The voluntary simplicity movement: Reimagining the good life beyond consumer culture

International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability

Volumn 7, Issue 3, 2011, Pages 133-150

  Alexander, Samuel ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE   (Australia)

Author keywords

Anti consumerism; Consumer culture; Consumption; Downshifting; Simple living; Voluntary simplicity

Indexed keywords

EID: 80052715520     PISSN: 18322077     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book Series    
DOI: 10.18848/1832-2077/CGP/v07i03/54923     Document Type: Article

References (155)

1. See generally, Avner Offer, The Challenge of Affluence: Self-Control and Well-Being in the United States and Britain since 1950 (2006)
2. Richard Easterlin, Growth Triumphant: The Twenty-First Century in Historical Perspective (1996).
3. See World Bank, 'World Development Indicators: Poverty Data,' (2008) 11 at 5 September 2010.
4. Clive Hamilton, Growth Fetish (2003)
5. See, e.g., Alex Wilson and Jessica Boehland, 'Small is Beautiful: U.S. House Size, Resource Use, and the Environment' (2005) 9(1/2) Journal of Industrial Ecology 277 (reporting that average living area per person in new houses in the U.S. increased by a factor of three since 1950s).
6. In the United States, for example, the storage industry has increased 40-fold since the 1960s, from virtually nothing to $12 billion annually, making it now larger than the US music industry.
7. See John de Graaf et al, Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic (2nd ed, 2005) 32.
8. Hamilton, above n 3, xi.
9. In February 2010, for example, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that the average, full-time salary in Australia was over $67,000
10. See < http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/mf/6302.0 > at 10 August 2010).
11. Again, this is not to deny that residual poverty remains an extremely important issue even in advanced capitalist societies; rather, the claim is that affluence, not poverty, is now the dominant societal characteristic.
12. Despite living in one of the richest nations in the world, when Australians were asked in a nation-wide survey about whether they thought they could 'afford to buy everything they really needed,' nearly two-thirds said 'no.'
13. See Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss, Affluenza: When Too Much is Never Enough (2005) 4.
14. See generally, Ed Diener, Daniel Kahneman and John Helliwell (eds), International Differences in Well-Being (2010) (developing this thesis and acknowledging and discussing the most recent critics of it)
15. Kate Picket and Richard Wilkinson, The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger (2009)
16. Richard Layard, Guy Mayraz and Stephen Nickell, 'The Marginal Utility of Income' (2008) 92 J. of Pub. Econ. 1846
17. Richard Layard, Happiness: Lessons from a New Science (2005)
18. Ronald Inglehart, 'The Diminishing Utility of Economic Growth' (1996) 10(4) Critical Review 509.
19. The best explanation for this phenomenon seems to be that beyond the satisfaction of 'basic needs' (a concept that is admittedly problematic, but still useful), further increases in income are a poor substitute for non-materialist 'goods,' such as friendship, community engagement, meaningful employment, leisure, creative activity, etc
20. See generally, Rafael Di Tella and Robert MaCulloch, 'Happiness Adaptation to Income Beyond "Basic Needs"' in Ed Diener, Daniel Kahneman and John Helliwell (eds), International Differences in Well-Being (2010) 217.
21. See generally, Stephen Purdey, Economic Growth, the Environment and International Relations: The Growth Paradigm (2010)
22. Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen and Jean-Paul Fitoussi, Mis-Measuring Our Lives: Why GDP Does n't Add Up (2010).
23. Henry David Thoreau, 'Walden' in Carl Bode (ed), The Portable Thoreau (1982) 261.
24. See Hellmuth Lange and Lars Meier, The New Middle Classes: Globalizing Lifestyles, Consumerism and Environmental Concern (2009).
25. See Tim Kasser and Allen Kanner (eds), Psychology and Consumer Culture: The Struggle for a Good Life in a Materialistic World (2003).
26. See Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (2000).
27. John De Graaf (ed), Take Back Your Time: Fighting Overwork and Time Poverty in America (2003).
28. David Myers, The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty (2000).
29. See generally, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, Ecosystems and Human Well-Being (2005).
30. See Ted Trainer, 'The Simpler Way,' at 10 October 2010.
31. See, e.g., Charles Wagner, The Simple Life (1901)
