Menu image/svg+xml

How to reach a Good Life: Developing Strategies with the Sufficiency Politics Map

Sufficiency means more with less, the goal is to reduce resource consumption in order to reach a Good Life. Yet, this aim is far from being fulfilled and sustainable and sufficient lifestyles face many obstacles. The Sufficiency Politics Map is an online tool supporting actors of change, ranging from civil society, politics to businesses, who wish to promote sufficiency. It intends to support them to find their way through the complexities of sufficiency policy, to communicate successfully and, above all, engage them to act politically. The map was developed by Angelika Zahrnt and Dominik Zahrt in cooperation with the IÖW and was published on the Blog Postwachstum as a contribution to the 5th International Degrowth Conference in Budapest.

The map is based on the book “The Politics of Sufficiency – Making it easier to live the Good Life” (Schneidewind und Zahrnt 2013, free download here) and it helps to design and implement applied projects, campaigns, strategy processes and political measures. Actors promoting the debate about sufficiency and developing their own strategies find valuable and comprehensive assistance: Step by step the map guides through a complex political domain. Users can get a clearer picture of the complexity of sufficiency and relevant actors, find concepts and reference points for specific projects and provides inspiration for strategies and successful communication. It also offers exemplary approaches and best practices.  

The Sufficiency Politics map aims to strengthen cooperation between environmentalists and other actors from the post-growth and degrowth movement, and it supports them on a conceptual and practical level. Please find more background information here on the degrowth blog.  

The map has been created by Dominik Zahrnt, (r)evolutionary ideas, and Angelika Zahrnt, honorary chairwoman of the BUND (Friends of the Earth Germany) and IÖW-Fellow in cooperation with the IÖW.  The online version has been supported by the Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Wirtschaft, Technologie und Forschung (Berlin Senate Department for Economics, Technology and Research). An introductory article about the current state and future perspectives of sufficiency politics as well as about the conceptual background of the map has also appeared in ÖkologischesWirtschaften (Journal “Ecological Economy”) 3/2016 (only in German).

The Institute for Ecological Economy Research currently applies the topics sufficiency and resource conservation in various projects, such as “Digitalization and social-ecological transformation - Rebound Risks and Sufficiency Opportunities of Digital Services” or “Approaches to Resource Conservation in the Context of Degrowth Concepts” and “Post-Growth Pioneers.