Economics of Sufficiency

The workshop on "Economics of Sufficiency" will be held the day before the beginning of the 2nd Conference of the Andean Society of Ecological Economics in Lima, Peru on April, 8. This workshop is intended to deepen the debate about the sufficiency economy with presentations from senior scholars and debate sessions with participating young scholars. The idea is to create an open and inclusive space that provides information on the topic but, more importantly, enables us to learn from each other.

Presentations on the subject by one senior scholar (Prof. Fabio Arias, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia) and 4-5 young scholars (the organizers plus 2-3 selected contributions of YSI members), followed by a round table and extra time for community building.

"Economics of sufficiency" or "sufficiency economy" (sufficiency is used as a synonym of simplicity) seeks to reduce inequality and the anthopogenic pressure on ecosystems by arguing in favor of policies that ensure the satisfaction of basic human needs for all in detriment of luxury consumption. It also aims to compensate the current focus of economists on allocation efficiency toward what would be sufficient in terms of production, distribution, and consumption as social provisioning processes. Hence, it draws insights from happiness economics, moral philosophy, and ecological economics to promote behavioral change, either enforced by the State or voluntarily at the individual level. It is framed as a current of political economy, and deals with the issues of the illusion of consumer sovereignty, absolute reductions of throughput (degrowth), voluntary frugality, systemic transitions, and distributive justice, among other topics. A key reference is Samuel Alexander's "Sufficiency Economy: enough, for everyone, forever"

For this reference go to: http://simplicitycollective.com/sufficiency-economy-enough-for-everyone-forever

The program of the Conference can be found here: https://ecoecoandes.wordpress.com/2019/02/01/programa-general-ii-congreso-saee/