32. Juliet Schor, The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting, and the New Consumer (1st ed, 1998). The term voluntary simplicity was coined by Richard Gregg, an American lawyer and committed follower of Gandhi
33. See Richard Gregg, 'The Value of Voluntary Simplicity,' in Samuel Alexander (ed), Voluntary Simplicity: The Poetic Alternative to Consumer Culture (2009) 111-126.
34. Duane Elgin, Promise Ahead: A Vision of Hope and Action for Humanit y's Future (1st ed, 2000) Ch. 4.
35. See Amitai Etzioni, 'Voluntary Simplicity: A New Social Movement?' in William Halal and Kenneth Taylor, Twenty-First Century Economics: Perspectives of Socioeconomics for a Changing World (1999).
36. See Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss, 'The Downshifters,' in Samuel Alexander (ed), Voluntary Simplicity, above n 21, 219-234.
37. See Joshua Gambrel and Philip Cafaro, 'The Virtue of Simplicity' (2009) 23(1) Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 85.
38. See generally, Cecile Andrews and Wanda Urbanska (eds), Less is More: Embracing Simplicity for a Healthy Planet, a Caring Economy and Lasting Happiness (2009).
39. See Jerome Segal, Graceful Simplicity: Toward a Philosophy and Politics of the Alternative American Dream (1st ed, 1999).
40. Duane Elgin, Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life that is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich (Rev. ed, 1993).
41. David Shi, The Simple Life: Plain Living and High Thinking in American Culture (2nd ed, 2007) 3.
42. Ibid 131
43. See Alan Durning, How Much is Enough?: The Consumer Society and the Future of the Earth (1992).
44. See Thomas Princen, The Logic of Sufficiency (2005); Gambrel and Cafaro, above n 25.
45. See generally, Goldian Vanenbroeck (ed), Less is More: An Anthology of Ancient and Modern Voices Raised in Praise of Simplicity (1991).
46. For a sampling of the historical literature
47. see Vanenbroeck (ed), above n 33.
48. See Segal, above n 27, 20.
49. On the difficulty of defining poverty
50. see Segal, above n 27, 21.
51. See Thomas Princen, The Logic of Sufficiency (2005).
52. See Segal, above n 27, 22.
53. See Hélěne Cherrier, 'Anti-Consumption Discourses and Consumer-Resistant Identities' (2009) 62(2) Journal of Business Research 181.
54. Thoreau, above n 13, 306.
55. See Steve Deger and Leslie Gibson (eds), The Book of Positive Quotations (2nd ed, 2007) 262.
56. For a critical discussion of the economic theory underpinning consumer culture, see Neva Goodwin, Frank Ackerman and David Kiron (eds), The Consumer Society (1997) 149-228.
57. The prophet of consumerism, Victor Lebow, once stated: 'Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption a way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction and our ego satisfaction in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever-increasing rate,'
58. quoted in Vance Packard, The Waste Makers (1963) 11.
59. See Juliet Schor, The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure (Rev. ed, 1993)
60. See also, Tim Kasser and Allen Kanner (eds), Psychology and Consumer Culture: The Struggle for a Good Life in a Materialistic World (2003).
61. Gregg, above n 21, 112.
62. See Philip Cafaro, 'Less is More' (2001) 14(1) Global Bioethics 45.
63. On the spiritual significance of simplicity
64. see Erich Fromm, To Have or to Be? (1st ed, 1976).
65. Etzioni, above n 23.
66. Hamilton and Denniss, above n 9, 156 (reporting that 29 per cent of downshifters surveyed practise voluntary simplicity by reducing their working hours).
67. Ibid (reporting that 19 percent of downshifters practise voluntary simplicity by changing careers).
68. Ibid 153 (reporting that 35 percent of downshifters do so because they want to spend more time with family).
69. Ibid (reporting that 90 per cent of downshifters are happier with their changed lifestyle, despite having reduced income).
70. See Hélěne Cherrier, 'Drifting away from Excessive Consumption: A New Social Movement based on Identity Construction' (2002) 29 Advances in Consumer Research 245.
71. See, e.g., Suzanne Miller and Jennifer Paxton, 'Community and Connectivity: Examining the Motives Underlying the Adoption of a Lifestyle of Voluntary simplicity' (2006) 33 Advances in Consumer Research 289.
72. See, e.g., Cahit Guven, 'Are Happier People Better Citizens?' (2009) available at 10 October 2010 (providing evidence that happier people tend to create more social capital, are more likely to vote, volunteer, and participate in public activities).
73. Gambrel and Cafaro, above n 25, 11.
74. See de Graaf et al, above n 5, 63-71.
75. See Myers, above n 18.
76. See Putnam, above n 16
77. Robert Lane, The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies (2000)
