Academic dissertations

Version 1.3 (February 2025)

Overview

Welcome to the DEAL Team’s curated list of student-led dissertations and research projects that deepen the concepts and application of Doughnut Economics (also available as a PDF version here and at the bottom of this page).

DEAL’s motivation for this tool is to inspire and lightly guide future research by providing a repository that helps make student-led research more visible. This living list is organised by year of submission and it will be updated periodically, but it is by no means exhaustive.

Please let us know if you have a dissertation or student-led research project to add to the collection, by sending a message via the contact page and select 'Research & Data Analysis' from the category options.

The DEAL Team does not currently have the capacity to supervise or co-supervise student-led research on an ongoing basis, but we may be able to share thoughts and connect you with others in the wider research community if you get in touch. In addition, we invite you to:

• Join the DEAL Community as a member.
• Draw on the materials we have compiled below (and also the DEAL Team’s complementary list of published academic articles and reports).
• Share back your dissertation once complete.
• Join future webinars for student-researchers to connect with others and present their ongoing / completed research (to be announced in DEAL’s newsletter).

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2025

• Graham, F (2025) Mind the turnout gap: An in-depth inquiry into political voice in the context of Doughnut Economics: A mixed methods case study for Our Future Leeds (Master’s Dissertation), Centre for Alternative Technology, United Kingdom

2024

• Fur, HK (2024) Building towards a More-than-Human Development Index: Integrating More-than-Human worlds in development accounting (Master’s Dissertation), Maastricht University, Netherlands.
•  Goilo, JCME (2024) Information actors beyond modernity and coloniality in times of climate change: A comparative design ethnography on the making of monitors for sustainable futures in Curaçao and Amsterdam between 2019–2022 (Doctoral Dissertation), University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.
• Hamid Hosseini, SK (2024) Applying Doughnut Economics in small-scale urban development projects: The case study of future school, Tomelilla, Sweden (Master’s Dissertation), Malmö University, Sweden.
• Llewellyn, A (2024) From neoliberalism to Doughnut Economics: Reshaping the hegemonic impact of capitalism on law and development in Africa for equity and sustainability (Master’s Dissertation), SOAS University of London, United Kingdom.

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2023

• Bergeling, E (2023) Turning the Doughnut from vision to reality in Wales: The Case of Bannau Brycheiniog National Park (Master’s Dissertation), Uppsala University, Sweden.
• Bravo Madeira, M (2023) Economia donut como ferramenta de avaliação e monitorização do desenvolvimento sustentável: O caso da região centro do Portugal (Master’s Dissertation in Portuguese), Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal.
• Dijkstra, WAB (2023) To do or Doughnut: Defining the limits of the urban safe and just operating space (Master’s Dissertation), Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway.
• Heide, M (2023) Operationalisation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals in absolute sustainability assessments of the building industry in Denmark (Doctoral Dissertation), Technical University of Denmark.
• Janusek, W (2023) Invisible energies in city making (Bachelor’s Dissertation), University of the Arts London, UK.
• Maycock, L (2023) A study of government policy and student attitudes towards economic degrowth principles (Master’s Dissertation), University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom. 
• Quast, LM (2023) Doughnut Economics in practice: Unrolling the Doughnut with citizens of Tomelilla, Sweden (Master’s Dissertation), University of Freiburg, Germany.
• Robertson-Fall, T (2023) How useful is Doughnut Economics to inform climate policymaking in Belfast? (Master’s Dissertation), Queen’s University Belfast, United Kingdom. 
• Sala Benites, H (2023) Regenerative circularity for the built environment: A positive impact framework for urban transitions (Doctoral Dissertation), University of New South Wales, Australia.
• Tress, D (2023) A strong sustainability framework for assessing implementation strategies for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (Master’s Dissertation), Lund University, Sweden.

