.160
that is going to adjust pricing,

00:33:11.320 --> 00:33:14.920
which is basically just a quantified way of

00:33:15.120 --> 00:33:19.040
attaching social and labor costs
to things

00:33:19.240 --> 00:33:21.960
and ecological costs to things.

00:33:22.080 --> 00:33:23.760
So you need a way to do that,

00:33:23.880 --> 00:33:27.640
that's not relying on markets,

00:33:27.920 --> 00:33:35.400
because markets systematically
misvalue crucial prices.

00:33:40.200 --> 00:33:42.920
And so a participatory planning mechanism

00:33:43.040 --> 00:33:47.640
is designed to reconcile
these kinds of things in a way that

00:33:47.800 --> 00:33:52.360
values people's actual interests
and needs and desires,

00:33:52.760 --> 00:33:56.000
instead of maximizing the profits

00:33:56.080 --> 00:33:59.000
of an owning class or shareholders.

00:34:01.680 --> 00:34:03.840
It allows people to participate

00:34:03.920 --> 00:34:06.800
in the way that makes sense to them.

00:34:07.000 --> 00:34:10.200
They're making decisions
about what affects them the most,

00:34:10.320 --> 00:34:13.800
what goes on in their workplace,
what goes on in their neighborhoods.

00:34:14.360 --> 00:34:16.280
And that's an important thing
because for us,

00:34:16.360 --> 00:34:18.160
economic self-management

00:34:18.400 --> 00:34:22.600
is having input
or decision-making power

00:34:22.720 --> 00:34:27.240
about decisions to the degree
you're affected by those decisions.

00:34:27.880 --> 00:34:30.320
Some decisions affect us all,

00:34:30.480 --> 00:34:33.440
but a lot of decisions affect
some people a lot more than others.

00:34:33.680 --> 00:34:34.597
And that's the trick.

00:34:34.600 --> 00:34:37.600
How do you actually manage
to at least approximate

00:34:37.680 --> 00:34:41.440
decision-making input in accord
with how much people are affected?

00:34:41.520 --> 00:34:43.280
So that was part of the motivation

00:34:43.360 --> 00:34:46.760
for proposing the planning work
the way that we proposed.

00:34:47.720 --> 00:34:50.200
We were also taking into account,

00:34:50.720 --> 00:34:53.920
workers have been discouraged
from time immemorial.

00:34:54.240 --> 00:34:57.560
Not just in capitalism.
In feudalism and slave systems.

00:34:58.760 --> 00:35:00.680
People have lived, you know,

00:35:00.760 --> 00:35:04.720
in complex human societies for eons now.

00:35:05.160 --> 00:35:10.000
And we wanted to take that
historic legacy into account

00:35:10.080 --> 00:35:13.200
when designing our proposal
for how things would be done.

00:35:14.120 --> 00:35:16.040
To make it painfully obvious,

00:35:16.120 --> 00:35:17.440
this is really different.

00:35:27.480 --> 00:35:31.880
Another aspect that is key
when redesigning a system

00:35:32.600 --> 00:35:34.600
is equality.

00:35:39.960 --> 00:35:42.800
One thing that we need to bear in mind

00:35:42.880 --> 00:35:45.800
is that in this globalized world,

00:35:45.960 --> 00:35:50.560
we have these deep and embedded
structures of inequality

00:35:50.880 --> 00:35:55.200
that come about from historical processes
such as colonialism,

00:35:55.320 --> 00:35:58.200
but are continued and perpetuated today

00:35:58.280 --> 00:36:02.400
through the very economic
system that we have.

00:36:04.480 --> 00:36:07.640
There's a recent Oxfam report that
came out that shows that

00:36:07.720 --> 00:36:12.040
ten men, ten billionaires, doubled their
wealth during the pandemic

00:36:12.120 --> 00:36:16.080
while 99% of humanity
was left worse off.

00:36:16.600 --> 00:36:19.000
And this is also showing that this is not:

00:36:19.200 --> 00:36:22.000
"Oh, we're all growing
and some people are accumulating more."

