Doughnut Model

Figure 1. The Doughnut model, for people and planet (Piqsels, CC BY 1.0)

In early 2020, the city of Amsterdam made headlines by adopting a new framework, called the Doughnut Economics model, to guide its policies. Later that same year, the Copenhagen Kommune indicated that it would consider this framework to direct city development. There is a movement for other ‘Doughnut’ cities as well.

If you have never studied economics (or even if you have!), you might wonder why there is an economic model in a Youth Mayors Field Guide. To understand this, it is important to know what economics is. The first use of the term economics came from the philosopher Xenophon and means ‘household management’. If you study economics, you will likely learn a definition of the term that looks something like this:

Economics is the study of how scarce resources are allocated.

At its core, economics is about the goals we set for ourselves, our families, communities, cities, states and internationally, and how we go about achieving those goals with initiative and resources. We are all economists. But you, as an aspiring changemaker, have a particular responsibility to think carefully about goals and how to manage resources -- materials, people, and money -- to achieve them. The Doughnut Economics model can help you do that, just like it is doing now for Amsterdam.

You can see in Figure 5 below that there is a lot of overlap between the Doughnut’s inner circle and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In 2020, Amsterdam adopted the Doughnut model to guide its urban development policies. When Amsterdam government officials focused their future thinking using the Doughnut model, this is the question that came out:

It’s a question that combines local goals -- thriving people in a thriving local environment -- with a global responsibility to act in ways that consider the wellbeing of people outside our local community and Earth’s systems. This question and the goals behind it can be broken down into 4 lenses, expressed as questions in the matrix for Figure 7 below, that are useful for focusing your Youth Mayors investigations.

Local-Social Lens

In Figure 7 above, the local-social lens in the upper left corner asks what it would mean for the people of Amsterdam to thrive, or to experience wellbeing. Wellbeing is associated with being healthy, connected, enabled and empowered. These are four categories that capture the social foundation on the inside of the Doughnut.

In Figure 8 below, you can see how Amsterdam used the local-social lens to set targets for each of the human needs from the inner circle of the Doughnut. The city also identified one fact about the current state of the city related to that target to get a ‘snapshot’ of the current conditions in the city.

So, for example, for the human need of housing, Amsterdam has set a target that “[t]here is sufficient availability of affordable and decent homes” for its residents. However, the snapshot shows that in 2018 almost 60,000 people applied for social (government subsidised) housing. Only 12% of those were able to get it. Some 20% of people living in Amsterdam are not able to meet their basic needs after paying rent on their housing. This indicates that there is not sufficient affordable housing in the city. Amsterdam is missing its target and needs to take steps to improve housing in the city.

The three other lenses in Figure 7 -- local/ecological, global/social, and global/ecological - each have their own framework to guide thinking about the state of the city and what needs to be done to meet the needs of all within the means of the planet.

The local/ecological lens asks changemakers to consider how nature provides its resources and resilience and how our built environment, policies and actions can mimic nature’s genius, a concept called biomimicry.

The global/social lens asks changemakers and city residents to consider how consumption patterns and choices can positively and negatively affect people around the world. When we take action in our local community, we need to ensure that we do not harm others elsewhere in the world, for example through exploitative labour conditions in the products we develop for our communities.

Finally, the global/ecological lens requires that we consider our actions in terms of the limit of the planet’s resources. Here again we see the Planetary Boundaries framework in action. If you would like to explore the Doughnut’s city lenses in greater detail, you can read The Amsterdam City Doughnut: A Tool for Transformative Action.

In the short video below, Kate Raworth, the creator of the Doughnut model, explains the concept and how Amsterdam is using it to guide its urban development.

There are a number of ways that the Doughnut model can help you with your Youth Mayors project.

1. Direction - You can get some direction on your Youth Mayors projects by considering the needs of human beings (inner circle) and the limits of the planet (outer circle). The Doughnut can give you inspiration when you are looking for ideas to make positive changes in your communities. For example, housing is listed in the Doughnut. Perhaps you have heard that housing has become unaffordable in your city, or that there is an issue with housing rights in informal settlements. This could be a focus of your changemaking in your community. The Doughnut reminds us of the human needs and planetary boundaries that need our attention.

If you are curious to find out where your country or city falls short in the social foundations or ecological ceiling, you can use the Good Life tool developed by researchers at the University of Leeds. You could also have a look at the Sustainable Development Report. There are a number of useful dashboards for different regions of the world, and in some cases at a city level, that can point you to areas that need improvement.

2. Evaluation - Secondly, the matrix lenses in Figure 6 can help you evaluate the ideas you have for your community, developed in Module 2(b). You can use the lenses to make sure that your ideas are also positive for those outside your community, as well as good for the local and global natural environment.

3. Investigation - Finally, you can use the Doughnut model and the lenses to help you research and understand the big picture of your community and how it is or is not meeting the needs of all within the limits of the planet. You could use the framework to see the interconnections and tensions between different academic disciplines, government departments and social groups. You can also use the framework to do a holistic assessment of your household, your school, a business, your local neighbourhood or even your city. We need to establish where we are on human needs and environmental pressures in order to see where we need to go.

“The 17 Goals | Department of Economic and Social Affairs.” United Nations, United Nations, sdgs.un.org/goals.

The Nine Planetary Boundaries. Stockholm Resilience Centre, 2020, www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries/planetary-boundaries/about-the-research/the-nine-planetary-boundaries.html.

Raworth, Kate. Doughnut Economics. Penguin Random House, 2017.

Raworth, Kate. “A Doughnut for the Anthropocene: Humanity's Compass in the 21st Century.” The Lancet Planetary Health, vol. 1, no. 2, 2017, doi:10.1016/s2542-5196(17)30028-1.

Raworth, Kate et al. Doughnut Economics Action Lab, 2020, Amsterdam City Doughnut, www.kateraworth.com/2020/04/08/amsterdam-city-doughnut/.

Raworth, Kate. “What on Earth Is the Doughnut?...” Kate Raworth: Exploring Doughnut