Economic Design
The current economic system is no longer sustainable. Learn how to re-design dysfunctional economic systems, based on already tested alternatives. Join now!
Economic Design
The current economic system is no longer sustainable. Learn how to re-design dysfunctional economic systems, based on already tested alternatives. Join now!
Start Date and Registration
The Economic dimension of Gaia Education’s Design For Sustainability course
Never has there been a better time and a more urgent need to create a more resilient and participatory future by turning our attention to the redesign of our economic systems. If you feel stuck or uncertain about what you can do and want to take part in this redesign, our e-learning programme is for you.
An increasing amount of people know that our current economic system is no longer sustainable, yet awareness of viable alternatives is spreading slowly. Our aim is to give you a better understanding of those alternatives and the true meaning of economy and wealth. Participants will learn about existing systems and tools that are useful, and will explore what it might take to re-design those that have proven dysfunctional.
To do nothing is to accept that the answer to our problems is more economic growth – more production, more consumption, more highways, more buildings, more logging, more fishing, etc, which keeps us in a vicious degenerative circle.
Join this course and learn how to become part of co-creating diverse regenerative economies and cultures, carefully adapted to the biocultural uniqueness of the places they inhabit.
After completing the Economic dimension you will know how to engage with the transformation and redesign of your local and regional economy, and where to start the process of becoming a social entrepreneur, starting a cooperative or a community project. Graduates of our programmes have gone on to contribute to sustainability projects, build communities, become social entrepreneurs, create celebrated permaculture projects, biodynamic farms, transition town initiatives, successful consultancies and businesses and much more.
The principal author of this substantially revised and rewritten economic dimension is Dr. Daniel C. Wahl (Gaia Education). Some sections were co-authored by Jonathan Dawson (Schumacher College), who wrote the first version of this course.
“The Third Industrial Revolution will also bring with it a more democratic economy. The distributed nature of renewable energies necessitates collaborative rather than hierarchical command and control mechanisms. This new lateral energy regime establishes the organizational model for the countless economic activities that multiply from it. A more distributed and collaborative industrial revolution, in turn, invariably leads to a more distributed sharing of the wealth generated.”
Certified by CPD UK
The Economic Design course is certified by CPD UK – Continuing Professional Development.
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is the commitment by professionals to develop new skills or enhance existing ones through online training programmes and face-to-face courses. Many organisations, companies and businesses prioritise CPD to ensure their workforce is up skilled, abreast with the latest knowledge and at the forefront of their sector.
Facilitators
The Economic Design dimension will be facilitated by two experts, Jorge Koho and Naresh Giangrande.
Jorge Koho
Jorge is a circular economist specialised in social economy inspired by Buddhist economics. Based in Zurich, a monk ordained in the Soto Zen Buddhism tradition, Jorge is recognised worldwide for embodying voluntary simplicity.
Naresh Giangrande
Social entrepreneur and founder of Transition Network, Naresh is a specialist in self-organising systems, and how participatory learning can be fostered across social movements.
Module 1
Shifting the Global Economy Towards Sustainability and Regeneration
This module explores in depth why the current economic systems no longer serve all – not even most – of humanity, while having a degenerative impact on communities, societies and the environment.
It invites you to explore the economy from a whole systems perspective and suggests how we might be able to re-design our economic system in ways that serve all people and the planet.
Module 1 explores the following questions:
- Why is economics not a science but a system designed by human beings and therefore open to redesign?
- How have so called ‘externalities’ and hidden subsidies resulted in an economic system that drives us to live beyond planetary boundaries?
- What is the role of international institutions, like the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization, and how do the lobbies of multinational corporations influence economic policies?
- What are the best places to intervene in the system in order to shift the global economy towards sustainability?
- What are some promising signs of hope that the redesign of our economic systems is already underway?
“Transformative innovation applied to redesigning the human presence on Earth requires global cooperation in the process of building circular and regionally focused economies in support of resilient communities and the regeneration of their ecosystems. Thriving regional economies, supported by scale-linking collaboration and global solidarity, are the basis for collaborative abundance for all.”
Module 2
Community Banks and Currencies
We examine the basic design of our current monetary system and why it is structurally dysfunctional, driving increasing inequality and creating a systemic need for economic growth.
We also explore a wide range of locally and regionally-based complementary currency systems and other existing alternatives.
Module 2 asks:
- Why is the debt-based monetary system that charges differential interests for loans and deposits structurally unsustainable?
- How could we re-design our monetary system and introduce more diverse currency types to create a more sustainable and resilient system?
- What is the role of locally and regionally-based investment systems, microcredit, microfinance and crowdfunding in creating a more sustainable economy?