00:36:22.080 --> 00:36:25.960
It's like, no, some people are making more
at the expense of everyone else.

00:36:27.240 --> 00:36:29.840
They have yachts and private jets

00:36:29.920 --> 00:36:32.800
and several homes
and even private islands.

00:36:32.920 --> 00:36:37.200
While we have, I think the last time
I looked at the statistics,

00:36:37.280 --> 00:36:42.320
it was 800 million people who aren't
even having their basic nutritional needs met.

00:36:43.800 --> 00:36:49.920
We constantly hear that we don't have enough food
to feed the world's population.

00:36:50.240 --> 00:36:54.680
But the reality is
we do actually have enough food.

00:36:54.760 --> 00:36:57.960
It's a lot about how is that food distributed,

00:36:58.280 --> 00:36:59.960
how much that food costs,

00:37:00.160 --> 00:37:03.560
what food we choose to eat and where,

00:37:03.840 --> 00:37:06.880
and those issues we need to tackle first.

00:37:07.040 --> 00:37:10.040
And then actually
we might have more than enough food

00:37:10.120 --> 00:37:12.480
for everyone who exists in this world.

00:37:19.600 --> 00:37:24.080
So why do we have such inequality
in the world now?

00:37:24.360 --> 00:37:25.920
According to one theory,

00:37:26.160 --> 00:37:30.160
a force that is driving inequality
is the profit motive,

00:37:30.520 --> 00:37:36.000
which is the ruling principle of companies
and other financial institutions today.

00:37:38.520 --> 00:37:40.720
The Not-for-Profit World proposes

00:37:40.800 --> 00:37:43.920
to remove the profit motive and replace it

00:37:44.120 --> 00:37:46.880
with a social benefit purpose.

00:37:49.120 --> 00:37:52.960
Jennifer Hinton is one of the
creators of the model.

00:37:54.840 --> 00:37:58.800
The model I've been working on
for the past ten years or so,

00:37:58.880 --> 00:38:01.240
we call it the Not-for-Profit World model,

00:38:01.360 --> 00:38:06.320
and it's basically a model of a
not-for-profit market economy.

00:38:07.000 --> 00:38:11.120
So in the for-profit way
of organizing the economy,

00:38:11.200 --> 00:38:14.800
the purpose of economic institutions
like businesses and banks

00:38:14.880 --> 00:38:18.800
and financial institutions,
is to enrich their owners,

00:38:18.960 --> 00:38:22.640
to seek financial gain
for private investors and owners.

00:38:22.800 --> 00:38:27.880
And so that's one of the key purposes
embedded in these institutions.

00:38:31.000 --> 00:38:34.040
A not-for-profit market economy,
on the other hand,

00:38:34.120 --> 00:38:37.240
would have the key purpose
of social benefit.

00:38:37.360 --> 00:38:41.600
Of meeting people's needs
and even meeting environmental needs.

00:38:41.720 --> 00:38:43.760
And so that difference in purpose

00:38:43.880 --> 00:38:46.440
really changes the structure
of the economy

00:38:46.520 --> 00:38:50.840
and accordingly the outcomes
and the consequences of the economy.

00:38:53.560 --> 00:38:55.440
It would be a market

00:38:55.520 --> 00:38:58.240
that is selling goods and services

00:38:58.320 --> 00:39:00.200
to meet people's needs,

00:39:00.280 --> 00:39:03.040
but again, needs can be fulfilled.

00:39:03.120 --> 00:39:04.800
So there's this ethic of enough.

00:39:04.880 --> 00:39:06.960
There's a constant sort of monitoring

00:39:07.040 --> 00:39:09.760
of the needs and challenges in the community

00:39:09.840 --> 00:39:12.160
and whether people have enough or not.

00:39:12.240 --> 00:39:13.280
So once we have enough,

00:39:13.360 --> 00:39:15.800
maybe we don't have to produce more
goods and services,

00:39:15.880 --> 00:39:17.920
maybe we don't have to sell more stuff.

