Friday, 4 December 2009, 6.30pm, Gustave Tuck lecture theatre, UCL

Hosted by UCL’s Grand Challenge of Sustainable Cities, UCL English Language & Literature and UCL Arts & Humanities

'Enough' is a concept that underpins much of sustainability discourse. But how do we know when enough is enough? Different cultures - times, places, institutions, generations - treat the concept of sufficiency in a variety of ways. The word 'enough' carries positive, neutral or negative connotations in different contexts. Enough water, enough food, enough space, sufficiently clean air, enough freedom, enough choice, sufficient employment, enough mobility, enough education – the list of different but related sufficiencies lies behind both technological and political visions of an habitable urban future. In our own modern urbanised consumer culture, negotiating the imperatives and taboos associated with these different sufficiencies must be recognised as one of the key challenges for the sustainability agenda.

At this event, academics who have been discussing the idea of 'enough' will be joined by speakers from outside the university context, who work in the field of Sustainability communication. Nicola Baird (Environmentalist Journalist), Saamah Abdallah (Campaigner, New Economics Foundation) and Danny Chivers (Slam Poet) will discuss with UCL academics the practical and theoretical problems raised by the question of 'enough' and its place within our current cultural framework. Questions will be fielded from the audience.

A drinks reception will follow the debate.

To find out more, see:

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sustainable-cities/just-enough

‘Enough Debate’

18.30 Introduction, followed by roundtable discussion

Academic representatives from the day’s symposium, as well as Nicola Baird, environmental journalist, Saamah Abdallah (New Economics Foundation), campaigner, and Danny Chivers, slam poet and activist

Followed by a Drinks Reception in the Jeremy Bentham room.

To register for the day symposium, please visit:

Just Enough: Sufficiency and the Cultural Imagination Symposium