Spaces Beyond Growth (Past)

In recent years, Doughnut Economics has become an increasingly important inspiration for cities and local governments. From envisioning and strategic endeavors, communication formats to framework for local indicators, alongside bottom up or top-down initiatives, many cities worldwide have made use and adapted the Doughnut Economics approach to their own place-based planning, processes, participation or advocacy efforts. Moreover, different actors and institutions are working on guidance and tools for local stakeholders, on peer-learning and knowledge exchange, outreach and research. 

Some of the organizations and persons engaged in the practical implementation of Doughnut Economics are coming together along the occasion of the Global Donut Day. The goal of this webinar is to showcase and discuss:

• state of the art research questions along the topic of spatializing degrowth/postgrowth and its connection to Doughnut Economics at the local level 
• Tools, guidance, and concrete examples of how cities and local governments can use the doughnut economics approach in their own context, with examples from Germany - this to serve as inspiration for other cities, communities and individuals 
• Experiences and insights from the audience/collective intelligence joining, offering a space for sharing, joint learning, networking and cross-fertilization 

You can find further information about the tools and examples here: 

• New guide for local and regional governments engaging with Doughnut Economics here | DEAL – Doughnut Economics Action Lab 
• Donut Economics – visualizing, communicating and implementing sustainability here | Next Economy Lab NELA 
• About Bad Nauheim (in German), also a case study on the publication Doughnut Economics as a Strategic Compass - How municipal strategists can use doughnut economics for impact-oriented transformation  and Frankfurt Doughnut Coalition. 

With inputs from: 

• Leonora Grcheva (PhD) from DEAL  
• Hannah Strobe from NELA
• Yuge Lei from Bad Nauheim 
• Benedikt Schmid (PhD) from Uni Freiburg

Moderation: 

• Luciana Maia and Anton Brokow-Loga from the Spaces Beyond Degrowth - Municipal Degrowth Network 

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Yuge Lei is the advisor for sustainability and innovation for the city of Bad Nauheim and founder of the Frankfurt Donut Coalition. She draws on many years of experience with sustainability projects worldwide, and is now driving forward municipal transformation in Bad Nauheim. She has initiated and is currently accompanying the first adaptation of Doughnut Economics in a German municipal context. She studied Economics at Goethe University-Frankfurt and holds a Master's degree in Development Planning from University College London.

Leonora Grcheva (PhD) is the Cities & Regions Lead at the Doughnut Economics Action Lab (DEAL), where she support cities, regions and other place-based administrations that are exploring different ways to put Doughnut Economics into practice in their own context. Leonora is an urban planner, researcher and participation practitioner, holding a PhD in Urbanism. She has worked as an urban planning consultant for UN-Habitat, a city leadership associate for University College London, a community engagement consultant for planning and regeneration projects in the UK, and an activist in her home country Macedonia. 

Hannah Strobel is a sociologist and co-founder of NELA -  Next Economy Lab and three other sustainable organizations.Her work focuses on sustainability and transformation research.  In projects, consultations and presentations, she combines this holistic approach to sustainability with innovative methods such as Design Thinking, Warm Data Lab or Peer to Peer Learning to create breakthroughs in sustainability. She is project manager of „Participative community development with the Donut Economy“ and „Road to Carbon Neutral School.“ Hannah co-developed the methods and website for a municipal donut with Jonas Bothe.

Hannah Finklenburg is a psychology student at Maastricht University with a strong commitment to promoting climate justice through participatory and climate communication approaches. After co-founding the Green Team at her faculty and developing a course on "International Psychology and Climate Change", she now works at NELA. Next Economy Lab. There she is involved in the practical application of the Doughnut in „Participative community development with the Doughnut Economy“.

Benedikt Schmid (PhD) is a postdoctoral researcher at the Chair of Geography of Global Change at the University of Freiburg.  In his research, he investigates the institutionalization of practices and organizational forms with socio-ecological objectives, with a particular focus on transformation processes towards sustainable and growth-independent economic forms. He has recently published e.g. Post-growth municipalism: Exploring the scalar constitution, strategic relevance, and legal viability of the municipal scale for tackling growth dependencies or Post-Growth Geographies. Spatial Relations of Diverse and Alternative Economies.