Sufficiency: the social and symbolic challenges. Scoping and presentation of this issue

Abstract

Sufficiency is a paradigm that in recent years has attracted the support of a wide range of stakeholders (NGOs, businesses and international institutions) as a way of enabling transitions in our lifestyles and production methods, and cutting our greenhouse gas emissions. A concept whose philosophical and religious roots are founded on the idea of individual asceticism, the notion of sufficiency invites us to question the usefulness of our needs in terms of goods and services, as well as rethink methods we use for production and collective organization. While sufficiency-based approaches are today encountered in many different fields, as illustrated in this issue of Facts, they also pose a number of challenges. For example, sufficiency comes up against the question of inequalities as well as the challenge of desirability.