Bringing It Home

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Whitney Sanford
Keyword(s):  
Urban Communities ◽  
Intentional Communities ◽  
Voluntary Simplicity ◽  
Suburban Areas ◽  
Shared Spaces ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Financial Interests ◽  
Sustainability Movement

The final chapter illustrates how these bundled values— nonviolence, self-sufficiency or interdependence, participatory democracy, and voluntary simplicity—might be brought home to the mainstream to address broad social tensions such as rampant consumerism and environmental degradation. Cohousing communities—the closest to suburban patterns of living—offer potential to rethink existing patterns in urban and suburban areas and illustrate how shared spaces in places such as apartment buildings offer ‘unintentional sustainability’. Intentional communities and the sustainability movement continues as primarily white middle-class spaces, and urban communities, in particular, attempt to create broader coalitions through outreach and micro-industry. Despite challenges from entrenched financial interests, solar power energy, and transportation alternatives such as bike commuting and bus travel have engaged the mainstream, and communities such as cohousing groups offer solutions to problems such as aging.

Asking What’s for Dinner

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Whitney Sanford
Keyword(s):  
Intentional Communities ◽  
Voluntary Simplicity ◽  
Catholic Worker ◽  
Food Practices ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Self Sufficiency

This chapter illustrates how intentional communities translate their bundled values of nonviolence, self-sufficiency, equity, and voluntary simplicity through producing and consuming food. These communities ask what constitutes violence in terms of food and make choices that accord with their specific contexts, goals and geographies, e.g., local vs organic. Catholic worker houses must balance goals of hospitality to the poor with their goals of sustainability. Food rescue helps them combat waste and feed the poor. Whether to eat meat and communal eating become two areas of tension in communities. This chapter explores first, how these communities perform these bundled values in their food practices, including what they eat, what they grow, and what they purchase or gather; and second, the processes and trade-offs of practicing these values.

Rethinking Abundance

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Whitney Sanford
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Intentional Communities ◽  
Voluntary Simplicity ◽  
Car Sharing ◽  
Sustainable Buildings ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
Voluntary Simplicity Movement

This chapter illustrates how intentional communities rethink abundance and ask how much we need to be happy. Sharing resources, from car sharing to food, provide access to goods and services without formal ownership and offers residents a form of freedom; for example, performing labor in bulk offers efficiencies that free residents from time-consuming tasks. Residents demonstrate that sustainable buildings such as strawbale houses can be comfortable and beautiful and that practices such as riding a bicycle for transportation can be fun and social. Some have critiqued intentional communities and the voluntary simplicity movement which hails primarily from the white, middle-class.

scholarly journals Young People as Drivers or Inhibitors of the Sustainability Movement: The Case of Anti-Consumption

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Ziesemer ◽  
A. Hüttel ◽  
I. Balderjahn
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Voluntary Simplicity ◽  
Collaborative Consumption ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Behavioural Patterns ◽  
Future Consumption ◽  
Sustainability Movement ◽  
Laddering Interviews

AbstractAs overconsumption has negative effects on ecological balance, social equality, and individual well-being, reducing consumption levels among the materially affluent is an emerging strategy for sustainable development. Today’s youth form a crucial target group for intervening in unsustainable overconsumption habits and for setting the path and ideas on responsible living. This article explores young people’s motivations for engaging in three behavioural patterns linked to anti-consumption (voluntary simplicity, collaborative consumption, and living within one’s means) in relation to sustainability. Applying a qualitative approach, laddering interviews reveal the consequences and values behind the anti-consumption behaviours of young people of ages 14 to 24 according to a means-end chains analysis. The findings highlight potential for and the challenges involved in motivating young people to reduce material levels of consumption for the sake of sustainability. Related consumer policy tools from the fields of education and communication are identified. This article provides practical implications for policy makers, activists, and educators. Consumer policies may strengthen anti-consumption among young people by addressing individual benefits, enabling reflection on personal values, and referencing credible narratives. The presented insights can help give a voice to young consumers, who struggle to establish themselves as key players in shaping the future consumption regime.

Values of Voluntary Simplicity: Lifestyle and Motivation

1984 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 231-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Avraham Shama ◽  
Joseph Wisenblit
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
York City ◽  
Metropolitan Areas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Voluntary Simplicity ◽  
Ecological Responsibility ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
And Behavior

This paper describes the relation between values and behavior of a new life style, that of voluntary simplicity which is characterized by low consumption, self-sufficiency, and ecological responsibility. Also, specific hypotheses regarding the motivation for voluntary simplicity and adoption in two areas of the United States were tested. Analysis shows (a) values of voluntary simplicity and behaviors are consistent, (b) the motivation for voluntary simplicity includes personal preference and economic hardship, and (c) adoption of voluntary simplicity is different in the Denver and New York City metropolitan areas.