Module 3
Right Livelihood
In Module 3 we start by taking a closer look at why Growth Domestic Product(ion) or GDP is an insufficient economic indicator and what alternative national and international indicators already exist. Local and community scale indicators for economic vibrancy and well-being are examined next, along with participatory budgeting, a look at guiding values for economic life and at how collaborative consumption and peer-to-peer networks are already offering new pathways to engaging in right livelihood.
Module 3 helps you find answers to the following questions:
- In the redesign of our economic systems at local, regional, national and global scale, what might be the role of new kinds of indicators and ways of measuring the success of an economy?
- What guiding ethics for economic life would help us in the creation of a sharing economy based on peer-to-peer collaboration and collaborative consumption?
- What shift in perspective and practice might enable us to design for generosity, trust and participation in the service of a common good?
“Thirty plus years of research and analysis have convinced me that true political democracy cannot prevail until economic democracy has been achieved, and economic democracy cannot be achieved without transcending the global, central-banking, interest-based, debt-money regime and the debt-growth imperative that is built into it.” Thomas H. Greco, Jr
Module 4
Revitalising Local Economies and Social Innovation
This fourth module is all about how we might strengthen economic activity at the local and regional scale and thereby increase community resilience and create the enabling conditions of the political ideal of subsidiarity. We explore how to ‘plug the leaks’ that drain local wealth in favour of multi-nationals and their shareholders, and offer examples of effective economic localisations around the world. We also investigate how social innovation and entrepreneurship, along with the creation of regenerative enterprise ecologies at the regional scale are all part of this transition towards a world where a strong global economy is the result of effective collaboration between vibrant local and regional economies.
Module 4 asks:
- How can a shift towards a stronger solidarity economy create thriving and resilient communities and regions and what is the role of social innovation and social entrepreneurship in this transition?
- Where can social innovators and entrepreneurs find support in communicating, financing and identifying opportunities for socially and ecologically regenerative development?
- What opportunities, challenges and lessons can we draw from looking at the economic experiments and eco-social enterprises that have been created within ecovillages around the world?
- What might characterise a regenerative enterprise and how do we set about creating one and linking it to like-minded businesses in its location?
Module 5
Legal and Financial Issues
Since good advice on running a social enterprise, how to design a sustainable business model and knowing what types and sources of finance and which legal structures you have to work with, all determine the success and effectiveness of your enterprise and/or project, Module 5 starts by addressing these issues. It also takes a closer look at the role of cooperatives, ‘the commons’ and ‘open source’ collaboration, as well as the kind of legal reforms that might be necessary to create truly regenerative cultures and economies.
Module 5 poses the following questions:
- What is a business model canvas and can I use it to design sustainability and regeneration into my project’s business model?
- How do I choose between different types and sources of finances, and what legal structures might best serve my/our business/project?
- Where might I find help in preparing a feasibility studies and the business plan for my/our project/business?
- What new ways of sharing ownership and access to resources, of innovating together and sharing intellectual property, and of establishing legal foundations for a regenerative culture are already being explored?
What You Will Receive
Your Investment
The cost of this unique and exciting course is £350 GBP. It may be the best investment you ever make for yourself. The whole duration of this dimension is eight weeks, encompassing approximately 80 hours of study time. Register up to one month before the start date to get a 20% early bird discount!
Upon completion you will be equipped with the understanding and skills to become a confident change maker in economic issues of sustainability. It will also qualify you to go on to study in our fully certificated programme, Design for Sustainability, and join a Design Studio after completing the four dimensions of the course.
“A simple story lies at the heart of our current economic system. It is a story of separation between humanity and nature. This story creates alienation, lack of belonging, fear and the need to control. Living this story ultimately makes us see through a lens of scarcity and competition for limited resources. Instead of living well within planetary boundaries and in collaborative abundance shared between all of humanity and life as a whole, we have chosen a path of trying to predict, control, manipulate and exploit nature as if we were somehow separate from life’s life-sustaining cycles that maintain this planet in habitable conditions for complex organisms like us.”
More Information
This course is part of our 10-month online Design for Sustainability programme. The e-learning programme consists of four dimensions: Social, Ecological, Economic and Worldview, each contained within an eight-week period. You have the option of taking all four dimensions in sequence, followed by the Design Studio, to obtain a certification within 10 months; or you may choose to follow one or two dimensions this year, and complete the course in your own time over the next two years.
Join our programme Design for Sustainability. Receive a Certificate of Completion in Design for Sustainability and contribute to the emergence of diverse regenerative cultures. Learn more about the 10-month programme here.
