sheffield doughnut snapshot
a tiny project aiming to create huge change
Over just three weeks, myself, Sean Bowdin and Yan En Pang from the University of Sheffield created a Doughnut Snapshot for Sheffield, UK. The Doughnut concept, created by Kate Raworth depicts the social foundation in the inner ring of the circle; setting the minimum standards for a decent life; and the outer ring of planetary boundaries which shows whether we are living within planetary limits. The space between the inner and outer circles is the safe and just space for humanity. This is where we need to be to ensure we are meeting human needs whilst remaining within planetary boundaries.
This snapshot is a starting point; created by just three people in three short weeks we know it doesn't tell the full story of Sheffield. We created it to spark conversations, invite debate and hopefully raise awareness (and funding) for further development of the Doughnut.
We invite you to explore the snapshot, interrogate the data, read our story and support the work if you're able.
the sheffield doughnut snapshot
The Doughnut Snapshot attemps to distill 12 Social indicators and 9 Planetary boundaries into one illustration. Arrows on the outer edge, outside of the ecological ceiliing show where Sheffield is breaching planetary boundaries. Green arrows inside indicate we are inside the just and safe space for humanity.
For the social indicators red arrows inside the hole of the doughnut show where Sheffield is not meeting social needs. Arrows closer to the center of the circle show a larger shortfall.
This illustration was created at breakneck speed within a few hours; we were keen to have something to show people at Kate Raworth's Festival of debate event to raise awareness of the power of Doughnut Economics in broadening out the discussion of what the economy is and what it should do.
With this in mind, it isn't perfect. It takes some design liberties and lacks some clarity in conveying what the indicators mean.
Future versions of the Sheffield snapshot would benefit from greater alignment with the original doughnut illustration (see below) BUT it's worth acknowledging that it was definitely worth creating and printing the posters as it meant we could share our work with Kate Raworth herself who show cased it at the Festival of Debate in front of hundreds of people. We are truly grateful to Kate for using this platform to raise awareness of our work.
The Doughnut Snapshot to the left was created using the Doughnut Generator developed by the Cambridge Doughnut Economics Group. A huge thanks to Jezz for creating this resource!
This snapshot illustrates Sheffield's social and ecological indicators more accurately.
The data behind the doughnut
The illustrative visual is great, but what does it actually show?
In Doughnut Economics, Kate Raworth suggests using 12 social indicators which act as a social foundation beneath which no one should fall below. There are an additional 9 planetary boundaries which act as an ecological ceiling that we should remain within as overshoot of these boundaries puts us at risk of ecological collapse. The indicators are listed below;
social indicators
Food
Health
education
Income and Work
Water and sanitation
Energy
Networks
Housing
Equality
Social equity
political voice
peace and justice
planetary indicators
climate change
ocean acidification
chemical pollution
nitrogen and phosphorous loading
freshWater withdrawals
land conversion
biodiversity loss
air pollution
ozone layer depletion
Underneath each of the indicators Kate Raworth suggested 1-2 metrics to estimate whether we were in the safe and just space for humanity in each category. For brevity I won't list out here all of the metrics we considered (which also includes metrics from Doughnut snapshots from across the world); I'll write that up in a longer process note. For now we've created a summary table that lists out the;
indicators,
metrics,
short explanation of the metric,
Data date
social foundation (desirable level),
Sheffield (or proxy) figure
Upper bound (maximum shortfall)
Standardised weighted percentage (for Doughnut illustrative purposes)
The summary table also includes an explanation of each of the data columns.
We are keen to stress this work is a starter for ten, a prototype, a provocation; something to build momentum towards thinking about Sheffield's economy in a different way. It is not a finished article and needs further development by the people of Sheffield to bring it to life.
It's worth highlighting here that the research, data gathering and analysis was completed in just three weeks; under some indicators we had to drop metrics because we couldn't analyse or clarify the data before our deadline. In coming weeks I'll write a longer note that sets out the data challenges, areas for further investigation and potential future metrics and data sources for future updates.