00:39:18.000 --> 00:39:21.240
We can sort of have this
"steady state" economy,

00:39:21.320 --> 00:39:25.280
or even a shrinking economy
if we've sort of gone too far.

00:39:32.120 --> 00:39:36.560
The Not-for-Profit World is based on
existing types of businesses,

00:39:37.200 --> 00:39:38.760
not-for-profit companies,

00:39:39.000 --> 00:39:42.400
sometimes called social enterprises.

00:39:43.040 --> 00:39:47.600
These companies have a social benefit purpose
as their driving force

00:39:47.920 --> 00:39:51.440
and all of the surplus goes
towards this mission.

00:39:54.080 --> 00:39:55.520
We're going to visit BRAC,

00:39:55.800 --> 00:39:59.120
one of the largest NGOs in the world.

00:39:59.920 --> 00:40:03.400
BRAC owns several social enterprises.

00:40:03.720 --> 00:40:06.040
Some of the things that they
produce and sell are

00:40:06.120 --> 00:40:10.640
artisanal clothes, dairy products
and seeds.

00:40:14.240 --> 00:40:18.240
BRAC is a development organization
that was founded in Bangladesh,

00:40:18.320 --> 00:40:22.640
but we now work in about 14 countries
outside of Bangladesh as well.

00:40:23.960 --> 00:40:27.160
The way BRAC, we look at social enterprises,

00:40:27.320 --> 00:40:30.640
first of all,
it has to solve a social problem.

00:40:31.000 --> 00:40:34.000
It's there to make social impact.

00:40:34.280 --> 00:40:36.760
Our social enterprises make surpluses

00:40:36.840 --> 00:40:41.760
and we reinvest 50% in the growth
of the social enterprise itself.

00:40:41.880 --> 00:40:46.840
So we retain 50%
and we give 50% to BRAC.

00:40:47.080 --> 00:40:50.840
And BRAC then uses it
for its development programs

00:40:51.040 --> 00:40:54.520
or to pilot or innovate a new idea.

00:40:54.680 --> 00:40:57.920
So it spends the money
in its development programs.

00:41:04.840 --> 00:41:06.640
So we are not here to sort of

00:41:06.720 --> 00:41:10.560
sell products, make money,
and therefore produce where it makes sense

00:41:10.640 --> 00:41:13.080
or where it makes
the most financial benefit

00:41:13.160 --> 00:41:15.880
or sell things
that have the highest margin.

00:41:15.960 --> 00:41:19.000
We take these decisions based on

00:41:19.280 --> 00:41:21.360
who we are trying to support.

00:41:22.920 --> 00:41:28.120
Over 65,000 artisans are dependent
for their livelihood on our own,

00:41:28.240 --> 00:41:33.160
and all of our decisions, we have to navigate
so that their interests

00:41:33.240 --> 00:41:38.280
and what we really want to do,
our mission is always intact.

00:41:47.960 --> 00:41:51.320
People, often coming from the private sector,

00:41:51.400 --> 00:41:54.200
when they come and work in social enterprises,

00:41:54.280 --> 00:41:56.000
something changes within them.

00:41:56.120 --> 00:41:58.840
And people who are sort of arguing
with me, you know,

00:41:58.920 --> 00:42:03.000
when they first joined about,
you know, "Okay, why don't we do this?

00:42:03.360 --> 00:42:06.720
You know, why don't we import
milk powder and sell more?

00:42:06.840 --> 00:42:09.680
Because, you know,
instead of... you know,

00:42:09.760 --> 00:42:12.360
because milk is cheaper now
in the global market,

00:42:12.440 --> 00:42:15.440
it's cheaper than collecting
from the smallholder farmer."

00:42:15.520 --> 00:42:18.120
And then now the same person

00:42:18.200 --> 00:42:20.720
is talking about how

00:42:20.960 --> 00:42:24.160
we need to sort of, you know, build our,

00:42:24.240 --> 00:42:27.520
collect from more smallholder farmers,
go to more remote areas,

00:42:27.600 --> 00:42:31.640
a complete change in sort of the person's
thinking and understanding

00:42:31.720 --> 00:42:34.320
and therefore action and decision.

