1st Edition
The Wonderful Circles of Oz A Circular Economy Story
With the world’s economies impacted by coronavirus, billions are feeling social, environmental, and economic injustices. The call for a new, more just, more distributive economic story and system is louder and more urgent than ever. The Wonderful Circles of Oz provides both the framework and solutions for navigating towards an effective circular economy – the gateway to an abundant, autonomous, and democratic future.
Widely regarded as one of the world’s most engaging circular economy thought leaders, Ken Webster, together with creative writer, Alex Duff, use a storytelling approach based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to offer a new, accessible, and compelling narrative about the future direction of our economy.
‘The harder you work, the more you’ll improve your lot.’ That’s the simple story we’ve been sold over the last 40 years to justify how today’s economy works. Yet extreme inequality, the devastation of our natural world, and the erosion of our communities tell us this economic story resembles a work of fiction and the way our extractive economy operates is not fit for purpose. Still a restoration narrative, a satisfying story about our future and how we’ll get there, is slow to emerge. Using allegory, commentary, and reflection, this book helps speed the shift from an extractive economy of materials, energy, and finance to one based on an effective circular economy, which builds wealth as a stock of solutions accessible to all.
The Wonderful Circles of Oz goes beyond tired debates (capital vs labour and market vs state) and blends fiction and non to effectively communicate the need for macro-economic system redesign. Exploring complex change and containing echoes of modern monetary theory, this book is a must for business professionals, students, and anyone with an interest in the circular economy.
Part 1: A fictional world. The Wonderful Circles of Oz. Rewriting the allegory. 1. Weathering extremities 2. From poor to paws 3. From straw for brains to wise owls 4. Heartless: If only AI had EI 5. Making the lion’s share enough to go around 6. Locked in the past 7. Technological wizardry or trickery? 8. The wonderful Emerald City 9. The magical festival of urban food 10. The nightmare of Oz the Terrible 11. Meeting the wonderful Wizard of Oz 12. Back home 13. Chasing rainbows 14. Official correspondence of The Wizard’s Office, Oz Part 2: A real-world framework. An imaginary for the 21st century. 15. An introduction to this ‘Imaginary for today’s real world’ from Ken & Alex 16. An overview: The Wonderful Circles of Oz framework and its sigil for resetting the rules of the game 17. Today’s economic narrative 18. Worldview pre-science 19. Shifting the metaphor: From machine to metabolism 20. The productive cycle: Four rules for materials to flow not fail our economy 21. Uncovering the big players: Active but hidden in plain sight 22. The gatekept cycle: Four rules for money to circulate not clot our economy 23. The liberation and terrors of a digital world 24. A flourishing democracy – the path to a flourishing economy Part 3: A ‘golden’ path between the fiction, the framework, and real-world applications 25. Story as a strategy for sharing real world complex ideas 26. Weathering extremities - real world themes 27. From poor to paws - real world themes 28. From straw for brains to wise owls - real world themes 29. Heartless: If only AI had EI – real world themes 30. Making the lion’s share enough to go around – real world themes 31. Locked in the past - real world themes 32. Technological wizardry or trickery - real world themes 33. The wonderful Emerald City - real world themes 34. The magical festival of urban food - real world themes 35. The nightmare of Oz the Terrible - real world themes 36. Meeting the wonderful Wizard of Oz - real world themes 37. Back home and Chasing rainbows - real world themes
Biography
Ken Webster is a highly regarded circular economy thought leader. He is credited with setting the intellectual direction for what would become the influential Ellen MacArthur Foundation, where he was Head of Innovation from 2010-18. Dame Ellen (in her autobiography) and others credit Ken with reframing the circular economy concept and enabling the traction it has achieved today. He is a Visiting Fellow at Cranfield University. Ken is a regular contributor and speaker at conferences and seminars around the world and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Alex Duff is an accomplished communicator who helps international leaders creatively turn the complex into compelling. Be they written or spoken, the stories, scripts, and soundbites she’s sculpted over the years have been seen and heard on an international stage. She is particularly interested in how fiction can help make abstract topics more accessible so important issues become mainstream.
"This book is a breath-taking journey into intellectual allegories and metaphors of a powerful story… In an era of increasing inequalities, social anxieties and neo-materialism, we need more than ever a story to feed our imagination, a journey to discover sustainable futures, where ideas are the key currency."
Stefano Pascucci, Professor in Sustainability and Circular Economy, & Head of Sustainable Futures, University of Exeter Business School
"In these days of a dominance of audio-visual information, the skill of storytelling is one of the keys to get listeners’ and readers’ attention. By spinning "the golden thread of ‘digitally connected systems’ to transform our economy" in this book, Ken and Alex prove they are masters in this domain."
Walter Stahel, Visiting Professor, University of Surrey, & Full Member of the Club of Rome
"Just as The Wizard of Oz was an allegory critiquing the Gold Standard, The Wonderful Circles of Oz allegorically introduces us to the actual ways in which money is created, and how they might be harnessed to enable us to create a sustainable economy."
Steve Keen, Honorary Professor, UCL, & Distinguished Research Fellow, Institute for Strategy, Resilience and Security
"There is an ongoing debate on resource efficiency in most regions of the world, notably in Europe. Moving from a linear to a circular production model is a primary objective. But to do that the economic policy framework – if not the economic model itself – has to be changed. The incentives structure of today is flawed and for circularity to happen the policy frameworks have to be re-thought. The Wonderful Circles of Oz presents a most appealing new narrative which covers the economy as a whole – income distribution, taxation, the right of property owners, debt issues, production and consumption systems, financial system, the digital society and its pros and cons... All in all a very compelling narrative and much needed as inspiration for people around the world who look for solutions to the sustainability dilemma(s)."
Anders Wijkman, Honorary President, Club of Rome
