Enough! insists there is enough for all. Creating such a future is not about producing more or living with less. Instead, it starts with rethinking our politics, economics and approach to livelihoods. Mary Lawhon and Tyler McCreary develop a "modest approach" to justice and sustainability, drawing on ecology and postcolonial theory, as well as their research on infrastructure in African cities and the Canadian north. The authors chart a pathway beyond modernist and arcadian environmentalisms, emphasizing uncertainty while holding onto hope for creating better worlds. The chapters tack between conceptual contours, concrete examples, proposed inventions, and personal narrative. Theorizing from the struggles of the global south and Indigenous peoples, Enough! proposes delinking livelihoods from work through a redistributive basic income, which enables enough without overreliance on modern states. It also enables us to prevent conflicts over jobs, reduce some types of production, and deploy resources towards building postcapitalist worlds.

About the Author

Mary Lawhon is Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Edinburgh and International Faculty in the Global South Studies Centre at the University of Cologne. Her research interests are in urban political ecology and theorizing from cities in the global south.

Tyler McCreary is Assistant Professor of Geography at Florida State University and Adjunct Professor of First Nations Studies at University of Northern British Columbia. His scholarship examines how colonialism and racial capitalism inflect the processes governing land, livelihood, and community life.

Reviews

Can we imagine a future economy that is attractive, fair, sustainable and ... possible? Lawhon and McCreary have. In Enough! they hurtle us beyond the eco-twin romances of degrowth and techno-optimism to a world where basic income is guaranteed, Earth systems are protected, peoples' needs to thrive are met and the human economy remains vibrant, active, inventive, and full of possibility. Modesty, they show us convincingly, requires neither wearing a sack cloth nor boarding a spaceship. Recommended reading for an optimistic and progressive future.

-- Paul Robbins, Dean, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and Professor, Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison

It is refreshing to read such a well-thought-out vision of a better future that so clearly understands and explains the foundational role that a universal, unconditional basic income has to play in underwriting and catalyzing that future. Enough ignoring or maligning UBI, and read this book to gain a larger more comprehensive view.

-- Scott Santens, author of Let There Be Money

Amidst a deepening climate crisis and growing inequalities, what changes are needed to constitute a good and sustainable life? What does 'enough' look like? This book provides a lively, thoughtful and eloquent response. It confronts the uncertainties of possible futures with confidence and care, and makes a compelling case for a redistributive and cooperative economy, universal basic income, and a modest politics to negotiate ecological conflicts and crises.

-- Colin McFarlane, Professor of Urban Geography, Durham University

It is a political act to find hope in this twenty-first-century moment of protracted ecological, economic and political malaise. Lawhon and McCreary sit with these troubled times and offer not so much a way out, but a way through. Propositional, curious, and joyful, this book invites us to see the radical in modest imaginaries of infrastructure politics, and the possible in the seemingly unattainable Universal Basic Income. A much-needed provocation, this book will trigger animated conversations in the classroom, the boardroom, and the street.

-- Tatiana A. Thieme, Associate Professor in Geography, University College London

Written at the height of the pandemic which laid bare global injustices, intersecting crises and uncertainties, but also possibilities for drastic change, Enough! offers radical ideas for a world in which there will be enough for all. Through theoretical reflections and concrete examples on infrastructure and access to basic services from both the global North and South, Lawhon and McCreary make a compelling case for a modest politics which includes universal basic income and a reimagining of state citizenship relations, livelihoods and the economy that will enable justice and sustainability for all. Enough's call to embrace a modest politics of sufficiency in an uncertain world leaves us with hope and immense possibilities to aspire and fight for a sustainable and just world in which all people can thrive and live well.

-- Lyla Mehta, Professorial Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex and Visiting Professor at Norwegian University of Life Sciences

Enough! begins with the premise that we all want a better world, and in doing so it is radically hopeful as well as accessible. Lawhon and McCreary's 'modest' proposal is inspiring and provocative, opening up big conversations on what really matters while remaining careful to recognize and work within the complexities of current economic, political and environmental life. In doing so, they encourage us to collectively work towards social and ecological well-being in ways that are sure to engage students and practitioners alike.

-- Julia Corwin, Assistant Professor in Environment, London School of Economics

Amidst the current anxieties and pessimism about the future, Lawhon and McCreary shake us to be optimistic for a future where we all live decent and dignified lives. A just and sustainable world where there is enough for all! Through well-described and contextualised fragments of life from the global north and south, that sits with the troubled realities of our times, Enough! showcases a pathway to a just and sustainable future we should look forward to. A hope-filled timely read for young scholars, activists and policy makers whose betterment of society is the core of their comradeship.

-- Mwangi Mwaura, 2023 Rhodes Scholar elect, University of Oxford

Enough! is a lucid and eloquent read on how the politics of nature-society relationships have evolved and how the arguments on modesty can renew foundational claims on political ecology. Keeping infrastructure politics as the cornerstone, the book contributes to a futuristic 'modest imaginary' analysis of the state, market forces and livelihoods. The book challenges the 'modern infrastructure ideal' and a 'usual inverted modernist' approach, presenting a more nuanced analysis and illustrations of modest environmental governance, setting the course for future sustainability. A must-read for future infrastructure practitioners, activists, students focusing on interdisciplinarity, and political ecologists.

-- Sumit Vij, Assistant Professor, Sociology and Development Change Group, Wageningen University, the Netherlands



Book Information
ISBN 9781788216203
Author Mary Lawhon
Format Paperback
Page Count 188
Imprint Agenda Publishing
Publisher Agenda Publishing