✨6 Renegade Economists You Need to Know 🌍

There are thinkers that are challenging the myths of endless growth, extraction, and profit-at-all-costs—and helping us imagine economies rooted in wellbeing, reciprocity, and ecological balance.

Della Dawson, the facilitator of the upcoming Economic dimension, the host of Upstream podcast and a renegade economist herself, has put together this selection of thinkers that will make you look at economics in a new way: 

Kate Raworth — Reimagines economics around meeting human needs within planetary boundaries.

Book: Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist

E. F. Schumacher — Championed “economics as if people mattered” and the power of appropriate technology.

Book: Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered

Robin Wall Kimmerer — Brings Indigenous wisdom, reciprocity, and the living world into economic imagination.

Book: The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World

Manfred Max-Neef — Argued that real prosperity comes from meeting fundamental human needs, not endless consumption.

Book: Human Scale Development

Jason Hickel — Exposes how capitalism drives inequality and ecological breakdown while advancing post-growth alternatives.

Book: Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World

Alnoor Ladha — Explores the intersections of colonialism, capitalism, culture, and collective transformation.

Book: Post Capitalist Philanthropy

If you want to dive deeper into these ideas and explore regenerative alternatives to neoliberal capitalism, join our upcoming Regenerative & Cooperative Economic Design Course hosted by Gaia Education 

✨The course is led by two more renegade economists — Della Duncan and Emma Woods — and begins 25th May 2026. All of the above renegade economists are featured in this course!🌍

Together we’ll explore:

What’s broken in the current economic system

What regenerative and cooperative alternatives look like

How we can help co-create economies rooted in solidarity, wellbeing, and ecological balance

Learn more + register here:

Sign up here!

Use DELLA20 for a 20% off discount code!