From Systems Thinking to Systems Feeling: Transforming Business with Donnie Maclurcan

Post-growth economist Donnie Maclurcan joins host Jeni Miles to explore why systems transformation requires moving from thinking to feeling. From not-for-profit business models to the circulation of money and power, Donnie reveals how embodied wisdom might be our most revolutionary tool against extractive capitalism and why slowing down in urgent times could be the key to creating regenerative systems.

Key Takeaways

• Understand why capitalism creates disconnection from our bodies and embodied wisdom
• Learn the difference between not-for-profit businesses and B Corps or social enterprises
• Discover how debt expansion is a feature of capitalism, not the monetary system
• Explore moving from "systems thinking" to "systems feeling" for transformation
• See how moving your money, pensions, and investments can create systemic change
• Experience the offers and needs markets methodology for community resilience

Donnie Maclurcan is Director of Strategy with the Post Growth Institute. He joins us from Patagonia where he lives with his wife and their cats.

• Follow Donnie on LinkedIn: https://ar.linkedin.com/in/donniemaclurcan
• Follow Donnie on Bluesky: https://web-cdn.bsky.app/profile/donmacca.bsky.social

People and Resources Mentioned:

• Post Growth Institute: https://postgrowth.org/
• How on Earth? Book https://howonearth.us/
• Colin Saltmere: https://au.linkedin.com/in/colin-saltmere-09762485
• Better Off by Eric Brende (an Amish lifestyle experiment) https://www.amazon.com/Better-Off-Flipping-Switch-Technology/dp/0060570059

• Offers and Needs Markets methodology: https://postgrowth.org/offers-and-needs-markets/
• Triodos Bank (sustainable banking example): https://triodos.co.uk/
• Bayo Akomolafe's The Times Are Urgent, Let Us Slow Down open letter https://www.bayoakomolafe.net/post/the-times-are-urgent-lets-slow-down

• The Co-operative Bank (UK not-for-profit banking): https://www.co-operativebank.co.uk/
• The WEIRD Study (research on Western assumptions): https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1601785
• AORTA Co-Op: https://aorta.coop/
• BLIS Collective https://www.bliscollective.org/
• adrienne maree brown https://www.instagram.com/adriennemareebrown/

Sociocracy as a governance system https://www.sociocracyforall.org/sociocracy/

Follow Jeni on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenifisher/

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCChD92b63Sfh5xeNFMM5lCA

Read the Moral Footprint newsletter: https://moralfootprint.substack.com