Earlier in the summer I wrote about some big questions and I choose to publish it to Patreon members first. Sharing it here now, what I wrote in July 1 as part of this orignal writing asking about what is irelands economy in service to:
If Ireland were designing its economic operating system today, knowing what we know about climate, ecological limits, AI, demographic change and resilience -what principles, institutions, incentives and measures would we choose?
Roisin Markham, Summer 2026
This is what I originally published to members on Patreon:
What does an enterprise ecosystem look like when the policy objective is to operate within planetary boundaries rather than maximize GDP?
Things I am holding in the container of this question:
Why is Ireland not scaling more impactful circular businesses, social enterprises or coops? In my coporate sustainablity training and the circular thinking workshops I have a scale of circular economy from impactful 10 regenerative by design to basic 1 refuse. I have a good strong graphic to go with it that I can share if you are interested.
How do we move our businesses back inside planetary boundaries? from a doughnut economics 3.0 lens, post-growth society and sufficency, + just transition
If our education policy has been built around preparing people for the knowledge economy it now needs to refocus towards a just transition – decarbonisation, growing food, nature restoration – we need to prepare for a regenerative economy.
AI will impact the kind of work we will do. An unintended consequence maybe an actually increase demand for place-based work that cannot be automated: ecological restoration, care, construction, retrofitting, nutritious dense food growing & production, landscape management. The apprentice electrician and the ecologist become just as strategically important as the software engineer. I’ve thought this since Coderdojo days.
What if we were to intentionally cultivate enterprises whose success is measured by their contribution to ecological resilience, community wealth, and long-term wellbeing
What if businesses were local economies, social infrasructure, ecological infrastructure and community infrastructure, some may still be investor owned.
How should Ireland organise its economy over the next fifty years?
Influencing policy debates
The design of regenerative systems needs radically different thinking and constructs – lets explore them?
Imagine an innovation or incubator space application form that asked
How much biodiversity will this enterprise create?
How much wealth remains locally?
Does this reduce material throughput?
Does this improve resilience?
What are your sufficency KPIs?
The European post-growth debate increasingly frames sufficiency not as austerity but as improving wellbeing while reducing environmental pressures.
WHAT IF… Irelands 2050 ambition and vision was to become the first OECD country to redesign enterprise policy around planetary boundaries.
What if… we changed the goal from GDP to decarbonisation? a wellbeing economy? an economy inservice to life?
This brings me back to the question – what is our economy in service to?
the proposal
it seems like a good response would be to host a speculative fabulation of design and social imaginaries exploring a full on creative response. What do you think?
I mean I am thinking about all the amazing approaches I have read to public participation in policy and strategy from exploring work with People Powered and their amazing resources, legislitive theatre – think theatre of the oppressed with policy making, citizens assemblies, unconfrences using open space methodologies, raves, long slow food tables, singing for change, ecologies of practice, time travel, creative adventures in speculative design and new social imaginaries… think of all the ways in which people come together to think and decide things. Like practicing towards a future we actually want to live in. We need this for the future of Irelands Enterprise strategy.
Thats what I want to do and the way in which I want to respond to this submission. So if you want to join in let me know, think about what you can bring to the shared table – resources, venue, budget, music, food, admin or event support. Let me know that also.
Who might come to an Enterprise 2035 Speculative Design Party? people who want to live and work in Ireland. People who care what our economy is in service to, people like me and you maybe too, all of us right? ENTERPRISE POLICY and STRATEGY till 2035 is important, it will shape a significant part of our economy.
Speculative Design constraints list, subject to further thinking, speculation, fabulation and change:
Ireland needs to break economic determinism and growth dependency through asset-based taxation. The idea that Ireland must depend on growth to fund social provision is a political choice, not an economic law. Ireland should broaden its tax base toward land, wealth, and other assets so public services are less dependent on growth.
What if we were to intentionally cultivate enterprises whose success is measured by their contribution to ecological resilience, community wealth, and long-term wellbeing
What if businesses were local economies, social infrasructure, ecological infrastructure and community infrastructure, some may still be investor owned.
FDI lower tax rate closing as an oppourtunity to move our focus to ireland next defining action might it be…
Nature Restoration Law
Irelands EU Climate Emissions statutory requirements eg CSRD
UN SDGs
Futures Generation Act and commissioner, long term thinking beyond growth
Just transition as infrastructure not compensation
Aging population, demographics
Community wealth building as embbeded not bolted on
If we want a future worth living into then we have to start living it. using our public voice, practicing democracy. For me thats about using my creative intelligence & design skills to challenge business as usual because we need to move beyond it.
We go together. Our submission Enterprise 2035 needs to respond in the most spectacular way to the constraints we now understand.
Our futures are not yet determined.
My intention is to build a broad coalition across the Irish Environmental and Social Pilars towards a response to Enterprise 2035. The aim along the way is to strenthen alternative visions for Ireland beyond GDP, lets reclaim the economy. Building on 6 years of working in economic literacy with the Irish Doughnut Economics Network (2020-2026) and being a micro SME business owner working and operating in Ireland since 2013. Policy and strategy with FEASTA, WEALL Ireland, the Irish Enviromental Pilar and my own work on policy submissions nationally and in Wexford.
As a strategic designer my instinct is to respond distinctively for what this time in history requires, bring people together differently, challenge normative approaches and thinking.
Have a question, ask… want to party about Enterprise 2035 strategy, join in!
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