78. See also, Yiannis Gabriel and Tim Land, The Unmanageable Consumer (2nd ed, 2006) 10 (describing the "Fordist Deal" - the tradeoff in which workers obtain greater material enjoyment in exchange for alienation and loss of autonomy in the workplace).
79. Mark Burch, Stepping Lightly: Simplicity for People and the Planet (2000) 65 (emphasis omitted).
80. See Michelle Nelson, Mark Rademacher and Hye-Jin Paek, 'Downshifting Consumer = Upshifting Citizen?' (2007) 611 Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 141.
81. See Deirdre Shaw and Terry Newholm, 'Voluntary Simplicity and the Ethics of Consumption' (2002) 19(2) Psychology and Marketing 167.
82. See Daniel Fireside (ed), The Wealth Inequality Reader (3rd ed, 2009).
83. See Jim Merkel, Radical Simplicity (2003) Chaps. 1 and 3.
84. See Hamilton and Denniss, above n 9, 192 (arguing that 'To solve the problem of poverty, real deprivation, we must first solve the problem of affluence, imagined deprivation').
85. See David Woodward and Andrew Simms, 'Growth Isn't Working: The Unbalanced Distribution of Benefits and Costs from Economic Growth' (2006) at 15 October 2010.
86. On Gandhi's conception of simplicity, see Mahatma Gandhi, 'The Quest for Simplicity: My Idea of Swaraj,' in Majid Rahnema and Victoria Bawtree (eds), The Post-Development Reader (1997) 306-7.
87. See generally, Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich, The Population Explosion (1990) (discussing the 'I = PAT' identity, which holds that environmental impact (I) is a product of population (P), affluence (A), and technology (T)).
88. To clarify, what is needed in terms of consumption is not just 'less of the same,' but 'less, different, and more efficient.'
89. But see, Hana Librova, 'The Environmentally Friendly Lifestyle: Simple or Complicated? ' (2008) 44(6) Czech Sociological Review 1111 (arguing that there is nothing very 'simple,' in the sense of 'easy,' about living sustainably in consumer cultures).
90. See United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 'Agenda 21,' Sect. 4.3, at 10 October 2010.
91. Ibid, Sect. 4.7.
92. United Nations, 'World Summit on Sustainable Development' (2002) at 10 November 2010.
93. There is also a growing recognition that ecological and humanitarian issues are closely linked
94. See Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, Ecosystems and Human Well-Being (2005) 2 (acknowledging that 'the degradation of ecosystems services is already a significant barrier to achieving the Millennium Development Goals').
95. This discussion of the practice of simplicity is based, in part, upon my personal explorations of the simple life in recent years, which I have described in more detail in Samuel Alexander, 'Deconstructing the Shed: Where I Live and What I Live For,' Concord Saunterer (2011, forthcoming).
96. This depends on consumers being 'informed,' which depends, in part, upon good labelling of commodities
97. See James Salzman, 'Sustainable Consumption and the Law' (1997) 27 Environmental Law 1243.
98. Joseph Dominguez and Vicki Robin, Your Money or Your Life: Transforming your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence (New ed, 1999).
99. Thoreau, above n 13, 286.
100. The idea of 'voting with your money,' however, would be more accurately attributed to John Ruskin
101. See (ed), above n 33, 63.
102. This is not meant to suggest that 'market mechanisms,' in themselves, will be an adequate path to ecological protection or social justice. Nor is this an argument for what might be called 'green consumerism' (i.e. consumerism by another name). The point is that in a market society, expenditure is one way, among others, for individuals to 'vote on what exists in the world.'
103. See generally, Daniel Finn, The Moral Ecology of Markets: Assessing Claims about Markets and Justice (2006).
104. See David Bosshart, Cheap? The Real Cost of Living in a Low Price, Low Wage World (2006).
105. Michele Micheletti, Political Virtue and Shopping: Individuals, Consumerism, and Collective Action (2010) (providing a theoretically sophisticated, empirically rich examination of the increasingly important phenomenon of politically and ethically motivated market expenditure).
106. See Clive Barnett et al, 'The Political Ethics of Consumerism' (2005) 15(2) Consumer Policy Review 45.
107. Thoreau, above n 13, 290.
108. See Wilson and Boehland, above n 4.
109. Rob Hopkins, The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience (2008).
110. See Hamilton and Denniss, above n 9, 166.
111. See, e.g., Kate Soper, Alternative Hedonism, Cultural Theory and the Role of Aesthetic Revisioning' (2008) 22(5) Cultural Studies 567.