ATTITUDINAL AND BEHAVIORAL CORRELATES OF VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY LIFESTYLES

1997 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osamu Iwata
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Voluntary Simplicity ◽  
Behavioral Correlates ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Order Factor ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior ◽  
Second Order Factor Analysis

Questionnaires containing 20 statements of voluntary simplicity lifestyles and 23 statements of selected attitudes and behavior related to these lifestyles were administered to 135 undergraduates. The subjects were required to rate the degree of agreement or disagreement with the statement on 5-point scales. Three unrotated factors were obtained by factor analysis. According to second-order factor analysis, voluntary simplicity lifestyles, cautious attitudes in shopping and acceptance of self-sufficiency had significant loadings on the first factor. Significant correlations between these dimensions and the selected attitudes and behavior substantially supported the validity of the scale of voluntary simplicity lifestyles.

Extreme DIY for Interdependence

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Whitney Sanford
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Agriculture ◽  
Open Source ◽  
Building Codes ◽  
Intentional Communities ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Alternate Energy ◽  
Male Dominated ◽  
Natural Building

This chapter explores how intentional communities strive for interdependence or regional self-sufficiency in areas such as transportation, building, and food. These communities link themselves to individuals and communities in broader networks of interdependence, sharing goods, information, and expertise. They run demonstrations and workshops—open source education—to pass on skills that contribute towards self-sufficiency and negotiate legal obstacles such as building codes. These communities experiment in areas including: natural building, sustainable agriculture, alternate currencies and time banks, and alternate energy such as bio-fuel. Communities that identify as feminist still must address tensions that arise when women enter male-dominated areas such as building.

Researching spatial practices through Commentated Walks: “on the move” and “walking with”

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathalie Raulet-Croset ◽  
Anni Borzeix
Keyword(s):  
Field Work ◽  
Spatial Dimension ◽  
Spatial Practices ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Organizational Contexts ◽  
Suburban Areas ◽  
Shared Spaces ◽  
Emergent Phenomena ◽  
The Social ◽  
Empirical Field

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how the combination of a qualitative shadowing method called “Commentated Walk” and an ethnographic approach, can be used to analyze the spatial dimension of practices, when space is considered as a co-construction and as an active dimension of individual and collective practices. Design/methodology/approach – The approach is ethnographic and the empirical field work concerns the coordination in ephemeral organizations intended to manage emergent phenomena: the social “problems” often named “urban incivilities,” which occur in public and semi-public spaces in some suburban areas in France and are recurrent. Findings – In these organizations, space appears to be part of individual and collective practices, and a key resource for coordination. Shared “spaces of action” between inhabitants and local institutions contribute to coordination. As a method of data collection, Commentated Walks offer relevant insight into how actors “deal with space” in their day-to-day life or their professional practices. Walking with while talking with – the method's principals – make it possible to capture the materiality of problematic spaces as well as the feelings that the space inspires. Research limitations/implications – The use of this method is still exploratory. In further research, it would be interesting to consider such Commentated Walks in other organizational contexts, in order to explore different ways of “dealing with” space and different types of spatial competencies that people develop in using space as a resource. Originality/value – This paper proposes an original combination of methodological approaches which allows us to grasp the formation of spatial practices.

scholarly journals Cybercafés and their potential as Community Development Tools in India

2005 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anikar Michael Haseloff
Keyword(s):  
Community Development ◽  
Urban Communities ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Access Point ◽  
User Survey ◽  
Suburban Areas ◽  
Development Tools ◽  
Development Context ◽  
Made In

The following article examines the role of Cybercafés in urban, semiurban and suburban areas of India. Cybercafés have become an important access point for different urban communities in India, and the paper discusses their role in an urban development context. To examine the role of Cybercafés, a broad quantitative and qualitative analysis of cybercafes has been made in different urban, semiurban and suburban areas in India, including a user survey of 1500 users and 30 interviews. This paper discusses some of the findings, shows some up to date trends of the Indian Cybercafe Scene and shows some interesting potentials that Cybercafés in urban areas have to serve different communities.

AN EVALUATION OF CONSUMERISM AND LIFESTYLE AS CORRELATES OF A VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY LIFESTYLE

2006 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 557-568 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osamu Iwata
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Lifestyle Factor ◽  
Point Scale ◽  
Voluntary Simplicity ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Environmentally Responsible ◽  
Japanese Female ◽  
Simple Life

Data from a questionnaire were collected from 189 Japanese female undergraduates at a women's university. They were 18, 19, or 20 years of age. The measures included a 22-item 7-point voluntary simplicity lifestyle scale, a 9-item 5-point scale of the evaluation of a voluntarily simple life, an 11-item 4-point scale of environmentally responsible consumerism and a 28-item 5-point scale of a nonsimplicity lifestyle. Factor analysis was conducted for each scale and Cronbach's αcoefficients were calculated for selected items associated with each scale. Both the evaluation of a voluntarily simple life and environmentally responsible consumerism were positively associated with a voluntary simplicity lifestyle and its three factors, that is, cautious attitudes in shopping, acceptance of self-sufficiency and a desire for a voluntarily simple life. A voluntary simplicity lifestyle was significantly associated with more than half of the nonsimplicity lifestyle statements.

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