Oral Presentation by Anne Kraudi¹, Ernest Aigner¹
¹ Social-Ecological Systems Institute, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany
TIME: Tuesday, 14 July, 10:30 – 12:00
Location: Room 2
Session: 2
Abstract
Sufficiency is increasingly acknowledged as a key strategy for promoting well-being for all within planetary boundaries – critically questioning capitalism and the economic growth paradigm. Nevertheless, insights on public perceptions of what is enough, i.e. levels of sufficient consumption and its determinants, remain largely underexplored. Building on a socio-psychological framework based on an interdisciplinary ecological economics and environmental psychology foundation, we combined 32 semi-structured interviews with survey instruments, examining enoughness notions and eliciting monetary enoughness levels for 27 consumer goods and service categories. To analyse underlying socio-psychological determinants and justifications of the respective enoughness levels, we developed a framework that integrates the Theory of Planned Behaviour with Social-Ecological Mentalities. For the mixed methods approach we selected participants with diverse living conditions, including high and low wealth individuals, living in Lüneburg (Northern Germany). To analyse the interview data, we transcribed the audio recordings and coded them abductively. First, we analysed the data regarding the ethical-material dimensions of the enoughness notions that people hold, as well as the socio-psychological dimensions of their justifications of monetary enoughness levels. Secondly, we integrated these qualitative findings with the quantitative post-interview survey results on socio-ecological mentalities and the monetary enoughness levels. The results revealed a diverse enoughness notion set and an association between monetary enoughness levels and their justifications, as well as with the interviewee’s living conditions and social-ecological mentalities. Overall, most interviewees had not yet thought about their consumption in terms of enoughness. What they perceive as enough is generally closely oriented to their current living conditions. We found a wide range of monetary enoughness levels. While the median total budget across households is 3,500 EUR, the highest monthly total budget indicated was almost 10,000 EUR, the lowest was around 1,323 EUR. We observed that most people’s actual consumption decisions are mostly based on their monthly income. Therefore, the question for most interviewees is not “what is enough?”, but “what can I spend this month?”. We conclude that these findings introduce further complexities to just transformations.