Sufficiency

We inhabit a world of human-induced ecological overshoot. However, the ongoing ecological crisis has not been caused equally by all humans, due to the nature of the growth-driven world economy. Whereas the I=PAT equation can be considered a useful tool to assess the human-induced impacts on the environment, we argue that because of the prevailing socio-economic inequality, power imbalance, and differences in environmental footprints, primary attention should be given to the factors of affluence (A) and technology (T), as fundamental causes of the overshoot, and only after this, to population (P). In the search for a meaningful ethos to guide our inquiry in the world of growth and overshoot, we propose applying the humble concept of sufficiency: the idea of ‘enoughness’. Accordingly, in this book, we explore 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.

Author Biography

Toni Ruuska (D.Sc.) is a Lecturer at the University of Helsinki, Principal Investigator of the Underdogs of Just Transition research project (2024–2027), and Co-editor of Mayfly Books. He co-edited Sustainability Beyond Technology (Oxford University Press, 2021) and is the author of Reproduction Revisited: Capitalism, Higher Education and Ecological Crisis (Mayfly Books, 2019). His theoretical focus includes ecological Marxism, critical theory, and eco-feminism.

Tina Nyfors (Ph.D.) is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Helsinki. Her research focuses on sufficiency in both policy and environmental movement contexts. She is the author of, among others, the article “Ecological Sufficiency in Climate Policy: Towards Policies for Recomposing Consumption” (2020).