Table Of ContentThe Wonderful
Circles of Oz
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 compel-
ling 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 com-
munities tell us this economic story resembles a work of fiction
and the way our extractive economy operates is not fit for pur-
pose. 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 (capi-
tal 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 pro-
fessionals, students, and anyone with an interest in the circular
economy.
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 Founda-
tion, where he was Head of Innovation from 2010 to 2018. Dame
Ellen (in her autobiography) and others credit Ken with refram-
ing the circular economy concept and enabling the traction it
has achieved today. He is a Visiting Fellow at Cranfield Univer-
sity. 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 inter-
national 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 inter-
national stage. She is particularly interested in how fiction can
help make abstract topics more accessible so important issues
become mainstream.
“This book is a breath-taking journey into intellectual allegories
and metaphors of a powerful story… In an era of increasing in-
equalities, social anxieties and neo-materialism, we need more
than ever a story to feed our imagination, a journey to discover
sustainable futures, where ideas are the key currency.”
Stefano Pascucci, Professor in
Sustainability and Circular Economy, &
Head of Sustainable Futures, University
of Exeter Business School
“In these days of a dominance of audio-visual information, the
skill of storytelling is one of the keys to get listeners’ and read-
ers’ attention. By spinning "the golden thread of ‘digitally con-
nected systems’ to transform our economy" in this book, Ken
and Alex prove they are masters in this domain.”
Walter Stahel, Visiting Professor, Uni-
versity of Surrey, & Full Member of the
Club of Rome
“Just as The Wizard of Oz was an allegory critiquing the Gold
Standard, The Wonderful Circles of Oz allegorically intro-
duces us to the actual ways in which money is created, and how
they might be harnessed to enable us to create a sustainable
economy.”
Steve Keen, Honorary Professor, UCL, &
Distinguished Research Fellow, Institute
for Strategy, Resilience and Security
“There is an ongoing debate on resource efficiency in most re-
gions of the world, notably in Europe. Moving from a linear to
a circular production model is a primary objective. But to do
that the economic policy framework – if not the economic model
itself – has to be changed. The incentives structure of today is
flawed and for circularity to happen the policy frameworks have
to be re-thought. The Wonderful Circles of Oz presents a most
appealing new narrative which covers the economy as a whole –
income distribution, taxation, the right of property owners,
debt issues, production and consumption systems, financial
system, the digital society and its pros and cons... All in all a
very compelling narrative and much needed as inspiration for
people around the world who look for solutions to the sustaina-
bility dilemma(s).”
Anders Wijkman, Honorary President,
Club of Rome
The Wonderful
Circles of Oz
A Circular Economy Story
Ken Webster and
Alex Duff
Cover image: Olga Domashova
Illustrations: Olga Domashova
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Ken Webster and Alex Duff
The right of Ken Webster and Alex Duff to be identified as authors of this work has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in
any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Webster, Ken, 1955- author. | Duff, Alex, 1971- author.
Title: The wonderful circles of Oz : a circular economy story / Ken Webster
and Alex Duff.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. | Includes
bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022002622 (print) | LCCN 2022002623 (ebook) | ISBN
9781032109077 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032109107 (paperback) | ISBN
9781003217657 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Sustainable development. | Waste minimization—Economic
aspects. | Recycling (Waste, etc.)—Economic aspects. | Environmental
economics. | Economics.
Classification: LCC HC79.E5 W438 2022 (print) | LCC HC79.E5 (ebook) | DDC
338.9/27—dc23/eng/20220126
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022002622
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022002623
ISBN: 978-1-032-10907-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-10910-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-21765-7 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003217657
Typeset in Georgia
by codeMantra
Contents
About the authors xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Welcome from the authors 1
PART ONE – A fictional world.
Rewriting the allegory 9
1 Weathering extremities 11
2 From poor to paws 14
3 From straw for brains to
wise owls 17
4 Heartless: If only AI had EI 23
5 Making the lion’s share enough to go around 27
6 Locked in the past 34
7 Technological wizardry or trickery? 38
viii Contents
8 The wonderful Emerald City 45
9 The magical festival of urban food 52
10 The nightmare of Oz the Terrible 57
11 Meeting the wonderful Wizard of Oz 60
12 Back home 74
13 Chasing rainbows 78
14 Official correspondence of The Wizard’s
Office, Oz 80
PART TWO – A real-world framework.
An imaginary for the 21st century.
Updated version based on the Wizard’s
working guide. Drafted back in Exeter
by (Dorie), Ken, & Alex 83
15 An introduction to this ‘Imaginary for
today’s real world’ from Ken & Alex 85
16 An overview: The Wonderful Circles of Oz
framework and sigil for resetting the rules
of the game 87
17 Today’s economic narrative 95
18 Worldview pre-science 99
19 Shifting the metaphor: From machine to
metabolism 105
Contents ix
20 The productive cycle: Four rules for
materials to flow not fail our economy 114
21 Uncovering the big players: Active but
hidden in plain sight 120
22 The gatekept cycle: Four rules for money to
circulate not clot our economy 133
23 The liberation and terrors of a digital world 150
24 A flourishing democracy – the path to a
flourishing economy 165
PART THREE – A ‘golden’ path
between the fiction, the framework,
and real-world applications 173
25 Story as a strategy for sharing real world
complex ideas 175
26 Weathering extremities – real world themes 177
27 From poor to paws – real world themes 180
28 From straw for brains to wise owls – real
world themes 182
29 Heartless: If only AI had EI – real
world themes 185
30 Making the lion’s share enough to go
around – real-world themes 188
