The Disparate Roots of Voluntary Modesty

Librová, Hana

doi:10.3197/096327199129341879

Cited by 17 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…Grigsby 2004: 64;Zavestoski 2002: 151]. In line with Librová's [1999], Huneke's [2005: 544], and Craig-Lees and Hill's findings [2002: 191], we believe that non-materialistic and non-consumerist values may not be the main driving factors behind people choosing the voluntarily simple lifestyle. Many authors describe voluntary simplicity as a countercultural movement of people 'who are resisting high consumption lifestyles' [Alexander and Ussher 2012: 1] and consider voluntary simplifiers to be 'cultural change agents' [Grigsby 2004: 86].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Narratives and Practices of Voluntary Simplicity in the Czech Post-Socialist Context

Kala¹,

Galčanová²,

Pelikán³

2017

Czech Sociological Review

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Voluntary simplicity is usually seen as an alternative social movement that is responding to the current social and environmental crisis within affluent societies. Many scholars draw on Inglehart's concept of post-materialism and consider voluntary simplicity to be a way of limiting one's consumption in order to free oneself and seek satisfaction in the non-material aspects of life. These scholars assume that the values associated with simplicity emerge out of over-saturation with consumption. This article discusses the results of research conducted among Czech households who voluntarily reduce consumption and who do so in a post-socialist context, without having first lived in affluence. Theoretically and methodologically, the article builds on the work of Hana Librová [1994 and is rooted in three main concepts: the concepts of post-materialism [Inglehart 1977], 'new luxury' [Enzensberger 1996], and the normative ethical theories of motivation [Pelikán and Librová 2015]. The findings of the study call into question Inglehart's structural assumption that non-consumption lifestyles like voluntary simplicity only develop in affluent societies and suggest that the Czech socialist past created conditions suitable for the emergence of a non-ideological and primarily self-oriented version of voluntary simplicity. The roots of simple lifestyles may also lie in people's dissatisfaction with the promise of modernity, a promise suggesting that it is possible to attain and lead the good life through material abundance. Prior experience with an affluent lifestyle did not play a role in the decision of participants in this study to live a nonconsumption lifestyle. This study in a post-socialist country therefore has the potential to provide a deeper understanding of the motivations for choosing voluntary simplicity.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Narratives and Practices of Voluntary Simplicity in the Czech Post-Socialist Context

Kala¹,

Galčanová²,

Pelikán³

2017

Czech Sociological Review

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“…An important part of this lifestyle is food self‐provisioning, often including breeding animals such as rabbits, chickens and goats. Despite being highly educated, these people are content with lower level earnings and their average income is on the boundary of the poverty level (Librová 1999, 373). In part prompted by two widely publicized books by Czech sociologist Hana Librová (1994 2003), this phenomenon attracts a fair amount of media attention, including coverage in mainstream magazines, newspapers (e.g.…”

Section: Consuming Traditionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stories around food, politics and change in Poland and the Czech Republic

Smith¹,

Jehlička²

2007

Trans Inst British Geog

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This study of the politics of food production/consumption in Poland and the Czech Republic brings together food and post‐socialist studies. The food stories explored in the paper, relating to packaging, restaurant dining, self‐provisioning and the emergence of an organic food sector, open up the politics of everyday life in these significant cases. We show that there are diverse responses to ‘transition’ that are resistant or alternative to dominant narratives of linear progression towards Western ‘normality’. This finding is of wider significance at a time when debates about globalization and sustainability are promoting searches for alternative economic forms and practices.

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“…Shaw, 2009). In these western societies food self-provisioning is often associated with the construction of the self, an aspirational lifestyle and higher social status (Etzioni, 1998;Librová, 1999) -qualities with which the Czech policy community identifies.…”

Section: Self-provisioning Of Many Commodities Is Very High the Febrmentioning

confidence: 99%

An unsustainable state: Contrasting food practices and state policies in the Czech Republic

Jehlička

Smith

2011

Geoforum

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This paper brings together consideration of food policies and practices and of post-socialist transition to raise neglected questions about means of nurturing more sustainable food systems in the developed world. The last three decades have been marked by the growing salience of food as a political and scholarly concern. While market-based alternative food systems have been heralded for their potential to promote environmental sustainability, the benefits of non-market practices such as household food self-provisioning and barter have been assumed rather than being the focus of research. In the western context, both types of food consumption have positive connotations. Although food self-provisioning in European post-socialist societies is a more wide-spread practice than in western societies, it has been on the periphery of research. The existing literature has conceptualised them as 'coping strategies' or as a legacy of irregular supply of goods in the state socialist era.Drawing on empirical research in the Czech Republic, we are proposing a novel approach to the phenomenon of household food production in post-socialist societies as a practice compliant with principles of sustainability. First, we highlight the large extent and social inclusivity of food self-provisioning in Czech society to demonstrate how post-socialist societies are a repository of a rich set of sustainability-promoting consumption practices in relation to food systems. Second, we show that international and domestic policy actors in these societies have ignored these alternative, socially inclusive and environmentally effective practices in favour of far less effective 1 2 market-based sustainability oriented food policy initiatives. The paper promotes a more integrated view of non-market and market approaches in the pursuit of more sustainable food systems.

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The Disparate Roots of Voluntary Modesty

Cited by 17 publications

References 1 publication

Narratives and Practices of Voluntary Simplicity in the Czech Post-Socialist Context

Narratives and Practices of Voluntary Simplicity in the Czech Post-Socialist Context

Stories around food, politics and change in Poland and the Czech Republic

An unsustainable state: Contrasting food practices and state policies in the Czech Republic

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