IWD Guest Blog by Designer, Ella Doran
Highlighting the Economist, Kate Raworth
Guest blog - Ella doran, designer
Founder, Ella Doran Interiors | Founder Member, URGE Collective
The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is ‘#BreakTheBias’ – imagining a gender-equal world.
In support, Istoria Group invited Ella Doran to highlight the achievements of a female who has brought the world of women forward in some way.
Read about other inspirational women from our #IWD2022 contributors here.
Read all about Ella’s nomination below.
Ella Doran - Photographed by Jonty Wild
I am celebrating Kate Raworth for International Women’s Day 2022. Kate is an Oxford University economist and the author of ‘Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist’, first published in 2017 and arising out of a paper she developed in 2012 - A Safe and Just Space for Humanity – for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio.
In the book, Kate talks of a social foundation of wellbeing that no one should fall below - and an ecological ceiling of planetary pressure that we should not go beyond. Between the two of these lies a safe and just space for all. And so, the doughnut sketch was born!
I was inspired by how she approached writing the book with a question…
“If humanity’s twenty-first-century goal is to get into the Doughnut, what economic mindset will give us the best chance of getting there?”
She took this question with her as she researched emerging ideas, new economic thinkers and the mindsets of open-minded students. She draws on diverse schools of thought from feminist, ecological, behavioural and institutional economics and sets out combined learning – moving away from siloed thinking towards a more inclusive, integrated system of thinking.
Reading this book was a turning point for me personally and came just as I was questioning my own business and its levels of sustainability. The book helped me reframe what I was doing and enabled me to start articulating my business model and principles with more consciousness than ever before.
I am already an advocate for re-use and for working with materials that will last a lifetime, whilst communicating their end-of-life steps to my customers. I am currently helping my network of makers and manufacturers address transparency and the life cycles of their materials. With sensitivity to the complex relations between cause and effect in product design, I seek out projects that draw on innovative technologies in order to help push the wider industry towards a more circular, carbon neutral economy.
I was at the Design for Planet event in Dundee last Autumn, held by the Design Council, where Kate Raworth gave the opening keynote speech, together with architect Indy Johar of Dark Matter. Speaking of her ‘doughnut economic theory’, she spoke of how “Boundaries allow us to thrive in creativity….We have inherited conditions that we need to question for our own health and that of the planet. We are living beings - we need to be compatible with renewal and in balance and service for all life to flourish.’
Kate Raworth is what I identify as a paradigm shifter as she is helping governments, businesses, and educational institutions to think and ‘act’ like 21st century economists. To ask questions, and change systems for the better - from the equality for women to advocating that ‘economic man be transformed to social adaptable humans’! Her thinking is already helping to shape and re-form new policies, away from linear (“take-make-use-lose”), self-serving business models towards more regenerative and circular ones.
Her ripple effect is even more palpable since the pandemic - so if you’ve not read the book yet… why not? In her own words ‘now is a great time to be unlearning and relearning the fundamentals of economics’ and to implement these new ideas in our homes, schools, institutions and businesses for all to thrive!
By Ella Doran