Keeping it simple - Voluntary simplicity in today's society

Abstract

Living a voluntarily simple life isn’t a new phenomenon in the history of humankind. Various religious groups in particular have lived in deliberate austerity throughout times. However, only recently has voluntary simplicity become a more prevalent lifestyle choice. In voluntary simplicity research, a myriad of motives have been mentioned to have caused the growing interest towards the lifestyle.

This thesis focuses on the role of voluntary simplicity in today’s society. It explores the role of consumption and material possessions in individuals’ life as well as discusses the reasons that lead some people to choose a voluntarily simple life.

As the literature review will reveal, there is no one, universal way to live a voluntarily simple life just as there isn’t one, universal reason that motivates all simplifiers to follow the lifestyle. Even though voluntary simplicity usually means that individuals have to reduce their level of consumption and give up unnecessary goods, it isn’t seen as a life of sacrifice by any means. Instead, the lifestyle appears to generally enhance individuals’ quality of life and lead to a more meaningful life.

After discussing the phenomenon of voluntary simplicity, this thesis presents a general categorisation of voluntary simplifiers based on their primary motives to follow the lifestyle. The findings of this literature review also reveal that these simplifiers differ greatly from mainstream consumers in regard to their consumption behaviour and relationship with material possessions.

The question that remains unanswered is that could voluntary simplicity provide a remedy to the many current problems that trouble our world nowadays? The movement surely has plenty of potential in doing so, but it would likely have to massively grow in popularity first.