Systems Thinking in Place: A Global Donut Days Lab

What happens when we stop looking at community challenges as isolated problems and start looking at the systems that connect them?

As part of DEAL’s Global Donut Days 2026, I will be hosting a practitioner lab exploring Doughnut Economics, systems thinking, and place-based resilience.

What is Doughnut Economics?

Developed by economist Kate Raworth, Doughnut Economics is a framework for understanding what it means for people and communities to thrive within ecological limits.

The model describes a social foundation—the conditions people need to live healthy, secure, and meaningful lives—and an ecological ceiling—the environmental limits that support life on Earth.

The space between them represents a safe and just space for humanity: where human needs can be met without exceeding the planet’s ecological limits.

What is systems thinking?

Systems thinking is an approach to understanding how different parts of a system interact, influence one another, and change over time. Rather than examining problems in isolation, it looks at relationships, patterns, pressures, and interdependencies across the whole system.

This is particularly useful when working with complex community challenges where housing, economic vitality, ecological health, emergency resilience, civic infrastructure, and social connection are often deeply interconnected.

The Lab

During the lab, a Carmel Valley systems model developed over the past year will be used as a working case study.

The model explores:

Shortfalls — where fundamental social needs aren't being adequately met.
Breaches — where ecological limits are being exceeded.
Pressures — where existing systems are under increasing stress.
Connections — where seemingly separate challenges are part of the same system.
Capacities — the relationships, institutions, knowledge, resources, and community assets that can become part of the solution.

Participants will explore the methodology behind building place-based systems models, consider how Doughnut Economics can be applied at a community scale, and bring their own places, questions, and experience into the conversation.

No prior experience with Doughnut Economics or systems thinking is required.
The lab will be participatory and exploratory, with opportunities to work individually, in small groups, and collectively.

Space will be limited.

To register, email daniela@fieldandformca.com with your name and affiliation/role, the place or context you're working on, and what brings you to the lab.