112. See OECD, 'A New World Map in Textiles and Clothing' (2002) available at at 15 October 2010 (reporting that in 2002 the global textile and clothing industries amounted to $350 billion).
113. Motivations for 'eating simply and locally' are diverse, and the reasoning, at times, complex. Two important considerations are reducing 'food miles' and increasing 'food security.'
114. See generally, Alison Blay-Palmer, Food Fears: From Industrial to Sustainable Food Systems (2008).
115. See Elise McDonough, Sustainable Food: How to Buy Right and Spend Less (2009)
116. See also, www.slowfood.com. Slow Food is a global, grassroots organization with over 100,000 supporters in 150 countries who are linking the pleasure of good food with a commitment to their community and the environment.
117. See Hamilton and Denniss, above n 9, Chap. 10.
118. See Charles Siegel, The Politics of Simple Living (2008) 8.
119. See generally, John De Graaf (ed), Take Back Your Time: Fighting Overwork and Time Poverty in America (2003)
120. Hamilton and Dennis, above n 9, Chap. 6.
121. Henry David Thoreau, 'Life without Principle,' in Carl Bode (ed), The Portable Thoreau (1982) 636.
122. Segal, above n 27, 13.
123. Shi, above n 29, 7.
124. See Michael Maniates, 'In Search of Consumptive Resistance: The Voluntary Simplicity Movement,' in Thomas Princen et al (eds), Confronting Consumption (2002) 221 (arguing that simplicity is 'not the domain of the rich').
125. New Economics Foundation, 21 Hours: Why a 21-Hour Work Week can Help Us All Flourish in the 21 st Century (2010) at 10 November 2010.
126. See Denniss and Hamilton, above n 9, 157 (discussing their Australian survey which reports on the diversity of motivations downshifters have for adopting voluntary simplicity lifestyles).
127. Soper, above n 89.
128. See Helga Dittmar, The Social Psychology of Material Possessions: To Have is To Be (1992).
129. Tim Jackson, Prosperity without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet (2009) 63.
130. Mary Douglas, 'Relative Poverty, Relative Communication' [1976], in Jackson (ed), Sustainable Consumption (2005) 243.
131. Philip Cushman, 'Why the Self is Empty,' 45(5) American Psychologist 599.
132. See Tim Kasser, The High Price of Materialism (2002)
133. Tim Kasser and Allen Kanner (eds), Psychology and Consumer Culture: The Struggle for a Good Life in a Materialistic World (2003).
134. See Hélěne Cherrier, 'Anti-Consumption Discourses and Consumer-Resistant Identities' (2009) 62(2) Journal of Business Research 181
135. Rajesh Iyer and James Muncy, 'Purpose and Object of Anti-Consumption' (2009) 62(2) Journal of Business Research 160.
136. Tim Jackson (ed), Sustainable Consumption (2005) 20.
137. See Maniates, above n 99, 199.
138. Mary Grigsby, Buying Time and Getting By: The Voluntary Simplicity Movement (2004) 12.
139. As Michael Jacobson puts it, 'Our country is set up to oppose voluntary simplicity.'
140. See Michael Jacobson, Marketing Madness (1995)
141. as quoted in de Graaf et al, Affluenza, above n 5, 221.
142. See Christer Sanne, 'Willing Consumers-Or Locked-In? Policies for a Sustainable Consumption' (2002) 2002(42) Ecological Economics 273.
143. See The Simplicity Forum, at 10 October 2010 (a forum of leaders in the Simplicity Movement dedicated to organizing the 'invisible constituency' of simple livers and actively working towards 'changing both the culture and the policies that drive overwork and overconsumption') (emphasis added)
144. See also, www.simplicityinstitute.org (dedicated to research and policy analysis on sustainable consumption)
145. as well as Grigsby, 'Extending the Movement,' in Samuel Alexander (ed), Voluntary Simplicity: The Poetic Alternative to Consumer Culture, above n 21, at 283 (outlining ways that the Simplicity Movement could extend into the mainstream and become a more significant oppositional force).
146. Online networking provides a cheap and accessible tool for organizing collective action
147. See Hannah Lownsbrough, 'The Progressive Potential of Online Organizing' Renewal (2010) 18(3/4) 74.
148. Grigsby, above n 112, 186.
149. In my doctoral thesis I explored the politics of voluntary simplicity in some detail
150. See Samuel Alexander, 'Property beyond Growth: Toward a Politics of Voluntary Simplicity' (2011, forthcoming). For an electronic copy, please send an email to s.alexander@simplicityinstitute.org.
151. See Vanenbroeck (ed), above n 33, 116.
152. See Hopkins, above n 86.
153. See, e.g., John Barry, 'Towards a Concrete Utopian Model of Green Political Economy' (2006) 35 Post-Autistic Economics Review 5-25
154. John Barry, Rethinking Green Politics: Nature, Virtue, and Progress (1999).
155. See Mary Zournazi, Hope: New Philosophies for Change (2002) 245.