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Sufficiency
From Growth and Overshoot to Enoughness
Series: - International Comparative Social Studies, Volume: 62
We inhabit a world of severe human-induced ecological overshoot. The ongoing ecological crisis, however, has not been caused equally by all humans. The economic growth-driven world economy is one with great disparities and socio-economic inequality, where the affluence and technologization of the wealthy part of humanity is secured by the labor of others and access to resources. Due to the prevailing socio-economic inequality and differences in environmental impacts between individuals, organizations, and nations, we argue that the primary attention in mitigating the overshoot should be given to the factors of affluence and technology, and only after this we should address the difficult questions related to human population. In the search for a meaningful ethos to study and guide our inquiry in the world of growth and overshoot, we propose applying the concept of sufficiency: the idea of âenoughnessâ. Accordingly, in this book, we ask what sufficiency could mean for affluence, technology, and population.
Contributors are: Karl Bonnedahl, Michel Bourban, Philip Cafaro, Pasi Heikkurinen, Mikko Jalas, Jessica Jungell-Michelsson, Lassi Linnanen, J. Mohorcich, Iana Nesterova, Tina Nyfors, Thomas Princen, Toni Ruuska, Joonas Uotinen, and Tere Vadén.
Contributors are: Karl Bonnedahl, Michel Bourban, Philip Cafaro, Pasi Heikkurinen, Mikko Jalas, Jessica Jungell-Michelsson, Lassi Linnanen, J. Mohorcich, Iana Nesterova, Tina Nyfors, Thomas Princen, Toni Ruuska, Joonas Uotinen, and Tere Vadén.
Toni Ruuska (D.Sc.) is University Lecturer at the Centre for Consumer Society Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki; Principal Investigator of Underdogs of Just Transition research project (2024â2028); Co-editor of Mayfly Books. Ruuska has co-edited Sustainability beyond Technology (Oxford, 2021) and is the author of Reproduction Revisited: Capitalism, Higher Education and Ecological Crisis (Mayfly, 2019). In addition to wide-ranging critique of capitalism, and technology, his research deals with degrowth, self-provisioning, and alternatives to capitalism. Theoretically he is involved in ecological Marxism, eco-feminism, and degrowth.
Tina Nyfors is Doctoral Researcher at the University of Helsinki. Her research focuses on sufficiency and her PhD thesis deals with sufficiency in the policy and environmental movement contexts. After the thesis is published, she will continue as a postdoctoral researcher. She has published, e.g., the article Ecological Sufficiency in Climate Policy: Towards Policies for Recomposing Consumption (Futura, 2020).
Tina Nyfors is Doctoral Researcher at the University of Helsinki. Her research focuses on sufficiency and her PhD thesis deals with sufficiency in the policy and environmental movement contexts. After the thesis is published, she will continue as a postdoctoral researcher. She has published, e.g., the article Ecological Sufficiency in Climate Policy: Towards Policies for Recomposing Consumption (Futura, 2020).
Acknowledgements
List of Figures and Tables
Notes on Contributors
1 Introduction: Sufficiency in the Time of Growth and Overshoot
âToni Ruuska and Tina Nyfors
2 Relational Sufficiency: an Essay on an Idea, a Principle, an Imperative
âThomas Princen
3 The Missing Activities in the IPAT Equation
âMikko Jalas
4 From Overconsumption to Respecting Planetary Boundaries
âTina Nyfors and Lassi Linnanen
5 Affluence at the Expense of Others: from the Hegemony of Capitalism to Degrowth Transitions towards Sufficiency
âToni Ruuska
6 A Business of Deep Transformations Is a Business of Sufficiency
âIana Nesterova and Jessica Jungell-Michelsson
7 Getting Our Bearings after Oil: Technology, Sufficiency and Types of Knowledge
âTere Vadén
8 Social Organization as Transformative Technology: from Demand-Driven Growth to Needs-Oriented Wellbeing
âKarl Johan Bonnedahl
9 Human-Powered Transit, Energy, and the Sufficiency of Slow Travel
âJ. MohorÄich
10 Taking Population Seriously in the IPAT Equation: Ethical and Political Implications of Planetary Boundaries
âMichel Bourban
11 Sufficient Population? Checklist for a More Proper Discourse on the Degrowth of Human Numbers in Affluent Societies
âPasi Heikkurinen and Joonas Uotinen
12 Too Many People: Applying IPAT in an Overpopulated World
âPhilip Cafaro
13 Conclusion: Sufficiency-Driven Change
âTina Nyfors and Toni Ruuska
Index
List of Figures and Tables
Notes on Contributors
PART 1: Setting the Stage
1 Introduction: Sufficiency in the Time of Growth and Overshoot
âToni Ruuska and Tina Nyfors
2 Relational Sufficiency: an Essay on an Idea, a Principle, an Imperative
âThomas Princen
3 The Missing Activities in the IPAT Equation
âMikko Jalas
PART 2: Sufficiency in Affluence
4 From Overconsumption to Respecting Planetary Boundaries
âTina Nyfors and Lassi Linnanen
5 Affluence at the Expense of Others: from the Hegemony of Capitalism to Degrowth Transitions towards Sufficiency
âToni Ruuska
6 A Business of Deep Transformations Is a Business of Sufficiency
âIana Nesterova and Jessica Jungell-Michelsson
PART 3: Sufficiency in Technology
7 Getting Our Bearings after Oil: Technology, Sufficiency and Types of Knowledge
âTere Vadén
8 Social Organization as Transformative Technology: from Demand-Driven Growth to Needs-Oriented Wellbeing
âKarl Johan Bonnedahl
9 Human-Powered Transit, Energy, and the Sufficiency of Slow Travel
âJ. MohorÄich
PART 4: Sufficiency in Population
10 Taking Population Seriously in the IPAT Equation: Ethical and Political Implications of Planetary Boundaries
âMichel Bourban
11 Sufficient Population? Checklist for a More Proper Discourse on the Degrowth of Human Numbers in Affluent Societies
âPasi Heikkurinen and Joonas Uotinen
12 Too Many People: Applying IPAT in an Overpopulated World
âPhilip Cafaro
13 Conclusion: Sufficiency-Driven Change
âTina Nyfors and Toni Ruuska
Index
This book is especially relevant for graduate students, doctoral candidates, researchers, and educators in the fields of sustainability studies, economics, social philosophy, and demographic studies. It is also of interest to decision-makers in the public, private, and third sectors.