1.3.9 Reflection

Consider one or more of the following questions to reflect on at the end of Subtopic 1.3  Society and the economy.  Discuss with another student or in a small group, or record (written, audio, video) your response.

• What evidence do you see of empathetic and cooperative human nature in your life?

• To what extent are you already living ‘the good life’ as you define it? What aspects of your life are helping or hindering you from reaching ‘the good life’?

• How would you distinguish between needs and wants in your own life? 

  • What influences your wants? 

  • To what extent do you have control, or can you take more control, over your wants?

  • How might becoming more aware of influences over our wants be important for our economies to do a better job meeting human needs within planetary boundaries?

• Some cities around the world are using the Doughnut Economics model to consider what it means to meet human needs within planetary boundaries in their own local context. In some cases, they have made some changes to the elements of the social foundation in the centre of the model to reflect what their communities feel is most important.

  • Consider the social foundation of the Doughnut Model and your local context. Is there anything you would add or subtract from it?

  • Consider your school. If you were going to make a school Doughnut, what might you put in the social foundation?

• Provisioning systems “mediate” between biophysical inputs and social outcomes. Researchers use the provisioning systems framework to understand how specific human needs are met, and how systems might be improved to better meet human needs within planetary boundaries.

  • Consider one of the following: energy, food, water, housing or mobility. What you might need to research about how that item is provisioned, so that systems could be improved, if you were using the framework outlined in 1.3.5? This is quite an open ended question just to get you thinking about the context of a specific human need?

• Which provisioning institution do you engage with the most? Why is that?

• Who cares for you every day? Who do you care for? How might you increase or improve the care you provide for others?