Buying Time and Getting By

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Contents

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pp. v-

Acknowledgments

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pp. vii-viii

I am grateful to the people in the voluntary simplicity movement who shared their lives with me. Their generosity in giving their time and their candid discussions of the processes and struggles they experience in seeking to live simple lives made the research for this book possible. Other scholars, particularly standpoint ...

CHAPTER ONE Voluntary Simplicity: A Cultural Movement

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pp. 1-24

People in the voluntary simplicity movement are concerned about environmental degradation, critical of conspicuous consumption and “careerism,” and dissatisfied with the quality of life afforded by full participation in mass consumer society. Simple livers, as participants in voluntary simplicity are often called, ...

CHAPTER TWO The Ecological Ethic and the Spirit of Voluntary Simplicity

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pp. 25-52

This chapter describes the patterned themes in the voluntary simplicity movement literature in order to identify the distinctive and essential elements of the movement ideology that informs the practices of many of its participants and attracts them to the movement. Of course, not all proponents of voluntary simplicity ...

CHAPTER THREE Getting a Life: Constructing a Moral Identity in the Voluntary Simplicity Movement

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pp. 53-88

People in the voluntary simplicity movement are engaged in a struggle to define themselves as worthwhile and good people. Resisting participation in conspicuous consumption enables them to feel they are living in keeping with their ecological and social values. Some also reduce their participation in waged ...

CHAPTER FOUR Gendered Visions of Process, Power, and Community in the Voluntary Simplicity Movement

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pp. 89-118

The primary sites of collective identity building and boundary setting for the voluntary simplicity movement are support groups, which are often called simplicity circles by people in the movement.¹ Simplicity circles offer rich data about the interactions in the everyday lives of simple livers through which the collective ...

CHAPTER FIVE Looking into the Shadows: The Politics of Class, Gender, and Race/Ethnicity in the Voluntary Simplicity Movement

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pp. 119-164

This chapter explores the class, racial/ethnic, and gender politics in the voluntary simplicity movement to gain understanding of how inequalities are resisted or reproduced through the movement and to assess the transformative capacity of the movement. The inequalities politics of the voluntary simplicity movement ...

CHAPTER SIX New Tools and Old: Transformation and Reproduction in the Voluntary Simplicity Movement

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pp. 165-192

This chapter summarizes the findings in earlier chapters and extends the analysis to explore the “highest meanings” (Touraine 1981, 1983) of the voluntary simplicity cultural movement in terms of its possibilities and transformative capacity. I draw on the sociological analysis of the movement to point to avenues through which ...

Appendix: Selected Voluntary Simplicity Resources

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pp. 193-200

Notes

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pp. 201-208

Bibliography

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pp. 209-218

Index

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pp. 219-224