Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist is a 2017 non-fiction book by Oxford economist Kate Raworth. The book elaborates on her concept of doughnut economics, first developed in her 2012 paper, A Safe and Just Space for Humanity. Background Oxford economist Kate Raworth presented her 13 February 2012 Discussion Paper, "A Safe and Just Space for Humanity: Can we live within the Doughnut?", prior to the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. The doughnut-shaped visual framework illustrates a safe space between "planetary boundaries" and "social boundaries" in which "humanity can thrive." Contents Who wants to be an Economist? From the frustrations of students who don't find the answers in their taught courses, Raworth recounts some of her own experience, from university to working in Zambia, writing the Human Development Report at the UN and deciding to start by looking at economics by its goals rather than its mechanisms. She also reflects on the power of images. Change the Goal By the end of the 1950s, output growth had become the overriding economic policy objective in industrial countries, with the concept of utility at its heart. It is normally represented by the Gross Domestic Product, despite the very partial picture this provides of the whole. Nobel economists Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz and 23 other leading economists concluded that “those attempting to guide the economy and our society are like pilots trying to steer a course without a reliable compass”. The Doughnut is an attempt to provide such a compass. The inner ring sets out 12 social foundations for humanity identified as sustainable development goals; the outer ring is formed of 9 planetary boundaries that earth system scientists have identified as being necessary for planetary stability. It replaces an impossible goal of endless growth by one of thriving in balance. See the Big Picture This chapter contrasts the standard neoliberal agenda staged by Samuelson's circular flow diagram and scripted by the Mont Pelerin Society of Friedman, Hayek et al., with the Embedded Economy which sets the economy within society and the living world. It points out that the economy's fundamental resource flow is not a roundabout of money, but a one-way street of energy. The economy also depends on a properly functioning society, households with all their unpaid elements and the commons, which Elinor Ostrom had rescued from tragedy. Nurture Human Nature Rational economic man was