00:42:34.840 --> 00:42:37.840
And it's absolutely fascinating to see.

00:42:43.000 --> 00:42:46.200
We would have much more equality
in a not-for-profit type of economy

00:42:46.400 --> 00:42:50.320
because we wouldn't have private owners
accumulating wealth from businesses

00:42:50.440 --> 00:42:53.800
and we wouldn't have the built-in
incentive to keep wages low.

00:42:54.680 --> 00:42:56.360
There wouldn't be a built-in incentive

00:42:56.440 --> 00:42:59.120
to expand consumption
and production constantly

00:42:59.200 --> 00:43:01.200
to deliver profit to owners.

00:43:01.680 --> 00:43:06.600
So it would align much better
with redistributional taxes

00:43:06.720 --> 00:43:09.040
and environmental protection regulations

00:43:09.120 --> 00:43:12.360
and regulations to protect workers,
for instance.

00:43:12.480 --> 00:43:15.000
So it could actually serve to solve

00:43:15.080 --> 00:43:18.880
a lot of the problems that we're
facing today in a very systemic way

00:43:19.080 --> 00:43:21.360
by changing the goal and structure
of the economy.

00:43:26.960 --> 00:43:30.240
In a Not-for-Profit World,
there would still be a market,

00:43:30.480 --> 00:43:33.480
but it would play a smaller part
in society.

00:43:34.800 --> 00:43:37.000
The size of the market would be determined

00:43:37.080 --> 00:43:42.360
by how to best meet everyone's needs
within ecological limits.

00:43:44.880 --> 00:43:51.800
Unlike now, enterprises would not feel
an inherent pressure to grow.

00:44:12.680 --> 00:44:19.480
It's not always easy to approach
the large and complex topic of economics.

00:44:21.240 --> 00:44:24.320
How can we make it more accessible?

00:44:57.920 --> 00:44:58.797
And that's why for me,

00:44:58.800 --> 00:45:01.640
a lot of my passion is around trying to
demystify the economy

00:45:01.680 --> 00:45:05.280
and really making it clear that,
like, we are the economy,

00:45:05.360 --> 00:45:09.080
you have a right and a responsibility
to have an opinion on it, right,

00:45:09.160 --> 00:45:12.320
and you should be engaged in these
sort of decision-making processes.

00:45:12.400 --> 00:45:16.280
Because so often,
it's riddled with a lot of jargon

00:45:16.400 --> 00:45:19.600
and a lot of really complex ideas
that can feel really intimidating

00:45:19.680 --> 00:45:22.320
and therefore as if it's
beyond the scope of influence.

00:45:27.680 --> 00:45:31.960
We have looked at different
economic models and concepts:

00:45:32.840 --> 00:45:37.240
The Not-for-Profit World,
economic democracy, doughnut economics,

00:45:37.400 --> 00:45:40.440
degrowth, participatory economy.

00:45:42.040 --> 00:45:44.840
All of these models
have a lot in common,

00:45:45.440 --> 00:45:48.080
but they also differ in some aspects

00:45:49.240 --> 00:45:51.200
and they are not the only ones.

00:45:51.960 --> 00:45:53.680
There are a myriad of examples

00:45:53.760 --> 00:45:56.080
popping up everywhere right now.

00:45:58.000 --> 00:45:59.400
Collaborative economy,

00:45:59.640 --> 00:46:03.320
solidarity economy,
regenerative economy,

00:46:03.760 --> 00:46:06.920
community wealth building,
positive money,

00:46:07.680 --> 00:46:10.000
economy for the common good.

00:46:11.720 --> 00:46:15.520
One organization that has tried
to gather many different perspectives

00:46:15.600 --> 00:46:18.120
and ideas under one umbrella

00:46:19.000 --> 00:46:21.880
is the Wellbeing Economy Alliance.

