Doughnut economics: from academic idea to 50 cities in five years
By April 2025, more than 50 local authorities around the world had integrated doughnut economics into their policies. This conceptual framework — proposed by Kate Raworth in 2012 — is moving out of books and into city plans.
The image is simple: a doughnut. On the inside, a social foundation — the basic needs that every society must guarantee: food, water, health, education. On the outside, an ecological ceiling — the planetary boundaries that must not be breached without irreversible consequences. The space between the two is where the economy should operate.
Kate Raworth proposed this framework in an Oxfam report in 2012. Many found it inspiring. Few thought it would one day appear in urban planning documents.
Yet by April 2025, it did — in more than 50 local authorities around the world. Amsterdam adopted it first, in 2020, to guide its post-COVID recovery. The city mapped its material flows, identified its dependencies, and repositioned its public procurement around circular and social criteria.
What changed in Amsterdam’s approach — and what other cities have taken up — is the starting question: no longer “how do we grow?” but “how do we thrive within limits?” It is a mental shift more than a technical revolution.
Fifty cities is not the majority. But it is enough to observe results, refine tools, and document what works. Theory is beginning to meet reality.
Further reading: GDP Doesn’t Measure Wellbeing: Amsterdam Replaced It — and 100 Cities Followed