Doughnut economics, degrowth and decoloniality. New directions for the Doughnut Portrait method

Transformative action is required to respond to the polycrisis of our age, across climate/ecological breakdown and mounting social inequalities. Doughnut economics and its “Portrait of Place” method have established themselves as tools for exploring local change through new possibilities that can help in this response. This position paper, based on a selective review of existing doughnut place portraits, examines how degrowth and decolonial approaches are intuitively part of the Doughnut model, conceptually and practically, and how they open up further opportunities to highlight what transformation looks like in the face of the global polycrisis. Exploring each of the four lenses of the Doughnut portrait method in turn (global-ecological, local-ecological, global-social, local-social), we critically explore and detail what these opportunities might be. While we found limited actual application of these ideas within existing Doughnut portraits, we recommend areas for further inquiry to enhance Doughnut portraits through degrowth and decolonial approaches. Specifically, these include paying more attention to assessing a wellbeing economy and provisioning systems, multi-species relations and the democratic rights and legal personhood of nature, the global impacts of supply chain activity from local consumption, and excess and uneven consumption and resource use and their impacts on critical planetary boundaries. We conclude by highlighting what could be the most lasting contribution of degrowth and decolonial approaches for the Doughnut model – to clarify, extend and embed debates and action in terms of what the economy could be beyond the dominant growth and colonial mindset.