00:46:26.240 --> 00:46:28.640
The Wellbeing Economy Alliance, or WEAll,

00:46:28.760 --> 00:46:31.680
started about four years ago now

00:46:31.760 --> 00:46:35.280
and it was originally a group
of a lot of like new economic thinkers

00:46:35.520 --> 00:46:40.720
that were working in doughnut economics
or regenerative economy

00:46:40.840 --> 00:46:43.400
or circular economy, degrowth, post growth,

00:46:43.480 --> 00:46:46.400
like a lot of these different
conceptual ideas,

00:46:46.520 --> 00:46:50.800
and who recognized that there was more
that unites us than divides us,

00:46:51.920 --> 00:46:54.520
but that if we're really going to

00:46:54.720 --> 00:46:57.640
build this alternative paradigm
and mainstream it

00:46:57.880 --> 00:47:02.240
then it's really important
that there's more collaboration.

00:47:03.400 --> 00:47:06.560
The thing that unites us is a
recognition that we have to stop

00:47:06.720 --> 00:47:09.520
treating people and planet
like they're here to serve the economy

00:47:09.640 --> 00:47:12.520
and start treating the economy
like it's here to serve us.

00:47:12.680 --> 00:47:15.880
And so that sort of shift,
just in terms of our understanding

00:47:16.000 --> 00:47:18.960
of the economy, is what connects us.

00:47:19.040 --> 00:47:21.280
Even if there are a lot of different

00:47:21.400 --> 00:47:23.680
strategies and approaches
for getting there,

00:47:23.760 --> 00:47:26.320
we feel like they all hold
a piece of that puzzle

00:47:26.400 --> 00:47:28.720
of that different sort of economic system.

00:47:29.600 --> 00:47:33.200
The Wellbeing Economy Alliance
is a global network

00:47:33.400 --> 00:47:36.720
with 19 hubs spread over the world.

00:47:38.480 --> 00:47:41.360
Susan Joy leads the East African hub.

00:47:42.400 --> 00:47:45.600
One of the issues they are
tackling is landgrabbing,

00:47:45.960 --> 00:47:49.800
a problem many smallholder farmers
face all over the world.

00:47:50.960 --> 00:47:54.600
Large corporations come
and take control over their land,

00:47:55.120 --> 00:47:58.200
often through the use of corruption or force.

00:48:00.600 --> 00:48:01.840
So with all this land grab,

00:48:01.920 --> 00:48:05.240
it has become completely extremely hard
for farmers to survive.

00:48:05.400 --> 00:48:08.320
And most of these farmers are poor.
They are poor farmers.

00:48:08.640 --> 00:48:12.480
It's very few smallholder farmers who
can actually support, feed their families.

00:48:12.560 --> 00:48:16.960
You find the farmer that has
roughly three acres of land,

00:48:17.120 --> 00:48:19.600
but this farmer is eating one meal a day.

00:48:28.080 --> 00:48:29.880
The climate has changed.

00:48:30.040 --> 00:48:31.560
Things are not how they should to be.

00:48:31.640 --> 00:48:34.480
There is longer drought,
there is pests and diseases.

00:48:34.560 --> 00:48:38.440
There's all these factors that come in
on top of that, plus also the land grab.

00:48:40.560 --> 00:48:43.760
We are working with activist groups
and organizations that

00:48:43.840 --> 00:48:46.360
are doing a lot of work around land.

00:48:48.000 --> 00:48:49.560
For example Solidarity Uganda,

00:48:49.640 --> 00:48:51.400
they do a lot of work with communities

00:48:51.480 --> 00:48:54.800
that are facing landgrabbing
in various parts of the country.

00:48:55.240 --> 00:48:58.280
And at the same time there are lawyers

00:48:58.360 --> 00:49:01.800
that have also been able to support
these communities as well,

00:49:01.920 --> 00:49:03.560
to offer pro-bono work,

00:49:03.640 --> 00:49:07.000
so that these communities are able
to protect their land as well.

