The Standing Forest · Chapter Four

The Organism and Its Habitat

Ammanuel Santa Anna · ORCID 0009-0008-3244-0306

Chapter Four of The Standing Forest: Doughnut Economics for Leaders and Households, with the Figures You Already Hold.

Abstract

A field ecologist who wants to understand a wood does not begin with the wood. She begins with one creature in it, a particular badger, say, and asks four questions. What does it eat, and how much? What does it give back to the wood, in burrows turned, seeds carried, droppings left? Whom does it depend on, and who depends on it? And is it thriving, in the plain sense that a trained eye can see in its coat and its gait? Chapters 2 and 3 treated the doughnut the way economists usually treat it: as a global framework, a ring of boundaries and needs drawn around the whole of humanity. This chapter reads it the way the ecologist reads the wood, through one organism. The organism is a firm, or a household, or a city. The ring is its habitat. The four questions are the same.

Read the PDFRead the whole bookdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989547

Cite this chapter

Santa Anna, A. (2026). The Organism and Its Habitat. In The Standing Forest. Luminous Prosperity Inc. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23989547

@incollection{santaanna2026the4,
  author    = {Santa Anna, Ammanuel},
  title     = {The Organism and Its Habitat},
  booktitle = {The Standing Forest},
  chapter   = {4},
  publisher = {Luminous Prosperity Inc.},
  year      = {2026},
  doi       = {10.5281/zenodo.23989547},
  url       = {https://business.hautelumiere.life/library/the-standing-forest/04-the-organism-and-its-habitat/}
}

References

  1. Daly, H. E. (1968). On economics as a life science. Journal of Political Economy, 76(3), 392–406. https://doi.org/10.1086/259412
  2. Costanza, R., d'Arge, R., de Groot, R., Farber, S., et al. (1997). The value of the world's ecosystem services and natural capital. Nature, 387(6630), 253–260. https://doi.org/10.1038/387253a0

Every chapter of The Standing Forest

  1. Chapter OneThe Line on the Mapdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989543
  2. Chapter TwoThe Economy Has a Coastlinedoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989545
  3. Chapter ThreeWhere the Ring Leaksdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989546
  4. Chapter FourThe Organism and Its Habitatdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989547
  5. Chapter FiveA City Draws Its Ringdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989548
  6. Chapter SixA Government Changes What It Countsdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989549
  7. Chapter SevenThe Forest That Was Paid to Standdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989550
  8. Chapter EightHow to Know It Workeddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989551
  9. Chapter NineThe Field Manualdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989552
  10. Chapter TenThe Hard Conversationsdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989553
  11. Chapter ElevenThe Household Ringdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989554
  12. Chapter TwelveThe Standing Forestdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989555
  13. Chapter ThirteenThe Workbookdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989556

The other books in the library

  1. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyCash Asleep in the Buildingdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989319
  2. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyChange That Staysdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989557
  3. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business Methodology · Book TwoEarneddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989328
  4. Ecstatic Economics · Volume IEnough by Designdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989348
  5. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyLuminous Integral Leadershipdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989368
  6. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Morphic Marketing SeriesLuminous Morphic Marketingdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989389
  7. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business Methodology · Book OneMindful Leadership Masterydoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989430
  8. Ecstatic EconomicsOwning the Workdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23988988
  9. Ecstatic EconomicsThe Channel Keeps Itdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989022
  10. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyThe Customer Already Told Youdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989055
  11. Ecstatic Economics · Volume IIIThe Economy That Keeps Becomingdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989451
  12. Ecstatic Economics · Volume VThe Embedded Marketdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989474
  13. Ecstatic Economics · Volume VIThe Gain Was Always Shareddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989502
  14. Ecstatic EconomicsThe Long Clockdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989072
  15. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyThe Manager's Weekdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989102
  16. Ecstatic Economics · Volume IIThe Pasture Was Never Emptydoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989523
  17. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyThe Price Nobody Chargeddoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989120
  18. Ecstatic EconomicsThe Second Briefdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989141
  19. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyThe Strategy That Reaches the Floordoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989179
  20. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyWhere the Flow Stopsdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989196
  21. Ecstatic Economics · The Luminous Business MethodologyWho Decidesdoi:10.5281/zenodo.23989215

The licence

Free to read, share, quote, translate and teach, non-commercially, for ever, under the Luminous Library Licence 1.0. Every other right is the Author’s. Deposited on Zenodo in the Luminous Prosperity community.