Cognitive Science and Environmental Crises: 2. A Preliminary Analysis of Issues Related to Sobriety and the Degrowth of Human Activities

The accelerating overshoot of the Earth system’s bio-geo-physical limits highlights the importance of implementing policies and practices that promote moderation and degrowth in human activities. Still, societal transformations do not really emerge. In this article, we examine the potential contribution of cognitive sciences to amplify such transformations. From an analysis of existing research and associated theoretical frameworks, and of the relationships between cognitive and social sciences, we propose several elements of an action plan. We first identify four key elements for such an action plan for promoting people to take action: prioritizing practices rather than representations; incorporating elements that anchor change in the long term (milestones and goals to be achieved, which remain to be defined); ensuring the conditions for equitable transformations; and evaluating the proposed societal transformation paradigms in real-world settings. On these bases, our first recommendation considering action-oriented policies is to focus on groups (c- or g-frame), rather than individuals (i-frame) or systems (s-frame).  Next, we identify the central mechanism at stake as being based on social learning of practices (see ‘social learning’ and ‘learning-by-doing in a group’). We provide several examples of this participatory approach. Finally, we put forward a number of proposals regarding the goals to be achieved, outlining the creation of a post-growth society that enables us to remain aligned with planetary boundaries and annual emission recycling limits.