PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

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superior, intelligent solution which individuals are increasingly willing to consider
precisely because in developed country contexts, high-speed mobility now has become
the norm rather than the exception, and because fast-moving daily activity patterns have
become too hectic and exhausting to be enjoyable. The car has become the victim of its
own success, Sachs argues. As Sachs (1999a) summarizes: 60
‘Faster’ and ‘Further’ – alongside the principle of ‘More’ – can be considered as the
main leitmotifs of fossil-powered progress. … But in the setting of today's restlessly
high-speed society, such a Utopia easily becomes exhausted and stale. … Where
unceasing mobility turns into a stressful burden, a desire for leisureliness and
unharriedness is likely to grow. Quite apart from environmental problems, pleasure in
mobility is today increasingly intermingled with frustration. … With mass
motorization the situation has changed, and the relative advantages the car once
conferred have dwindled: the more cars, the less joy. Moreover, as soon as speed is a
general expectation, gaining time is no longer a pleasure, but becomes an obligation.
The power over space and time granted by transportation is becoming a duty rather
than a privilege.… This shift in the emotional base of motorization is an important
ingredient in the search for environ-mentally sound ways of transport. …
Contemplating limits to further growth is a rational strategy against systemic overdevelopment,
because restraint slows down the dynamics of expansion, avoids
additional financial and social burdens, and opens space for planning alternatives. Not
opting for further acceleration and interconnection will offer a range of opportunities
for creating a socially appropriate transport system for the twenty-first century.
Note that Sachs’ “virtue of enoughness” perspective is not strictly eco-centric or
anti-modern but rather anti-utilitarian and non-economic in the sense that it is deeply
conscious of alternative cultural meanings of “production” and “consumption”. Sharply
criticizing “the World Resources Institute and other eco-development agencies” Sachs
(1999b:14) argues that
The interpretation of the state of the world in terms of “resources,” “management” and
“efficiency” may appeal to planners and economists. But it continues to promote
development as a cultural mission…. The more their language is adopted round the
globe, the more difficult it will be to view nature with respect rather than simply as a
resource to be exploited. [emphasis added]
60 The following quotes are a much abbreviated version of the section “Lower Speeds and the Plurality of
Timescales” in Chapter 12 of Planet Dialectics.