From natural resources to housing and finance: have we become too obsessed with scarcity? скачать в хорошем качестве

From natural resources to housing and finance: have we become too obsessed with scarcity?

Rethinking scarcity From natural resources to housing and finance: have we become too obsessed with scarcity? Lyla Mehta, Research Fellow As populations grow and ecological pressures intensify, powerful people continue to mobilise the narratives of scarcity – an assumption that needs and wants are unlimited and the means to achieve them are scarce. But scarcity is not just biophysical; it is shaped by social and political choices about allocation, entitlement and whose consumption is protected. These narratives of scarcity are used to justify decisions that concentrate wealth, restrict access, and normalise inequality and burden of adjustment and compromise on those with the least access and power. But what would happen if we flipped this lens and begin from abundance – from the recognition that there is more than enough for everyone? In this event, IDS Research Fellow Lyla Mehta asks if scarcity is manufactured, politicised and unevenly distributed, what kinds of policies and ways of living become possible when we start from abundance instead?