Buying Time and Getting By: The Voluntary Simplicity Movement

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments
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 and third-wave feminists, those engaged in cultural analysis, critical theorists, and sociologists of new social movements and cultural movements, must be acknowledged. Their work is the soil in which this analysis has its roots. Among these scholars are close colleagues and friends whose reading, comments for revision , and questions have been central in shaping this analysis. Thanks to Mary Jo Neitz, whose appreciation and understanding of the type of analysis I wanted to do, combined with her insightful questions and encouragement, were important in shaping my work. Thanks to Ellen Reese, whose detailed reading, suggestions for further reading, and careful suggestions for revisions helped me improve the depth and clarity of the analysis. Thanks to J. Kenneth Benson, whose critique and mentoring were helpful. Thanks to Anna Riley for her helpful comments, particularly her review of my analysis of race and ethnicity as constituting elements in the voluntary simplicity movement. Thanks to Jere Gilles for his comments and questions and for his enthusiasm for the topic. Thanks to Ted Vaughan, with whom I discussed this research at length early in its conception. Thanks to Barbara Barman-Julius for her excellent copyediting and proofing and to Nancy Ellegate and Marilyn Semerad of SUNY Press for their guidance throughout the publication process. I also wish to acknowledge and thank the late C. David Anderson, Lottie Mae Mitchell, Fathy Soliman Elbana, and John Crighton, each of whom influenced my way of seeing the world and thus my work as a sociologist and this research. What I learned from each of them is with me in all I do. viii Acknowledgments To my mother and dear friend Mary Elizabeth Middlebrooks Anderson I am most grateful. Her encouragement and support throughout the time I have been working on the book have been important elements in making the work satisfying and in helping me to complete it. Many thanks to Gary Scott Grigsby, my partner, who read and proofed early drafts of the book. During the time I was conducting research for the book Gary and I adopted various voluntary simplicity practices, in part because I wanted to understand the experience of practicing these techniques and in part because we both desire to align our personal practices with our environmental and social values. Gary’s work as an environmental journalist and my research on voluntary simplicity came together and influenced our decision to change our own personal practices. In this way my research journey, which proved to be one of change and discovery, was accompanied by a separate but related partnership journey. Gary’s support of the intellectual and personal journey this research represents for me, the parts of the journey we shared, and our love contributed greatly to making the process of doing the research a joyous one. ...