Sweet dreams. How the doughnut diagram works to preempt more radical approaches to planning

Abstract

Doughnut Economics has become an important model for planning, often assumed to offer a better, more sustainable approach. This article engages with such assumptions by critically interrogating the radical potential of doughnut planning. It does this through examining the doughnut diagram, which conceptualizes core ideas of Doughnut Economics, and by relating these to discussions in planning. The analysis draws on Lacanian thought and extends the psychoanalytic approach to include visual representations in planning. It shows that the doughnut diagram forecloses ways of seeing and enjoying that more fundamentally could challenge mainstream planning. Assuming the doughnut diagram is shaping doughnut planning, this leads to the conclusion that this planning model works against more far-reaching ambitions of some of the planners rallying around it.