The politics of enough: structuring efficiency–sufficiency tensions in Latvian renovation decisions

Abstract

Housing is a key site of energy transition policy, where efficiency (technological retrofits) and sufficiency (demand reduction) are increasingly framed as complementary strategies. Yet how residents understand and apply these strategies in everyday decisions about multi-apartment building maintenance remains poorly understood, particularly in post-socialist contexts where economic inequality and distinctive local notions of ‘enoughness’ intersect. This article develops a relational understanding of efficiency and sufficiency as vernacular logics of energy saving, questioning when efficiency and sufficiency emerge as contested versus complementary; how structural factors shape residents’ interpretations; and when vernacular sufficiency logics align with or diverge from environmental goals. Drawing on 35 semi-structured interviews, participant observation of homeowner meetings in five Latvian urban areas, and two citizen thinking laboratories, I read these tensions through the framework of agonistic politics. The analysis identifies three structuring actor-based tensions – affordability, temporal horizons and agency – with each holding different potential for antagonism and sustainability based on conditional factors. The vernacular use and understandings of efficiency and sufficiency are structured by transnational, national and local policies, business practices, social disparities, orientation in one’s life cycle, infrastructural breakdowns and infrastructures for action. Despite environmental efficiency and sufficiency narratives gaining traction, economic, responsibility- and collective-action-related narratives often create friction with environmental concerns due to inherent contradictions in policy, environmental, economic and welfare system goals. Without broader mechanisms and support schemes that address inequalities between households and institutionalise sufficiency, vernacular sufficiency and efficiency narratives and practices are likely to reproduce unsustainable consumption.