00:49:20.760 --> 00:49:24.920
It really is about building economies
that are locally rooted

00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:27.560
and are a reflection of our unique cultures

00:49:27.640 --> 00:49:30.520
and contexts, geographies and histories,

00:49:30.640 --> 00:49:33.600
and also that is molded
and directed by our voices

00:49:33.760 --> 00:49:35.720
and by our active participation,

00:49:35.840 --> 00:49:37.320
whilst being connected globally

00:49:37.400 --> 00:49:39.760
and recognizing that we are also,
you know,

00:49:39.840 --> 00:49:41.640
one species on a shared planet.

00:50:01.360 --> 00:50:03.480
The science is clear.

00:50:04.520 --> 00:50:07.160
Continuing with business as usual

00:50:07.600 --> 00:50:09.320
is no longer an option.

00:50:11.840 --> 00:50:14.080
We need alternatives.

00:50:16.160 --> 00:50:17.920
In different parts of the world,

00:50:18.080 --> 00:50:20.760
changes are already in motion.

00:50:22.360 --> 00:50:24.160
But we still have a long way to go

00:50:24.320 --> 00:50:28.640
before we reach a
truly sustainable economy.

00:50:30.720 --> 00:50:32.560
What is needed now?

00:50:34.200 --> 00:50:36.160
Where do we go from here?

00:50:40.480 --> 00:50:43.120
When I say I think economic systems
need to be transformed,

00:50:43.200 --> 00:50:45.840
I'm not saying scrap everything
we have and start again.

00:50:45.920 --> 00:50:47.000
We can't do that.

00:50:47.160 --> 00:50:48.640
Because we need to eat every day.

00:50:48.720 --> 00:50:51.200
We need energy and travel
and connection every day.

00:50:51.280 --> 00:50:53.760
We need to transform these systems

00:50:53.920 --> 00:50:56.640
by working with them,
transforming them deep within.

00:50:56.720 --> 00:51:00.880
And I think we need to go for the deep
design of the systems we've inherited.

00:51:01.960 --> 00:51:03.840
Let's redesign the future of business

00:51:03.960 --> 00:51:06.840
by redesigning the deep design
of companies in the world.

00:51:06.960 --> 00:51:10.160
That will take us a long way
to the future we need.

00:51:10.320 --> 00:51:11.157
And while we're there,

00:51:11.160 --> 00:51:14.960
we need to redesign the regulatory
environment in which business happens.

00:51:15.120 --> 00:51:18.600
So we need governments to incentivize

00:51:18.720 --> 00:51:22.600
and encourage and enable companies
to be purpose driven.

00:51:22.720 --> 00:51:26.800
We need governments to make it possible
for them to be incorporated in ways that

00:51:26.960 --> 00:51:31.400
are owned far more socially
and community like a co-operative

00:51:31.480 --> 00:51:35.680
or an employee-owned company
or a socially purposed enterprise.

00:51:35.840 --> 00:51:39.560
We need finance that is not there
to serve itself,

00:51:39.640 --> 00:51:42.000
but it's there to serve
the real economy.

00:51:42.320 --> 00:51:45.920
So reinventing the finance
of the future is key

00:51:46.040 --> 00:51:49.720
to making it possible for business
to help bring humanity into the doughnut.

00:51:50.080 --> 00:51:52.400
There are a lot of social entrepreneurs

00:51:52.520 --> 00:51:54.960
that would like to start
not-for-profit types of businesses,

00:51:55.040 --> 00:51:58.160
but they're not sure
if they can or how they can.

00:51:58.720 --> 00:52:03.000
So we can support them by identifying them,

00:52:03.080 --> 00:52:06.880
mapping out the not-for-profit
businesses in our communities,

00:52:07.400 --> 00:52:10.880
shifting our consumption
to support them wherever we can.

00:52:11.320 --> 00:52:14.880
And, you know, working for them,

00:52:15.080 --> 00:52:20.440
maybe even volunteering with them
and raising awareness about them.

00:53:02.880 --> 00:53:06.880
I mean, I think it's always going to
be a multi-level process, right?

