SuPraStadt I und II

Quality of life, participation and resource conservation through social diffusion of sufficiency practices in urban neighborhoods

About the project:

The sustainable transformation of cities requires reconciling the needs of residents, particularly with regard to social participation and urban quality of life, with the ecological requirements of sustainability, such as reducing resource consumption and climate-relevant emissions. Sufficiency is the strategic approach with which this task can be adequately addressed: It consists of changes in consumption patterns, everyday routines, social and cultural practices that contribute to staying within the Earth's ecological carrying capacity. Sufficiency practices in urban districts can be, for example, the shared use of space, the promotion of local mobility or self-provided, jointly organized services.

The project focuses on transdisciplinary cooperation with three real-world laboratories with three different lead actors: a civil society initiative in Heidelberg, the municipality in Dortmund and a housing industry company in Kelsterbach. The initiative for the conception, implementation and diffusion of sufficiency practices came largely from these lead actors and the implementation of their initiatives has already begun.

The aim of the Heidelberg Reallabor is to establish a local sufficiency network consisting of urban and civil society actors that contributes to the diffusion of sufficiency practices in the various districts and milieus. At the center of the real-world laboratory is the Collegium Academicum (CA), a civil society initiative to build a self-managed dormitory for students and trainees on the site of the former US hospital in Rohrbach. The ifeu supports the CA in the development and implementation of suitable sufficiency measures. These include, in particular, the areas of own contributions during construction, the organizational structure and the planned educational concept.

The research project aims to develop a systematic, scientifically sound identification and analysis of sufficiency practices in urban districts and the determination and evaluation of their ecological and social effects. In addition, the central question is whether and how sufficiency practices can be diffused into and between selected social milieus and which mutual learning processes are necessary for this. The diffusion of these practices is to be strengthened through a dialog process between the local actors and the research team as well as through interventions from within the project and subsequently analyzed and evaluated.

The insights gained in the three different real-world laboratories can provide solutions for integrating sufficiency as a guiding principle into existing municipal strategies and processes.

SuPraStadt Toolbox (in German)

The SuPraStadt Toolbox was developed, tested in practice and evaluated as part of the SuPraStadt project. The aim was to develop a scientifically sound, yet practically relevant product that makes the findings of the research project applicable to other places and people. The toolbox contains do-it-yourself instructions for a collection of formats that have one thing in common:

They deal with the question of how sufficiency can be promoted in urban neighbourhoods. You can view and download the toolbox and individual instructions below. 

To the Toolbox

Here you will find individual instructions from the toolbox

Gemeinsam Gärtnern im Quartier Rad-Check Zukunftsgerechte Reiseplanung 
Suffizienzpolitik Klimanachbarschaft

Sufficiencycheck (in German)

The web-based, smartphone-optimised ‘sufficiency check’ serves as an orientation tool that citizens can use to compare their current lifestyle with the requirements of a planet-friendly life. They also receive practical everyday tips on which measures can contribute to a more sufficient life.

To the sufficiencycheck

Project completion SuPraStadt I and II

• On 13 May 2014, the final conference on SuPraStadt II took place at the Collegium Academicum in Heidelberg. The slides of the speakers can be found here (in German).

• At the end of the SuPraStadt I research project, a closing event took place in Heidelberg on May 18, 2022. The recording of the livestream is available on the ifeu-YouTube-channel.