The Doughnut model and Amsterdam’s Resilience Strategy

Summary: This case study explores the Doughnut model within the Doughnut Economics theory developed by economist Kate Raworth and its practical application through the Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL). In response to mounting ecological overshoot and persistent social inequities, the Doughnut model supports a global coalition of cities, communities, and institutions to embed systems thinking in economic governance.

Amsterdam became the first city to adopt the Doughnut model as a formal recovery and resilience strategy in 2020, using it to balance local wellbeing with global ecological boundaries. Co-developed with local partners, the “City Doughnut” reframes urban planning through four interconnected lenses—social, ecological, local, and global.

This case exemplifies Systemic Risk Response (SRR) criteria related to Complexity, Justice, Multiple Ways of Knowing, Universal Responsibility, Mainstreaming, and Sanctity of Nature. It highlights how reframing economic assumptions, building coalitions, and shifting mental models can catalyze systemic transformation. Amsterdam’s experience demonstrates how communities can drive adaptive, values-based responses to systemic risk—offering a replicable pathway for other cities. This case study is part of ASRA’s SRR Case Studies series—find out more in From Benches to Boardrooms: Responding to Systemic Risks.

Case Study: The Doughnut model and Amsterdam’s Resilience Strategy

Overview: Mainstream economics, shaping policy and academic curricula worldwide, continues to treat the environment as an externality. This limited view has contributed to the overshoot of six of nine critical planetary boundaries (Stockholm Resilience Centre, 2023), while billions of people remain deprived of basic needs, and progress on the global Sustainable Development Goals stagnates (UNDESA, 2023).

Oxford economist, Kate Raworth, proposes that there is “a safe and just space for humanity” where no-one falls beneath a social foundation or breaches the planet’s ecological ceiling (Raworth, 2012). She introduced this framework, dubbed the Doughnut model, in her 2017 book Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21^st-Century Economist (Raworth, 2017).

To turn theory into practice, Raworth co-founded the Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL) in 2019. DEAL supports a global network of changemakers, from cities to national governments, educators to businesses, working to turn Doughnut thinking into systemic change (DEAL, n.d.). Cities such as Amsterdam, Brussels, Ipoh, Nanaimo, and Tomelilla are among those applying the model, alongside more than 100 organizations worldwide including consultancies and NGOs (DEAL, 2024, DEAL Organizations, n.d.). 

In 2020, Amsterdam became the first city to formally adopt the Doughnut model as a recovery and resilience strategy in response to COVID-19. Officials used the model to meet residents’ essential needs—like housing and health—while reducing the city’s environmental impact beyond its fair share of planetary boundaries (Boffey, 2020). It marked a decisive break from traditional recovery approaches, embracing a vision that is regenerative, distributive, and rooted in systems thinking.

With support from Kate Raworth and DEAL, the city launched a broad strategy encompassing infrastructure upgrades, innovation initiatives, and sustainability-linked public procurement (Nugent, 2021). At its core is the Amsterdam City Doughnut, co-developed with DEAL and Circle Economy. It poses a guiding question: How can Amsterdam be a home to thriving people, in a thriving place, while respecting the wellbeing of all people and the health of the planet? (Amsterdam City Doughnut, 2020). The Data Portrait illustrates four interconnected lenses—social, ecological, local, and global—offering a holistic snapshot of the city’s impact. This framework has since inspired similar efforts in cities worldwide (Cities & Regions: Let’s Get Started).

Driving the model’s implementation is the Amsterdam Doughnut Coalition, a network of over 20 organizations—including design firms, universities, social enterprises, and the municipality—committed to embedding Doughnut principles in practice. Their collaboration has shaped major policies, including the Amsterdam Circular Strategy 2020–2025, Comprehensive Vision Amsterdam 2050, and the mobility plan, Amsterdam Makes Space (DEAL, 2024).

Innovation has also taken root at the grassroots. In the Bijlmer neighborhood, the concept of ‘Doughnut Deals’ emerged in 2019 to spotlight community-led projects that generate both social and ecological value.  ‘Doughnut Deals’ are a tool intended as a practical translation of the Doughnut Economy, focused on “the how” by creating a set of agreements between two or more partners working on at least three issues from the inside of the doughnut (DEAL Tools, n.d.). 

Highlights in Systemic Risk Response

A systemic risk response encompasses any action that deliberately seeks to mitigate, prepare for, adapt to, and/or transform away from the harms of systemic risks. This example highlights how reframing economic assumptions, building coalitions, and shifting mental models can catalyze systemic transformation.

