Sufficiency: A systematic literature review

The making of sustainable economies calls for sufficiency in production and consumption. The discussion, however, lacks a shared understanding on what it means to operationalize sufficiency. In this article, we review and analyze the concept of sufficiency with a focus on its linkages to different economic scales (with a focus on micro- and macroeconomics) and economic actors (particularly consumers and producers). Altogether 307 articles were screened, resulting in a final data set of 94 peer-reviewed articles. In addition to the core assumption of ‘enoughness’, we found three premises describing the concept: (1) complementarity of capitals, (2) social metabolism, and (3) altruism. In the reviewed literature,…

• HY
  Helsingin Yliopisto
• AO
  Academy of Finland

  Awards: 343277, 343277
• HK
  HELSUS Kestävyystieteen Instituutti