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2022

• Acosta, F (2022) Nexuscapes: A landscape approach for a transdisciplinary water-energy-food nexus decision-making process (Doctoral Dissertation), University of Nevada Las Vegas, USA.
• Bengtsson, C (2022) Munkmodellen - Något Nytt Under Solen? (Bachelor’s Dissertation in Swedish), University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
• Calisto Friant, M (2022) From circular economy to circular society: Analysing circularity discourses and policies and their sustainability implications (Doctoral Dissertation), Utrecht University, Netherlands.
• Contreras C., Carla Andrea (2022) A Rosquinha Econômica (Doughnut Economics) Como Indicador de Sustentabilidade: Uma Bússola para o Desenvolvimento Sustentável do Brasil (Bachelor’s Dissertation in Brazilian Portuguese), National University of Latin American Integration, Brazil.
• Eriksson, F (2022) Towards a critical understanding of Doughnut Economics: The case study of Tomelilla, Sweden (Master’s Dissertation), Lund University, Sweden.
• Gupta, S (2022) Preserving Ganga through sustainable agriculture: Where are we on the Donut? (Master’s Dissertation), Jindal Global Law School, India.
• Hanbury Lemos, MM (2022) Decoloniality and the Global Social lens of the Doughnut economy (Master’s Dissertation), Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain.
• Moretti, M (2022) Can Doughnut Economics fill Amsterdam’s dietary needs? (Master’s Dissertation), European University Institute.
• Moule, C (2022) Is a Doughnut Economics-based framework a viable tool to enhance effective decision-making in English councils? (Bachelor’s Dissertation), University of Kent, United Kingdom.
• Power, R (2022) Squaring the Doughnut: Investigating the extent to which Doughnut Economics has been applied to Cork City Development Plan (Master’s Dissertation), Dublin City University, Ireland.
• Prinsen JM (2022) Ecological Economics in Higher Education: A study on the state of the art in Ecological Economics education and the challenges and opportunities for its development (Master’s Dissertation), Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway. 
• Reiterer, F (2022) A Physicalisation of the Planetary Boundary Network: Creating data-based objects to convey the meaning of scientific data on a multisensoral level (Master Dissertation), St Pölten University of Applied Sciences, Austria.
• Risso, A (2022) Análisis de la viabilidad y utilidad de la aplicación del modelo de la dona económica a la Argentina (Master’s Dissertation in Spanish), Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO Argentina), Argentina. 
• Røkås, T (2022) Defining a safe and just operating space for the Norwegian economy (Master’s Dissertation), Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway.
• Zoons, T (2022) Regeneration at the Coast: Benefits beyond blue carbon (Master’s Dissertation), Utrecht University, Netherlands.

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2021

• Hansen, C (2021) Prosperierende Städte innerhalb planetarer Grenzen: Aufstellung des City-Donuts für Berlin (Master's Dissertation in German), Berlin Institute of Technology, Germany.
• Mayson, SS (2021) Enabling a wellbeing economy in the Eastern neighbourhoods of inner-city Johannesburg (Doctoral Dissertation), University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. 
• Pokkinen, K (2021) Utilisation of Doughnut model in sustainable development: City Portrait of the Tampere Region (Master’s Dissertation in Finnish), Lappeenranta–Lahti University of Technology, Finland.
• Preluca, A (2021) Doing business in the Doughnut: the sustainability of worker co-operatives (Master’s Dissertation), Uppsala University, Sweden.
• Rawsthorne, C (2021) The challenge of thriving, zero-carbon, socially just cities: an exploration of urban policy making in a degrowth context - A case study of Leeds (Master’s Dissertation), University of Leeds, United Kingdom.
• Solanki, A (2021) “Leeds is not an island”: decolonising climate action in activism and municipal governance in Leeds (Master’s Dissertation), University of Leeds, United Kingdom.
• Valencia Leñero, EM (2021) Finding a safe and just space for water use in Mexico City (Master’s Dissertation), Lund University, Sweden.

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2020 and earlier

• Cole, M (2017) Tracking inclusive sustainable development at multiple scales: South Africa’s safe and just operating spaces (Doctoral Dissertation), University of Oxford, United Kingdom.
• Fanning, AL (2016) Policy options for sustainable and equitable coastal economies: A comparative case study (Doctoral Dissertation), University of Cadiz, Spain.
• Fauré, E (2018) Sharing the Doughnut: Exploring sustainable and just futures (Doctoral Dissertation), KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.
• Hossain, MS (2017) Safe operating space for development and ecosystem services in Bangladesh (Doctoral Dissertation), University of Southampton, United Kingdom.
• Isaac, R (2018) Restitching the common thread (Master’s Dissertation), Stockholm University, Sweden.
• Quierós de Sousa Basto, RC (2020) Bem-estar no Antropoceno (Master’s Dissertation in Portuguese), Universidade do Minho, Portugal.
• Zecca, F (2020) The Edinburgh City Portrait: downscaling the Doughnut economic model to the city of Edinburgh (Master’s Dissertation), University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom.

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Acknowledgements

This tool was created by Andrew Fanning with contributions from Kate Raworth. Photo credit to Helena Lopes on Unsplash.