Kate Raworth created the Doughnut Economics model, which describes a safe and just space for humanity between social foundations and ecological ceilings.
Raworth introduced the framework in a 2012 Oxfam discussion paper and developed it further in her 2017 book, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist. The model uses two concentric boundaries. The inner ring represents the minimum social conditions people need, while the outer ring represents planetary limits.
The space between those rings is the model’s proposed zone of human prosperity. Falling inside the social foundation indicates deprivation; crossing the ecological ceiling indicates environmental overshoot.
Doughnut Economics is not a literal food-based economic theory. The doughnut shape is a visual metaphor that brings social well-being and environmental sustainability into one diagram. Cities including Amsterdam have used related ideas in policy discussions.