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Sufficiency in the city: is a global approach possible?

Urbanistik - Sufficiency in the city - JCDecaux

Sufficiency in the city: is a global approach possible?


Discover this strategic intelligence note to learn more about the notion of sufficiency, which seems to be able to offer a new ideal. This note is divided into three sections. It first explores the historical construction of sufficiency over the centuries, then looks at the way in which it has recently entered the public debate in Europe, under the pressure of the energy crisis, and the conditions under which it can be set up as a social project on a territorial scale. Finally, in the third part, this note focuses on five cities around the world that have implemented global public policies based on sufficiency. 

  • Happy sufficiency is a movement of "declared resistance to excessive consumption", with a social approach on the inequalities that opulence has induced, according to Pierre Rabhi.
     
  • Several types of sufficiency: structural, dimensional, of use, convivial.
     
  • What is slow-tech ? The approach which aims to meet the essential needs of humans on Earth, using the least amount of technology, and creating as few negative externalities as possible, from manufacturing to the use of its innovations.
     
  • IBEST (Indicators of Territorial Sustainable Well-Being) seeks to quantify social well-being according to sustainability thresholds, which are supposed to define a minimum acceptable level of quality of life, within the limits of environmental and natural resource constraints. 
     

What is the notion of sufficiency?

Sufficiency is a notion that has its roots in ancient philosophies and that today has concrete applications, which go beyond energy sobriety. It is experiencing a return to grace, in the light of the current ecological crisis, by proposing another ideal of growth, focused on the long term and the fair satisfaction of needs complementary to progress in efficiency.  

Sufficiency, a lever identified to respond to crises

By encouraging moderation in consumption, sufficiency seems able to offer another ideal to populations, with the prospect of prosperity, which would not be synonymous with material overabundance. To this end, local authorities are privileged actors in the transition of territories and in the democratic reinvention that sufficiency implies.

An overview of concrete solutions with sufficiency as a guideline

Find out more about the initiatives put in place by five cities around the world that have implemented global public policies based on sufficiency. Examples that concern land use planning, citizens' consumption habits or methods of evaluating public action, some of which have been reproduced throughout the world.

Extract of the note:

Extract of the note: Sufficiency in the city

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