Does the moon care? A dialogue between Tim Jackson and Kate Raworth

“Sometimes when I’ve talked about prosperity, people have said ‘that sounds like getting rich’,” Kate Raworth remarked to Tim Jackson in a recent dialogue. “Tell us why you have an affection for the word ‘prosperity’.”

Indeed, prosperity is at the heart of Jackson’s work. The British ecological economist titled one of his books Prosperity Without Growth, and he is a co-director of the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP), a partner of the International Ecological Footprint Learning Lab.

What does “prosperity” mean to Jackson, and how does “prosperity without growth” connect with Jackson’s new book The Care Economy?

One perspective, Jackson answered, comes from etymology. “Prosperity” derives from pro speros, meaning “in accordance with our hopes”. And while most of us may hope to be financially comfortable, we hope even more to be healthy. Wealth can help in enjoying a good life, but health is essential.

Prosperity is primarily about health rather than wealth, and the economy should concern itself first and foremost about care rather than relentless growth. This simple formulation, set out at the beginning of The Care Economy, struck Jackson as blindingly obvious – but if so, why is it not obvious to orthodox economists and government policy makers?

Answering this question leads to a wide-ranging exploration, both in the book and in the live-streaming public event moderated by Kate Raworth and sponsored by The Conduit. (The video is now available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT2rCdiLd1U.)

Raworth, author of Doughnut Economics and co-founder of the Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL), asked for a picture of a care-focused economy in a visual language familiar to economists. “If wealth-centric growth looks like that [gestures with a continuous upward curve], what does health centric care progress look like?”

It looks like the Zen symbol the ensō, Jackson answered, holding up his book with a distinctive brush-drawn circle as the cover illustration. “It sort of symbolizes both completeness and incompleteness. It symbolizes a sense of the whole but something which is never quite finished,” he explained – while crediting Raworth for having given us that image of a healthy economy in her ground-breaking book and ongoing project.

Picturing the economy as a Zen circle gives an indication that Jackson’s interests run not only deep but wide. Raworth noted that in addition to being an economist, Jackson is also a playwright credited with numerous BBC radio scripts.

These two facets of his career, he said, came together in the structure of his new book – though he was aware that in pushing back against academic writing restrictions, he would lose the attention of some economists.

One conundrum he struggled with was this: everyone, no matter their political worldview, will profess to be in favour of care. Why, then, is our economy so careless? What does care really mean?

Gazing into the dark night sky on a seashore, a question came to him: “Does the moon care?” When he pondered this seemingly strange question, he realized that the moon is constant, and in its constancy, it maintains the tides, essential to the balance of our world. So, the moon does care.

This line of thought led Jackson to a definition: “care is a dynamic force bringing us back into balance.”

Continuous growth will take us further away from balance – further away from health for both individuals and for our civilization – while a restored balance could and should be the focus of our lives and of our economy.