Kenter, Jasper O. and Martino, Simone and Buckton, Sam J. and Waddock, Sandra and Agarwal, Bina and Anger-Kraavi, Annela and Costanza, Robert and Hejnowicz, Adam P. and Jones, Peter and Lafayette, Jordan O. and Kabudo-Mariara, Jane and Mukherjee, Nibedita and Pickett, Kate E and Riedy, Chris and Waddell, Steve (2025) Ten principles for transforming economics in a time of global crises. Nature Sustainability. ISSN 2398-9629
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Transformation of economic systems is widely regarded as essential for tackling interacting global crises. Unconventional economic approaches seeking holistic human and planetary well-being have transformative potential, but mainstreaming them is hampered by vested interests and intellectual lock-ins. They are also diffuse and struggle to develop sufficient discursive power to gain more widespread traction in policy. To bring coherence, we undertake a qualitative content analysis of 238 document sources from science and practice. We identify ten ecological, social, political economy and holistic principles cutting across 38 economic approaches. They include: (1) social–ecological embeddedness and holistic well-being; (2) interdisciplinarity and complexity thinking; (3) limits to growth; (4) limited substitutability of natural capital; (5) regenerative design; (6) holistic perspectives of people and values; (7) equity, equality and justice; (8) relationality and social enfranchisement; (9) participation, deliberation and cooperation and (10) post-capitalism and decolonization. We also consider opportunities and barriers to applying these principles in the context of global crises. Our results can help consolidate transformative economic approaches and support future efforts to synthesize conceptual models, methodologies and policy solutions and to validate the identified principles more explicitly within global south contexts.