The call to redefine our economic system in response to global inequality, environmental degradation, and social discontent is louder than ever. While Charles Eisenstein’s vision of a gift economy emphasizes generosity, trust, and community-building on a more personal and community level, others have expanded these values into macroeconomic frameworks. Models like Doughnut Economics, the Solidarity Economy, Circular Economy, and Degrowth share Eisenstein’s foundational principles, envisioning systems that emphasize interconnectedness, shared responsibility, and an economy in service to humanity and the planet. Here’s a closer look at how these frameworks build on similar values and ideas, offering a comprehensive roadmap for economic transformation on a larger scale.
1. Doughnut Economics: A Holistic Model for a Thriving Economy
Developed by economist Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics offers a compelling alternative to traditional growth-based economics. Raworth’s model centers around a “doughnut” shape, where the inner circle represents a “social foundation” that ensures all individuals have access to the essentials of life (like housing, healthcare, and education), while the outer circle is an “ecological ceiling” that prevents economic activities from harming the planet.
Core Ideas:
- Well-being within Limits: Like Eisenstein, Raworth emphasizes the importance of respecting ecological boundaries. The model highlights that economic success should be measured not by GDP but by the ability to meet human needs without exceeding the planet’s capacities.
- Redefining Value: Doughnut Economics encourages valuing well-being, social equity, and environmental health. Instead of accumulating wealth, Raworth advocates for a “regenerative and distributive economy” that is circular, redistributive, and inclusive.
- Systemic Approach: This model calls for rethinking how we produce, consume, and share resources, focusing on embedding sustainability and equity at every level of the economy.
Doughnut Economics aligns closely with Eisenstein’s vision, yet it scales up the concept by integrating these values into city planning, national policies, and international frameworks. Cities like Amsterdam have even adopted the model to design sustainable policies that prioritize well-being over mere economic output.
2. The Solidarity Economy: Community Empowerment and Mutual Aid
The Solidarity Economy movement is a bottom-up approach rooted in principles of solidarity, cooperation, and sustainability, drawing from historical cooperative movements, indigenous economies, and social justice efforts worldwide. Like Eisenstein’s gift economy, the Solidarity Economy challenges profit-maximization as a goal, advocating for economic systems based on social welfare, environmental care, and inclusive governance.
Core Ideas:
- Cooperation Over Competition: By organizing economic activities through cooperatives, credit unions, and community enterprises, the Solidarity Economy fosters a culture of mutual support and empowerment.
- Participatory Governance: Solidarity Economy organizations often use democratic decision-making processes, aligning with Eisenstein’s emphasis on trust and community autonomy.
- Economic Justice: This model emphasizes fair wages, equitable access to resources, and anti-extractive practices. The focus is on closing inequality gaps and prioritizing the well-being of marginalized communities.
Countries like Brazil have developed national policies to support Solidarity Economy enterprises, creating an example of how economies can embrace collective values on a national scale.
3. The Circular Economy: Regeneration and Resilience
The Circular Economy is another transformative framework focused on reducing waste, reusing resources, and creating a regenerative economy that mimics natural systems. Rooted in environmental economics, this model envisions an economy that “closes the loop” on production and consumption, ensuring that products are designed for reuse, recycling, and repair.
Core Ideas:
- Design for Sustainability: Circular Economy principles emphasize designing products that are durable, repairable, and recyclable, challenging the throwaway culture of linear production.
- Resource Efficiency: This model values the optimization of resource use, promoting reuse and recycling to minimize extraction and waste.
- Economic Resilience: By reducing dependency on finite resources, the Circular Economy fosters resilience, allowing economies to remain adaptable and sustainable in the face of resource scarcity.
The Circular Economy aligns with Eisenstein’s ideas by valuing abundance and interconnectedness over extraction and competition. Many companies and governments are now adopting circular practices to reduce environmental impacts, from the EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan to city-level initiatives in places like San Francisco.
