The economy of sobriety: towards a new conception of abundance?
By Inès Mazas
Stone Soup Consultant
October 26th 2022
In France, sobriety is on everyone’s lips at the end of this year. Presented as a call to reduce our energy consumption “to get through the winter”, should it not become the very foundation of our economic model if we want to limit the damage of the social and ecological crisis?
A call for a structurally sober economy
The Impact France movement, which represents the actors of the Social and Solidarity Economy in France (SSE), has just published 20 proposals for the State and entrepreneurs to build the “economy of sobriety”. Since the growing demand and the rebound effects limit the impact of the efforts made in renewable energies and energy efficiency, the French State is called upon to take ambitious action in all sectors to “move from emergency sobriety to organized sobriety” and “avoid the fractures and deleterious social tensions that a submissive sobriety would make our country experience”. Companies are encouraged to adopt the 10 commandments of the sober company by respecting clear constraints in terms of ecological impact and social justice, including: adopting a plan to reduce its carbon footprint in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement (+1.5°C), achieving a reparability index of at least 8 for each product, deploying frugal innovation, giving priority to local production and short-circuit commerce, limiting wage differentials or even hiring a minimum percentage of employees in vulnerable situations.
In essence, we need to move towards a structurally sober economy, in which we intentionally choose to consume and produce less, but better. But how do we meet a challenge of this magnitude?
Spreading models and practices of the social impact sector
The good news is that we already have many tools in hand. Within the social impact sector, for example, thousands of companies have proven that it is possible to combine job creation, social justice and preservation of natural resources. The new economy of sobriety can be built on the simple replication of existing models, particularly within the circular economy and the collaborative economy: recycling, eco-design, economy of functionality, sharing of goods and services between users, disintermediation… With an already significant impact in the mobility and personal services sectors, these models can form the basis of a sobriety economy, although they are not exempt from certain rebound effects and risks of casualization through the new forms of work that are emerging. The social impact sector has a key role to play in the dissemination of its good practices, especially in measuring impact to ensure accountability and transparency of companies to citizens and the state.
Redefining our basic needs and our conception of abundance
The other major challenge of this transition is the transformation of consumer behavior, which is essential to force companies to adapt their offer. But how to make people accept “the end of abundance” after decades of increasing material comfort, in the promise of infinite growth?
According to systems theorist Donella Meadows, a system is transformed by changing, first and foremost, “the mindset or paradigm from which the system – its goals, power structure, rules and culture – derives”. We must therefore go beyond the dominant approaches to sustainable development and attack the problem at its root: fundamentally questioning our norms and values, and on our conception of a happy and harmonious life. Nowadays, this conception is a societal construction subject to the pressure of many private interests via the immense influence of advertising and industrial lobbies, for example in our eating habits.
For the philosopher André Gorz, it is a question of “redefining the norm of the sufficient“. According to him, “capitalism has abolished everything that, in tradition, in the way of life, in daily civilization, could serve as an anchor for a common norm of sufficiency; and that it has abolished at the same time the perspective that the choice to work and consume less can give access to a better and freer life“¹.
Sobriety should not only be an individual responsibility, but a collective choice: what essential needs do we want to satisfy? And since choosing means giving up: which goods, habits and beliefs are we each ready to give up? We can collectively redefine new consumption norms, for example by regulating advertising to reduce incentives to over-consume, especially for products and services that are harmful to the environment. In the digital sector, for example, the increasing technological complexity of the objects produced combined with the explosion in demand is contributing to an unsustainable growth in the exploitation of mineral resources. The consumption of rare metals, strategic for renewable energies, has increased by 50% in 20 years. But which of these technological innovations improve our quality of life sufficiently to justify such resource consumption?
Changing regulations and consumption standards will pose many challenges, particularly in terms of social justice: efforts to reduce consumption will have to be distributed fairly so that the poorest do not bear the responsibility for the environmental impact of the richest.
But beyond the sacrifices to be made, we must ask ourselves: what do we have to gain? What is coming is perhaps not the end of abundance – at least for the most privileged – but the end of a certain conception of abundance, well-being and comfort. We might be led to realize that consuming less allows us to reconnect with another form of abundance, rich in links with others and with Nature. Rather than a loss or a decline, we can perceive this transition as an opportunity to move towards a form of happy sobriety, inspired by positive narratives such as those of Pierre Rabhi or Ailton Krenak, a Brazilian indigenous leader, for whom “The only way to produce life in the face of this eroding world is to inhabit other cosmovisions“.
Meditation as a motor for the transformation of consciousness?
To propel this change of consciousness, we must perhaps turn to the teachings of the sages who, since antiquity, have shown us the way to a more fulfilled life through the moderation of desires and the cultivation of an inner well-being that does not depend on the accumulation of goods and wealth.
In this sense, the spread of the practice of mindfulness meditation is very promising. Rapidly growing in the corporate world, mindfulness meditation is being integrated into leadership and social change training. In East Africa, for example, Global Grassroots integrates mindfulness meditation throughout the social enterprise incubation process. If deployed throughout our education and training system, it could have a significant impact as new studies show that it not only promotes individual health and well-being, but also moderation of overconsumption and social and ecological engagement². As Luke Wreford and Paula Haddock, members of the Mindfulness and Social Change Network, point out, “By promoting self-acceptance and reconnecting us to ourselves, others, and nature, mindfulness can address the deep psychological insecurities that drive the fear, conflict, status anxiety, and unsustainable consumption that threaten our personal and collective well-being.”
A systems approach is needed
Rather than piecemeal, scattered policy measures, therefore, it is a systemic approach that will allow us to meet the challenge of sobriety, to ensure a real and lasting effect on society and the environment. Several social impact actors with whom Stone Soup Consulting has collaborated are already working in this direction: let’s mention the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation which, in France and Spain, promotes the concept of Sustainable Food with a clear objective of systemic change that engages the actors of the sector at all levels, including that of the consumers mentioned above. These approaches need a clear evaluation system in order to understand, beyond intuitions, how they act on the different levers necessary for systemic change.
From the circular economy to mindfulness, there is no lack of models and tools to build the conditions for a sober and abundant life, while protecting the poorest and all forms of life on Earth. This will require courage from each and every one of us and will not be done without sacrifice, but it is a safe bet that it will be amply rewarded.
Notes
- André Gorz, Eloge du suffisant, 2019, PUF, p.48
- Ray, Travis & Franz, Scott & Jarrett, Nicole & Pickett, Scott. (2020). Nature Enhanced Meditation: Effects on Mindfulness, Connectedness to Nature, and Pro- Environmental Behavior. Environment and Behavior. 10.1177/0013916520952452.
Stone Soup is a consulting firm that aims to help organizations maximize their social impact. Stone Soup is a member of the Impact France movement.
