This chapter gives a thorough introduction to sufficientarianism as a distributive theory. It begins by presenting the enough intuition as the intuitive idea at the core of the sufficientarian view and unfolding it as a distributive ideal. The chapter then defines sufficientarianism, accounts for some early instantiations of the view, and compares the sufficientarian framework with other principles of distributive justice to better understand how it is distinct from competing ideals. The chapter then provides three arguments in favour of sufficientarianism. The first argument relates to the advantage in capturing the moral primacy of eliminating deficiency. The second argument refers to sufficientarianism’s elegant handling of the problem of individual responsibility. The third argument emphasize the advantage of the rejection of the value of distributive equality. The chapter ends by giving an overview of different contemporary strands of sufficientarian theory, including headcount sufficiency views, basic minimum views, and multiple-threshold views. This lays the foundation for the development of sufficientarian theory in later chapters.

Building upon the ambiguous status of gold as both a monetary asset and a commodity, this chapter interrogates the plural veridictions that support industry claims to responsible business conduct. Through a chronicle of the political and legal struggles surrounding the “true” provenance of gold imported to Switzerland, it suggests that responsibility claims rely on a regime of discrete transparency. Transparency practices in the gold trade are both discreet in their efforts to preserve the secrecy of business operations, and discrete in the legal processes through which they separate normative orders to establish different veridictions on the “true” provenance and ownership of gold. Rather than opposing notions of transparency and secrecy, these veridictions seek to assemble the values associated with both terms. Challenging these veridictions supposes a disentanglement of gold from its status either as money or as commodity, and a shift from an ontology of individuals-as-consumers to one of individuals-as-citizens. A third veridiction emerges once imported gold is considered part of a stream of information owned by the sovereign rather than in terms of its relation to a consumer.

This chapter examines prominent solidarity conceptions used in legal discourses in the context of unfair economic arrangements, typically associated with neo-liberalism. It finds that prominent solidarity conceptions are from a legal theory perspective either circular, redundant, or too aspirational. The conceptual shortcomings of solidarity are echoed in standard policy proposals to counter and unwind neo-liberal economic arrangements. Those proposals typically involve imposing new legal duties on dominant economic actors and states, making their effectiveness depend on adopting new national, regional and international laws, on compliance by dominant economic actors, and on enforcement by legal authorities. The proposals imply that the normative resources for change lie outside existing law. This chapter explores an alternative understanding of law based on existing positive law: law as a public service. Dominant economic actors rely on law as a public service. They need legal authorities, especially judges, to declare their neo-liberal economic arrangements legally valid and enforceable. Positive law already offers judges the normative resources to refuse the help of the law whenever neo-liberal economic arrangements structurally lack minimal reciprocity and fairness. Rather than waiting for a global social solidarity movement, judges of Western civil and commercial courts can already make a difference.

This chapter reflects on possibilities for anti-racism in artistic practice. Drawing on the work of the diverse artists we have collaborated with in the project Cultures of Anti-Racism in Latin America (CARLA), I focus on two types of intervention that I believe help us to think about various ways of doing anti-racism through art. The two types are challenging stereotypes and working with communities, and I explore how various artworks engage with these modes of artistic action and how they create emotional traction and affective intensity. The aim of the exercise is to be productive and helpful in the struggle against racism by providing some tools that artists and organisations can use to think strategically about anti-racism as a practice and reflect on the opportunities and risks that attach to different interventions.

Although legal practices were sharply criticized and reforms were occasionally suggested, no significant changes were ever realized. Chapters 10 and 11 delve into the puzzle by examining the critics themselves. The majority of these critics were Confucians, who often attacked the law implementers – the technical bureaucrats – for lacking virtue and enforcing the law with brutality. Chapter 10 argues that the Confucians’ fierce attacks on technical bureaucrats were, in fact, a struggle against the bureaucratic hierarchy and its mechanism for producing political elites. Leading Confucians refused to serve as prudent, detail-oriented, and technique-focused bureaucrats. Nor were they willing to climb the ladder of success from the bottom of the bureaucracy. However, they faced a significant dilemma: those Confucians who aspired to act according to their ideals rather than submitting to institutional rules were rejected by officialdom. Yet, once Confucians successfully became officials, they were expected to obey the bureaucratic hierarchy and follow administrative regulations – ultimately becoming the very technical bureaucrats they had once criticized.

As digital technologies for tracking and tracing mineral commodities continue to expand, this chapter evaluates the role of blockchain-inspired systems and the organizations promoting digital certification technologies in mineral supply chain management. Drawing on research conducted in the cobalt mines of Kolwezi in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in mining sites affiliated with De Beers’ GemFair program in Sierra Leone, the chapter explores two key themes. First, it examines how transparency shapes both cobalt –an essential component for enhancing lithium battery performance – and diamonds – an emblem of hyper-consumption – within the broader digital transformation of the extractive industries. Second, it considers this digital turn as an effort to establish disintermediated trust in certification mechanisms formerly reliant on third-party verification. The chapter argues that, while digital transparency is presented as the pinnacle of technological accountability, it simultaneously operates through practices of concealment.

Replete with documentary artefacts, traceability systems, forensic testing, and inspections, organic certification is emblematic of technomoral aspirations and material interventions undertaken in the name of transparency. Based on research conducted in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, this chapter explores how organic certification becomes established as a regime of truth through semiotic technologies mobilized to make agricultural production transparent and legible. Probing a question I have frequently encountered – “Is it really organic?” – the chapter attends to what such a question reveals about transparency’s contemporary power. By examining how paper and digital record-keeping, as well as tags and traceability, come together in organic certification, it shows how transparency projects work to make real and to establish thresholds of truth for the objects that they purport only to observe.

In this chapter, we describe content delivery methods and lessons learned when combining the massive open online course (MOOC) with the smaller, remote version of the course offered through MIT in Fall 2020. This approach was tested when MIT school buildings were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and all classes became virtual. For a broader application, we also lay out hands-on tips for sustainable design educators on how to administer a hybrid course that outsources the tutorials, lectures, and assignments from the online course while engaging students through in-person or virtual meetings for in-depth discussions and course project development.