00:53:06.960 --> 00:53:14.200
And so you need to have the grassroots movement
and examples and local transformations.

00:53:14.320 --> 00:53:17.200
But I do think that
there is a very real constraint

00:53:17.280 --> 00:53:22.960
to how much any local community
or national, like, entity

00:53:23.120 --> 00:53:26.280
can really meaningfully transform the economy,

00:53:26.360 --> 00:53:28.360
because we're so globally
interconnected, right?

00:53:28.440 --> 00:53:33.920
And all of our production systems
and consumption systems

00:53:34.000 --> 00:53:37.440
are really interwoven
with one another in a way

00:53:37.640 --> 00:53:43.000
that requires a certain level
of global economic reform,

00:53:43.120 --> 00:53:46.440
even to just make space
for self-determination.

00:53:50.880 --> 00:53:54.160
So for some people,
it's about doing the care work,

00:53:54.280 --> 00:53:58.040
doing the emotional labor
of taking care of our family and friends,

00:53:58.120 --> 00:54:00.440
of building community together.

00:54:00.560 --> 00:54:02.320
That is having agency.

00:54:02.400 --> 00:54:05.720
For others it might be through art,
the art that they create,

00:54:05.840 --> 00:54:09.480
which can give us
a sense of other futures.

00:54:09.640 --> 00:54:10.880
That can be really important.

00:54:10.960 --> 00:54:14.160
And for some it is about
doing the hard work

00:54:14.240 --> 00:54:17.360
of protesting or writing policy

00:54:17.480 --> 00:54:20.720
or building houses, whatever it is.

00:54:20.840 --> 00:54:23.560
Find the different ways,
but understanding that

00:54:23.640 --> 00:54:26.800
our impact is through what we do
as a collective.

00:54:32.000 --> 00:54:35.360
Step one is just talking
about the economy, right,

00:54:35.440 --> 00:54:39.280
and demystifying the economy,
encouraging people

00:54:39.400 --> 00:54:42.920
to feel like they have...
their lived experience,

00:54:43.000 --> 00:54:47.320
their common sense has a place
in this sphere and in these discussions,

00:54:47.400 --> 00:54:50.120
because I feel like that's step one
and then expand it.

00:54:50.200 --> 00:54:53.640
Once you have opened people's minds
to really even consider

00:54:54.000 --> 00:54:57.360
what the economy is or can be,
then you can really start to advocate

00:54:57.440 --> 00:54:59.120
for a different vision for it.

00:54:59.200 --> 00:55:03.000
And we should spread the information,
raise awareness, have these discussions,

00:55:03.080 --> 00:55:04.680
create social momentum,

00:55:04.800 --> 00:55:06.480
because the more social
momentum we have,

00:55:06.560 --> 00:55:10.480
the more we can pressure
economic actors and policymakers

00:55:10.560 --> 00:55:12.320
to move in the direction
that we need them to.

00:55:13.520 --> 00:55:17.640
These practices that are today a minority,

00:55:17.760 --> 00:55:19.840
they are happening
in the cracks of capitalism.

00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:23.480
They represent the seeds
of a radically different economy.

00:55:23.560 --> 00:55:27.560
What we need today is to give them
space and resource and to water them

00:55:27.840 --> 00:55:32.760
so that they can become the main way
of organizing an economy.

00:55:36.320 --> 00:55:40.600
Yes, new economic thinking,
not just thinking, new economic doing.

00:55:40.760 --> 00:55:42.120
Let's put this into practice.

00:55:43.640 --> 00:55:46.120
But let's get started
where we can get started.

00:55:46.320 --> 00:55:48.680
And I think we can
get started at every level,

00:55:48.760 --> 00:55:50.240
right from my own personal life,

00:55:50.320 --> 00:55:51.480
from my household to my street,

00:55:51.560 --> 00:55:52.760
to my town and my city

00:55:52.840 --> 00:55:55.240
and my region and my nation
and the world.

00:55:55.400 --> 00:55:59.200
We need change to be happening
at every one of those places.