Only Just Good Enough to Become Sustain-Able; On E/mergent Sufficiency as a Situated, Anthropo(De)Centred Design Competency
Author
Gründler, Lea Simone
Term
4. semester
Publication year
2026
Submitted on
2026-07-31
Abstract
This thesis examines how professional designers in Western contexts work with the idea of “enough” in their everyday practice of sustainability. For a long time, design has been guided by anthropocentric and growth-oriented ideals, but current sustainability debates increasingly question these assumptions. The concept of “sufficiency” has emerged as an alternative principle: instead of always aiming for more production and consumption, it focuses on understanding when something is sufficient. However, there is still limited knowledge about how designers actually experience and handle sufficiency in their daily work. The thesis explores sufficiency as an ongoing, relational and situated process within Western expert design practices. Drawing on posthuman theory – which views humans, things, environments and technologies as closely interconnected – the study uses a practice-based and participatory approach. Through visual and linguistic methods, it examines the lived experiences of five expert designers to understand their sense of when something feels like “enough”. The study offers three main contributions. First, it reframes sufficiency as an affirmative and partly de-centred capacity and responsibility: designers can actively tune their practice towards sustainability by engaging consciously with the notion of “enough”. Second, the thesis introduces “e/mergent sufficiency” as a conceptual threshold space, where negotiations about sustainability become perceptible – both sensorially and cognitively – through concrete experiences of sufficiency. Third, it develops and applies a “Sensorial and Cognitive E/mergent Sufficiency Mapping Framework”, an analytical tool for systematically tracing and analysing these negotiations in design practice. The non-representational findings suggest that sufficiency is already deeply embedded in Western expert design practices. Designers constantly negotiate what it means to give, have, be and do “enough” in order to sustain themselves and others under specific constraints, such as time, budget, resources or organisational demands. Due to limited educational and organisational support for this kind of reflection, these negotiations often remain tacit and individual. As a result, designers are largely left alone with the responsibility, the satisfaction and the discomfort involved in acting adequately and frugally. By bringing these hidden practices and tensions to the surface, the thesis opens up a space for designers, educators, researchers and organisations to think and act differently about resourcefulness and sustainability. It serves as an invitation to challenge and activate the often overlooked and normative notion of “enough” in design theory and practice.
Denne afhandling undersøger, hvordan professionelle designere i Vesten arbejder med idéen om “nok” – altså, hvornår noget er tilstrækkeligt – i deres daglige praksis med bæredygtighed. I mange år har design været præget af menneskecentrerede og vækstorienterede idealer, men nyere bæredygtighedsdiskussioner stiller spørgsmålstegn ved disse. Begrebet “sufficiens” (tilstrækkelighed) er dukket op som et alternativt princip: i stedet for hele tiden at skabe og bruge mere, handler det om at finde ud af, hvornår det er nok. Der findes imidlertid kun begrænset viden om, hvordan designere konkret oplever og håndterer sufficiens i deres hverdagsarbejde. Afhandlingen undersøger sufficiens som en proces, der er både relationel og situationsafhængig, sådan som den udfolder sig i vestlige ekspert-designpraksisser. Med inspiration fra posthuman teori – som ser mennesker, ting, miljøer og teknologier som tæt forbundne – anvender studiet en praksisbaseret og deltagerorienteret metode. Gennem visuelle og sproglige metoder granskes fem erfarne designeres levede erfaringer for at forstå deres fornemmelse for, hvornår noget føles som “nok”. Studiet bidrager med tre hovedpointer. For det første omformulerer det sufficiens som en positiv (affirmativ) og delvist af-antropocentreret kapacitet og et ansvar: designere kan aktivt stemme sig ind på bæredygtighed i deres praksis ved at arbejde bevidst med “nok”. For det andet introducerer afhandlingen begrebet “e/mergent sufficiens” som et slags tærskelrum, hvor forhandlinger om bæredygtighed bliver mærkbare – både sanseligt og kognitivt – gennem konkrete oplevelser af tilstrækkelighed. For det tredje udvikler og anvender studiet en “Sensorisk og Kognitiv E/mergent Sufficienskortlægningsramme”, et analytisk værktøj til systematisk at spore og undersøge disse forhandlinger i designpraksis. Afhandlingens ikke-repræsentationelle resultater peger på, at sufficiens allerede er dybt indlejret i vestlige ekspert-designpraksisser. Designere forhandler hele tiden med sig selv og andre om, hvad det vil sige at give, have, være og gøre “nok” for at kunne opretholde sig selv og andre under konkrete begrænsninger – fx tid, budget, ressourcer eller organisatoriske krav. Fordi uddannelsesmæssig og organisatorisk støtte til denne type refleksioner er begrænset, forbliver disse forhandlinger ofte tavse og individuelle. Designere står dermed meget alene med både ansvar, glæde og ubehag ved at handle tilstrækkeligt og sparsommelig. Ved at synliggøre disse skjulte praksisser og dilemmaer åbner afhandlingen et rum for, at designere, undervisere, forskere og organisationer kan tænke og handle anderledes omkring ressourceanvendelse og bæredygtighed. Den fungerer som en invitation til at udfordre og aktivere den ofte oversete og normative idé om “nok” i designtænkning og -praksis.
[This abstract has been rewritten with the help of AI based on the project's original abstract]
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