Everyday practices and needs as entry points for an operationalisation of more collective approaches to sufficiency

Abstract

When it comes to grappling with both the environmental and social dimensions of energy transitions, sustainable wellbeing can be seen as a normative aim to be achieved through the satisfaction of human needs. This article exposes an engaging conceptual framework that describes the reduction of consumption through social practice theory, combined with a eudaimonic approach to wellbeing. Drawing on individual interviews with people who declare themselves as ‘living degrowth’ in French-speaking Switzerland, the article discusses everyday practices of consumption reduction that inform the actualisation of fundamental needs. The article proposes an operationalisation of Max-Neef’s approach of needs satisfaction, showing that an emphasis can be placed on sustainable practices representing synergic satisfiers. To support social change towards sufficiency, the article discusses that synergic satisfiers must be planned for collectively. Synergic collective changes are discussed in relation to synergic configurations of practices towards consumption reduction and needs satisfaction – or sufficiency.