Zagreb, 12 March 2026

Mladen Domazet introduced the Degrowth Donut, a version of the doughnut that adds a cultural dimension to the model's usual biophysical and socio-economic ones. The model contains three segments, ten themes and 33 indicators, with 11 indicators for each of the three segments. It distinguishes between thresholds, representing the risk of shortfalls, and boundaries, representing the risk of overshoot. Both thresholds/shortfalls and boundaries/overshoots can be biophysical, socio-economic or cultural. The model is contextually adaptable and can therefore be used to analyse different kinds of places and organisations.

Domazet illustrated it with an analysis of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, using staff surveys, utility bills, internal records and an energy inspection report as data sources. The finding that stood out: the theatre's attitudes toward sustainability were not the problem — its actual environmental performance was. That distinction between what an organisation believes and what it does became one of the recurring threads of the course. Domazet also outlined practical approaches for cultural organisations wanting to work with the model without necessarily building a full indicator set. He calls for research via studio and fieldwork on local degrowth challenges such as mobility, food and housing. Another tool is “design under limits” sprints, for example, where groups are asked to find solutions to questions such as material and energy throughput limits on a very short deadline. Daring to draft is the message, “the path is the treasure”, just do it! Lastly, Domazet asks us to think how we would teach it, how we would say it to others, and asks us to trust in the power of the doughnut as a communication tool: here are the goals, which steps could we take?

As design principles Domazet advises to think over co-creation with communities (use your real problems and constraints, think about reciprocity), material accounting (embed sufficient energy and material budgets in projects), temporal literacy (name your vision, set goals to desirable global targets like net-zero at certain moments in time), distributed agency (focus on trust and wellbeing, include differing goals of different actors) and reflective dialogue (use experts, let values, trade-offs and unintended effects appear explicitly).

Domazet summarises that the doughnut structure gives cooperative work it’s ends and conceptual grammar; cooperative production translates those ends into new metabolic routines and returns disciplined feedback that sharpens or revises the doughnut framework.

This presentation was part of the Doughnut Economics for Cultural Sector and Cooperatives programme, jointly organised by Oikos think tank and Institute for Political Ecology IPE.

This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union. The opinions and views expressed are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Executive Agency for Education and Culture (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

Ghent, 12 March 2026

The Doughnut is a framework for economic thinking, developed by economist Kate Raworth. It uses the doughnut as visual to present it in a very accessible way: it combines an inner ring — the social foundation: the minimum standards of wellbeing, drawn from the UN Sustainable Development Goals, that no one should fall below — with an outer ring — the ecological ceiling: the planetary boundaries that human activity should not overshoot. The doughnut-shaped space between the two rings is what Raworth calls the safe and just space for humanity: a place where everyone's needs are met, within the means of the living planet.

This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union. The opinions and views expressed are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Executive Agency for Education and Culture (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.