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.
Author 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.