We are also aware that the selection of these metrics is not neutral or unbiased and would welcome feedback, community engagement and a wider conversation with residents of Sheffield to give greater diversity to the data which would also provide a more realistic idea of what life in Sheffield is really like.
Finally the desirable level and upper bounds are also open for debate; is 3-5% unemployment really acceptable? What level of ocean acidification is ok? We need your help to define how we measure our economy's success and what boundaries we want to set.
A few months ago Tracy Horton from the University of Sheffield emailed me. Would I like to host an intern?
I wasn't sure. Flourish Economics is just me, a self employed mum, juggling family life struggling to find paid work.
What project would interest interns, allow them to develop their skills and have a tangible output they could showcase their work?
Doughnut Economics sprang to mind. I'd been thinking of trying to create a Sheffield Doughnut for a while. This was the perfect opportunity.
Sean Bowdin and Yan En Pang stepped up to the challenge. Over three weeks during the Easter holidays they researched Doughnut Snapshots from around the world, explored indicators and figured out the maths behind how to illustrate their findings using the Doughnut diagram.
By pure chance Kate Raworth was scheduled to speak about Doughnut Economics, an idea she coined and wrote a best selling book about, at the Festival of Debate on the last day of the internship.
Knowing this was our chance to get the Sheffield Doughnut in front of local people we knew we needed a way to share our work. I hastily put a poster together in a few hours (having only agreed the data the evening before), collected it from the printers just 20 minutes before they closed and a couple of hours before Kate Raworth was due to speak in Sheffield about Doughnut Economics.
We were hoping to put the posters up at the venue, around the entrance and hoped that a few people might be intrigued and get in touch.
What we didn't expect was to bump into Kate Raworth in the lift as she made her way to the lecture theatre. I literally gave an elevator pitch, waving the hot off the press posters at her excitedly.
Not only was she interested, complimentary and genuinely happy to see our work; she asked "can I take a poster to show the audience?"
We agreed, not quite believing our luck.
True to her word, she showed off our work to the audience of several hundred local Doughnut enthusiasts, encouraged people to reach out to us and even took the poster with her when she left 🥹💚
I'm so, so proud of Sean Bowdin and Yan En Pang for their incredible work and perseverance on this project. I have been so impressed with their thoughtful questions, research skills and ability to work to incredibly tight timescales to pull this off. The Sheffield Doughnut wouldn't exist without you!
At the start of the project I was worried about what I could offer the interns. Interning with a tiny organisation doesn't look too impressive on your CV; but thanks to Opus Independents for running the Festival of Debate, Kate Raworth and the wonderful audience I really feel Sean and Yan En have received the recognition they deserve for their hard work.
Huge thanks to Indy Johar and James Lock for beautiful provocations and invitations at the event 💚
PS Also a huge thank you to the photographer that captured the amazing photograph of Kate holding the Doughnut Snapshot! I will be forever grateful!
the story so far
what next?
We hope the Sheffield Doughnut Snapshot will be a starting point for a bigger movement in Sheffield. A movement that forces us to think more holisticially about our economy, human needs and planetary boundaries.
Flourish Economics would love to run a workshop with as many people from the city as possible to talk through the Doughnut and build momentum for further work; this must be a broad and diverse conversation that incorporates the variety of lived experiences across the city.
But this will require resources; Flourish needs financial resources to be able to pay staff working on the project, we need material resources such as venues, food and drinks to offers events and get the Doughnut out to communities, we need cognitive and lived experience resources or simply people sharing their ideas, stories of their life in Sheffield and knowledge of different projects happening in and around the city.
If you can offer any resources to this project, please get in touch.
I'm going to plan to run an event in June, which will give people some time to digest the amazing insights from speakers at the Festival of Debate, pour over the Doughnut metrics and ruminate on how the Doughnut could be developed in Sheffield.
Watch this space!