Buying Time and Getting By: The Voluntary Simplicity MovementBuying Time and Getting By provides a detailed account of the voluntary simplicity movement, which took off in the United States in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The concept of voluntary simplicity encompasses both self-change aimed at bringing personal practice into alignment with ecological values and cultural change that rejects consumerist values and careerism. While simple livers struggle with self-change, they work toward the broader goals of a sustainable global environment, sustainable communities, increased equality in access to resources, and economies aimed at human quality of life rather than profit. Author Mary Grigsby looks inside the movement at the daily lives of participants and includes their own accounts of their efforts. She also uses reflexive empirical analysis to explore race, class, and gender in relation to the movement. The influence of the dominant culture and institutionalized power in shaping the movement are balanced with the importance of participants dynamic identity work. |
Contents
Voluntary Simplicity A Cultural Movement | 1 |
The Ecological Ethic and the Spirit of Voluntary Simplicity | 25 |
Getting a Life Constructing a Moral Identity in the Voluntary Simplicity Movement | 53 |
Gendered Visions of Process Power and Community in the Voluntary Simplicity Movement | 89 |
Looking into the Shadows The Politics of Class Gender and RaceEthnicity in the Voluntary Simplicity Movement | 119 |
New Tools and Old Transformation and Reproduction in the Voluntary Simplicity Movement | 165 |
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achieve adopt voluntary simplicity advocate affluent Affluenza agenda aimed analysis Andrews autonomy believe breadwinner role Buy Nothing Day choices conspicuous consumption constructed consumer consumerism consumerist critique cultural movements describe discussed dominant culture Dominguez and Robin ecological ethic Elgin environment environmental experience feel feminine feminist focus Frankenberg frugality fulfilling gender inequality gender roles global heterosexual human ideas ideology income individuals interviewed investment Kevin lifestyle living male revolt masculine middle-class movement literature Neitz networks Nita organizing patriarchy patterns political practices problems production public sphere race race/ethnicity racial and ethnic reduce reject relations relationships responsibility Seeds of Simplicity shift simple livers simplicity circles simplicity moral identity snow peas social society Stall and Stoecker status structures struggle Swidler tend things transformative understanding values voluntary simplicity moral voluntary simplicity movement waged Western women