Developing a low-resource society – frameworks and scenarios towards a decoupled future

Resource-focused research on sustainability has revealed insights into the techno-economic aspects of living and working. Approaches that develop concrete pictures of societies in the future that are ready, able and willing to live and strive in a low-resource way are as a rule much scarcer or very abstract. However, without such approaches low-resource practices are not likely to be established on a broader scheme. On the other hand, a society that has made low resource-living a central institution will not only cater for less resource use, it will also make it a positive, socially accepted and beneficial experience for its members. Creating solutions for this challenge is thus mandatory for successful long-term policies towards new, low- resource systems. The question however remains what such a future society may look like. Our contribution will address this issue by outlining a concept for a low-resource society and by introducing five explorative scenarios that delineate such a society. Firstly, the term low- resource society is presented in more detail. From this onset, five scenarios have been developed in workshops with experts and pioneers of low-resource living. These scenarios are distinct with respect to underlying assumptions on basic values and drivers, leading to very diverse narratives. They will be presented in brief and discussed in order to illustrate potential pathways and derive needs for further research.