Promoting practices of sufficiency: reprogramming resource-intensive material arrangements

There is an urgent need to change everyday practices in less resource-intensive directions.However, present practices unfold within existing material infrastructures and socialinstitutions established during times of fossil fuel abundance. While acknowledgingthat a transition to sufficiency will require material and institutional transformations,it is also evident that major changes in material arrangements can be highly resourcedemanding. Thus, the adoption of less resource-intensive everyday practices must takeplace within present material arrangements that are modified with the least possiblematerial use. This paper explores theoretically the possible pathways for sufficiency-based everyday practices within existing, slightly modified materialities. It develops theconcept of ‘reprogramming’, i.e. to promote sufficiency through performing practices indifferent ways within existing or slightly modified material arrangements, and it exploreshow changes in institutional arrangements further can promote such resource-lightpractices. Based on discussions of sufficiency, practice theories and social metabolism,the concept of reprogramming is exemplified through empirical findings, particularlyfocusing on mobility practices in young adults (n = 31). Possible reprogramming strategiesare presented that promote sufficiency-based practices within existing resource-intensivematerialities and institutions.