Mixing up everyday life – uncovering sufficiency practices through designerly tools

Brighton, Juni 2016

Authors: Miriam Lahusen, Susanne Ritzmann, Florian Sametinger, Gesche Joost, Lars-Arvid Brischke

Sustainability and its subsequent transformations are a global challenge. In this paper, the focus lies on demonstrating a way to break down these global issues into its micro-elements which can be dealt with in the individual’s private sphere. Everyday life has always been where practices and its inherent conflicts between ‹rational and irrational› can be rooted. Design can provide the tools to make the familiar visible and the intuitive communicable through questioning the ‹normal› and offering alternative scenarios. We add to this, that a mixture of participatory and qualitative methods can guide an investigation, producing an array of multi‐faceted information. Our aim in this examination is to provide an understanding of the potentials for a possible transformation towards a sufficient way of life and the restrictions stemming from subjective, situational criteria of the individual.