| Summary: | Faced with the need to reduce the footprint of human activities, incentives to practise sobriety are multiplying, particularly in the digital sector. However, an indiscriminate appeal to individual sobriety is inappropriate, because: individual uses account for only a small proportion of the footprint; it ignores the unequal distribution of responsibilities in terms of footprints; it neglects the importance of the societal impacts of digital technology; and it runs the risk of exacerbating inequalities or creating new ones. To reduce digital footprints in the long term, we suggest that the governance of the socio-technical system should be ensured by deliberation between: public authorities determined to regulate market players; altruistic collectives of citizens able to define their own needs; and digital companies in which citizens and workers would have the same decision-making weight as shareholders.
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