Social and political challenges to sufficiency

Mathieu Saujot
Director of the Lifestyles in Transition program at IDDRI
(Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations)

Sufficiency benefits from considerable resonance in the public sphere. Understood as a re-interrogation of the legitimacy of our needs, it makes no sense unless implemented at individual and collective levels. Public policies have a key role to play, but they must make the link between sufficiency and solidarity in order to strengthen its social acceptability. In addition to developing sector-specific policies to encourage sufficiency in various industries, from digital to textiles, teaching people about the main cycles that govern our day-to-day lives is fundamental if we are to grasp the purpose of the sufficiency approach.