Mainstreaming

DEAL contributes to mainstreaming and capacity development in systemic risk assessment and response by supporting broad, inclusive engagement with Doughnut Economics through publicly accessible guides, collaborative research, and open declarations from diverse actors—including local governments, businesses, NGOs, and consultancies—thereby shifting knowledge and practice away from siloed disciplines and proprietary expertise toward regenerative and distributive systems thinking (DEAL Business, n.d., DEAL Organizations, n.d.).

Complexity

At its core, Doughnut Economics offers a dynamic framework for assessing and reshaping economic systems in response to complex, interconnected risks. What distinguishes the Doughnut model is its recognition of interdependence: risks and responses do not operate in silos. This model explicitly engages with these cross-system trade-offs and synergies, supporting integrated decision-making in complex, adaptive systems (DEAL, 2024). Practitioners are encouraged to “think in systems” to experiment, learn, adapt, and evolve while remaining attuned to dynamic effects, feedback loops, and tipping points (DEAL, n.d.).

Sanctity of Nature

The Doughnut model serves as both a systemic risk assessment tool and a vision for sustainable development (see figure). The Doughnut model provides both a systemic risk-based and aspirational sustainable development framework to avoid social shortfalls across twelve human deprivations and rights, and environmental overshoots across the nine planetary boundaries (DEAL, n.d.).  The ‘Doughnut Unrolled’ framework guides neighborhoods, cities, districts, or nations in addressing social and ecological priorities simultaneously, aligning local aspirations with global ecological responsibility (DEAL, 2024).

Justice

The “social foundation” of the Doughnut model covers housing, gender equality, social equity, political voice, peace and justice, income and work, education, health, food, water, energy, and social capital and networks. Among the principles and guidelines recommended by DEAL for application by communities, businesses, and academic institutions is to “be distributive”, to “work in the spirit of open design and share the value created with all who co-created it” and to “be aware of power and seek to redistribute it to improve equity amongst stakeholders” (About Doughnut, n.d., DEAL, n.d.).

Universal Responsibility

Communities, businesses, and educational institutions adopting the model are encouraged to take a holistic perspective, recognizing the economy is embedded in—and dependent upon—both society and the living world. The model embraces the idea that human behavior is malleable; it can be shaped toward cooperation and care, not only competition and individualism. DEAL has documented nine city-level implementations of the Doughnut model, addressing  systemic risks in both the short- and long-term (DEAL, 2024). These pathways reflect change across three interconnected levels: relational through shifting networks, relationships, and power dynamics; mental through challenging dominant economic assumptions; and structural through changes in practices and decision-making.  

Multiple Ways of Knowing

All tools are released under a Creative Commons license reflecting the model’s core principles: to be distributive, share value with co-creators, and consciously address power dynamics to improve equity among stakeholders (DEAL, n.d.).

Key Insights and Lessons Learned

The Doughnut model is a tool for exemplary systemic risk response, embedding criteria related to Complexity, Justice, Universal Responsibility, and Non-human Sanctity. The Doughnut model highlights just and universal framing by focusing on planetary boundaries coupled with social foundations. It is an effective model to catalyze complex thinking while recognizing the interdependence between human and natural systems.

Experience from early adopters shows that implementing it demands a shift in mindset. Many cities were ready to act but unsure where to start (Goodwin, 2012). Transformation is rarely straightforward, as Ilektra Kouloumpi, a Circular Economy Consultant who has worked with Doughnut Economics in city contexts, reflects in a conversation with ASRA in February 2025: “When you are in the middle of it, transformation is difficult to see…it is changes in supporting systems that are happening synchronously in a myriad of ways.” Recognizing these subtle shifts is key to sustaining momentum. Kouloumpi also emphasized the need to “go beyond a single focus, e.g., circularity and resource loops, and look for synergies across a range of issues, with equity; bring in social considerations and narratives.”

Several lessons have emerged from city-level applications that offer guidance for others (DEAL, 2024):

1. Start with a Data Portrait: This accessible tool provides a comprehensive snapshot of local and global impacts, making Doughnut thinking easy to grasp and share within municipalities. It’s an effective starting point for embedding the model across departments.
2. Find political champions: Gaining traction requires elected officials who can carry the vision forward and institutionalize Doughnut principles in policy and planning.
3. Go beyond single-issue solutions: A systems-wide lens invites diverse actors and fosters innovation across sectors.
4. Know your limits: Successful implementation depends on honest assessment of available resources, data, and technical capacity. Cities must set realistic goals from the outset.
5. Adapt to context: Doughnut Economics is not a one-size-fits-all model. Its success hinges on tailoring efforts to local political dynamics, community needs, and cultural norms.

Ultimately, Doughnut Economics is not a plug-and-play solution but a transformative process.