4. Degrowth: Prioritizing Well-Being Over GDP
Degrowth challenges the mainstream obsession with perpetual economic growth, arguing that an economy focused on endless growth is unsustainable and ultimately incompatible with planetary boundaries. Degrowth advocates propose a deliberate downsizing of production and consumption, especially in wealthier countries, to foster a just and sustainable world.
Core Ideas:
- Redefining Prosperity: Degrowth redefines prosperity as well-being and ecological health rather than GDP growth. It emphasizes leisure, relationships, and ecological balance over material consumption.
- Reduced Resource Use: Advocates argue that affluent nations should reduce their consumption levels, allowing space for global equity without exceeding planetary limits.
- Local Resilience and Community: Like Eisenstein’s gift economy, Degrowth emphasizes local production, community resilience, and the non-monetary aspects of life, promoting fulfillment beyond material wealth.
The Degrowth movement is supported by academics, activists, and even some policymakers who recognize the urgent need to shift toward a sustainable and equitable future. This approach offers a macroeconomic perspective that embraces Eisenstein’s call for interdependence, but at a national and global scale.
5. The Buen Vivir Paradigm: Indigenous Wisdom for Community and Environmental Harmony
Buen Vivir, meaning “Good Living,” is an indigenous philosophy originating from South American Andean cultures, particularly those of Ecuador and Bolivia. Buen Vivir represents a holistic approach that incorporates social, environmental, and spiritual dimensions of well-being. This paradigm focuses on achieving balance within communities and with nature, rather than prioritizing economic growth or individual accumulation.
Core Ideas:
- Living in Harmony with Nature: Buen Vivir emphasizes the sacredness of nature, aligning with Eisenstein’s view of an economy rooted in the recognition of interconnectedness.
- Community-Based Economy: This paradigm advocates for community-centered decision-making, where economic activities are chosen based on collective well-being rather than profit.
- Alternative Development Models: Rather than focusing on industrialization or GDP growth, Buen Vivir prioritizes sustainable development that honors cultural traditions and ecological balance.
Buen Vivir has influenced national constitutions, with Ecuador and Bolivia embedding this philosophy in their legal frameworks. It’s a compelling example of how traditional wisdom can guide modern economic structures toward sustainability and collective health.
6. Well-Being Economy: Placing Happiness and Health at the Center
The Well-Being Economy movement is a comprehensive model that aims to shift economic priorities from GDP to indicators of societal well-being, happiness, and health. It has been adopted in part by countries like New Zealand, Scotland, and Bhutan, where policies are designed to improve quality of life and ecological health rather than solely driving economic growth.
Core Ideas:
- Well-Being Indicators: In a Well-Being Economy, success is measured by metrics like health, education, environmental quality, and life satisfaction rather than GDP.
- Social and Environmental Equity: The model emphasizes policies that reduce inequality and address environmental harm, aligning with Eisenstein’s call for an economy based on shared prosperity.
- Inclusive Growth: While economic growth isn’t dismissed outright, it is reframed to ensure that growth supports well-being rather than harm.
The Well-Being Economy builds on Eisenstein’s vision by institutionalizing values like compassion, social equity, and environmental care in national and regional policies, thus scaling up individual acts of generosity and trust into policy-level transformations.
Conclusion: Toward a New Economic Paradigm
Each of these economic frameworks—Doughnut Economics, Solidarity Economy, Circular Economy, Degrowth, Buen Vivir, and the Well-Being Economy—resonates with Charles Eisenstein’s ideas of generosity, trust, and interconnectedness. They extend his vision by providing detailed macroeconomic approaches that reimagine wealth, value, and prosperity in the context of environmental sustainability and social justice. Together, these models form a comprehensive roadmap for creating economies that support the well-being of all life on Earth.
The transformations proposed by these models challenge us to rethink not just how we consume and produce, but why we engage in economic activity at all. In doing so, they bring us closer to the “more beautiful world our hearts know is possible,” where economic systems nurture human connection, honor the natural world, and foster collective resilience.