Energiesuffizienz - Transformation von Energiebedarf, Versorgungsökonomie, Geschlechterverhältnissen und Suffizienz
Bericht zum emanzipativen Suffizienz-Ansatz, zur neuen genderreflektierten Methodik und Auswertung einer Fokusgruppendiskussion
Sufficiency actually is debated as a serious topic. Not at least because of the limits and destructive impacts of growth, producing global environmental damages, unsustainable consumption of ressources and climate change, but also economical and social destabilisations and inequalities. Also green economy and efficiency policies turn out to be no match for these problems. But how to design acceptable and effective sustainable sufficiency policies in concrete sectors like energy?
Enabling "good life" without growth imperative (cf. the "sustainable livelihood" approach) necessitates adressing politically the structural production of energy needs and demand. Nevertheless there are emerging risks, not hitherto politics and market driven economy will be adressed by sufficiency, but private households: their care economy as well as the personal acting within. The care economy however already is long ago recognised being in an economical, social and ecological crisis: It is economically exploited, but because of gender biases externalised from being (societal the essential) part of economy and its rationality. The dominant societal masculinity model still comprises significant abstinence resulting i.a. in gender unequal chances of being served and provided. And societal nature relationships of caring are undermined by centering independent social security etc. around income from market. After the "feminisation of the environmental responsibility", pointed out for the waste and transport sector, now "feminisation of the energy sufficiency responsibility"? All the more important is an emancipative (energy) sufficiency approach.
What methods are nescessary and adequate designing sustainable, i.e. gender responsive political energy sufficiency strategies and modeling potentials? Which political step ins, actions and types of instruments are resulting from an energy sufficiency approach of "Enough already!"?
The analysis, approach and methods as well as their evaluation and enrichment by an interdisciplinary expert focus group discussion, done within a first research project on elaborating energy sufficiency policies, are presented by the Wuppertal Report no. 8.
Meike Spitzner, Sandra Buchmüller:
Energiesuffizienz - Transformation von Energiebedarf, Versorgungsökonomie, Geschlechterverhältnissen und Suffizienz
Bericht zum emanzipativen Suffizienz-Ansatz, zur neuen genderreflektierten Methodik und Auswertung einer Fokusgruppendiskussion
Wuppertal, 2016
(Wuppertal Report no. 8)