Sufficiency values through commoning relationality: Exploring a network of community initiatives in northern Greece

Abstract

In the face of ever-accelerating climate change and ecological degradation, the concept of sufficiency has been proposed as a way to achieve socio-ecological sustainability. Sufficiency implies limits on consumption and production, thus making it incompatible with capitalism’s notion of constantly increasing production and expansion. Commoning as a social practice is argued to contrast capitalist practices and relations. Therefore we propose a confluence between sufficiency and commoning. Using the concept of organisational values we explore how a sufficiency aligned value system emerges in the network of commoning organisations in northern Greece. Our findings illustrate that the network organisations come together in deep relationality enabling them to create an alternative value system in contrast to dominant capitalist values. This deep relationality in turn is based on a shared worldview amongst the organisations which emphasises the need for an alternative economic system based on fulfilling societal needs in stark contrast to the capitalist political economy. This highlights that a sufficiency value system scales-wide and reproduces amongst the network’s organisations through relationality enabled through commoning. Crucially, this scaling-wide also holds the potential to move beyond the network's boundaries through connections to other organisations and networks; ultimately enabling the potential for further organisations to oppose and transcend capitalism.