A group of people from various backgrounds that enjoy being ambassadors of Doughnut Economics
Who we are
We are a group of people from various backgrounds that enjoy being ambassadors of Doughnut Economics. Since we founded our initiative amidst the Covid pandemic we still mostly organize ourselves remotely and digitally. Once a month we meet in person at changing venues.
A vision workshop at one of our meeting venues, the Spreefeld
We give workshops and keynotes adapted to specific requests and audiences, we participate in conferences and actions or campaigns of befriended initiatives and organisations. We also organize talks. 2021 even saw a series of talks about the four perspectives of the Doughnut City Portrait. Here we invited scientists, practitioners and artists to discuss a certain challenge for Berlin related to the local and global, social and ecological dimensions of the Doughnut.
Donut Berlin Talk #3: Global-Ecological Dimensions - Narratives for a New Relationship between Humans and Nature with Artist and Prof. Almut Linde, Researcher of Future Visions Felix Beer and Legal Expert Andreas Gutmann at Haus der Materialisierung
Those activities are mainly directed to and requested by people and organisations who themselves are already on the road towards a regenerative and just future.
What we love
To reach a different, less informed or engaged public we decided to bring Doughnut Economics directly to the streets of Berlin. First at our Donut Berlin Festival in autumn 2021 when we took our motto “Building bridges” literally on a bridge between two districts of Berlin with different social realities and cultures. Here we wanted to attract people's attention in their flow of daily life and invite their curiosity to explore our stands with food, games, questions about the good life, live screen printing and information about simple solutions to be active for a sustainable future.
We distributed food in the shape of Doughnuts, but no Doughnuts :)
People participated in a clean up of the surrounding area and collected and disposed of the waste
We also gave a stage to inspiring change agents from various organisations of our social-ecological transformation network. They talked about their work in which they address challenges like waste, safe and just mobility, democratic participation, economy for the common good, biodiversity, climate neutrality and encouraging visions for the future. Most people left astonished, intrigued and hopeful. Afterwards we received loads of positive feedback and requests to join our group.
The whole scenery during an interview with the independent candidate for German federal parliament, Lu Yen Roloff, who had Doughnut Economics at the DNA of her campaign
In September 2022 we did it again! We set up a mobile and modular “Doughnut Lab” that aimed at making the Doughnut Economy tangible on a temporary ‘play-street’. By this we addressed the immediate neighbours and random bypassers. For each of the Doughnut Economics principles, visitors were able to try out "tools" at 7 stations, carrying out a small experiment or solving a puzzle. We wanted to create a humorous, playful way of gaining knowledge, a tactile “Aha!” moment, and for attendees to leave with a positive memory of something that, oddly enough, is called the Doughnut Economy and is fundamentally related to the life of one and all.
One Example: Station for Doughnut Economics Principle 7, "Aim to thrive rather than to grow".
Growth in itself is not a goal or an end in itself. Growth is a phase in the cycle of becoming and ending. With this in mind, we built a matrix of themes and numbers from 1-7. People were invited to mark the importance they attribute to answers to the question: “What needs to grow in a society, to make it work well for everyone?” By the end of the afternoon, it became clear that qualities such as cooperation, sensitivity about discrimination, respect for nature, and the value of every human being were very popular. Growth in consumption, property or gross domestic product, on the other hand, were clearly voted out. Individual freedom as well as competition and rivalry were carefully evaluated and debated.
Visitors marking their answers
The voting result
Because we wanted sustainability to be embedded in every detail of the day of action, we assembled the lab components largely from used and recycled materials. Also all our signs were printed on offcuts from a printing house. We made everything modular and easy to assemble and disassemble, so we can reuse the set-up for further events.
Our workshop set-up, complete with curious children and happy adults.
After our festival we focused inwards to build our team as a community of trust and care - the Berlin Doughnauts - and to form a network of people enabling change (German Ermöglichungsnetzwerk). 2023 we founded an association, the Donut Berlin Verein. It shall enable us to gain public funding and support.
