Downshifting (lifestyle)

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In social behavior, downshifting is a trend where individuals adopt simpler lives from what critics call the "rat race".

Contents

The long-term effect of downshifting can include an escape from what has been described as economic materialism, as well as reduce the "stress and psychological expense that may accompany economic materialism". This new social trend emphasizes finding an improved balance between leisure and work, while also focusing life goals on personal fulfillment, as well as building personal relationships instead of the all-consuming pursuit of economic success.

Downshifting, as a concept, shares characteristics with simple living. However, it is distinguished as an alternative form by its focus on moderate change and concentration on an individual comfort level and a gradual approach to living. [1] In the 1990s, this new form of simple living began appearing in the mainstream media, and has continually grown in popularity among populations living in industrial societies, especially the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia, as well as Russia. [2]

Values and motives

"Down-shifters" refers to people who adopt long-term voluntary simplicity in their lives. A few of the main practices of down-shifters include accepting less money for fewer hours worked, while placing an emphasis on consuming less in order to reduce their ecological footprint. One of the main results of these practices is being able to enjoy more leisure time in the company of others, especially loved ones.

The primary motivations for downshifting are gaining leisure time, escaping from work-and-spend cycle, and removing the clutter of unnecessary possessions. The personal goals of downshifting are simple: To reach a holistic self-understanding and satisfying meaning in life. [3]

Because of its personalized nature and emphasis on many minor changes, rather than complete lifestyle overhaul, downshifting attracts participants from across the socioeconomic spectrum. [4] An intrinsic consequence of downshifting is increased time for non-work-related activities, which, combined with the diverse demographics of downshifters, cultivates higher levels of civic engagement and social interaction. [5]

The scope of participation is limitless, because all members of society—adults, children, businesses, institutions, organizations, and governments—are able to downshift [1] even if many demographic strata do not start "high" enough to "down"-shift.

In practice, down-shifting involves a variety of behavioral and lifestyle changes. The majority of these down-shifts are voluntary choices. Natural life course events, such as the loss of a job, or birth of a child can prompt involuntary down-shifting. There is also a temporal dimension, because a down-shift could be either temporary or permanent. [6]

Methods

Work and income

The most common form of down-shifting is work (or income) down-shifting. Down-shifting is fundamentally based on dissatisfaction with the conditions and consequences of the workplace environment. [7] The philosophy of work-to-live replaces the social ideology of live-to-work. Reorienting economic priorities shifts the work–life balance away from the workplace.

Economically, work downshifts are defined in terms of reductions in either actual or potential income, work hours, and spending levels. [6] Following a path of earnings that is lower than the established market path is a downshift in potential earnings in favor of gaining other non-material benefits.

On an individual level, work downshifting is a voluntary reduction in annual income. Downshifters desire meaning in life outside of work and, therefore, will opt to decrease the amount of time spent at work or work hours. Reducing the number of hours of work, consequently, lowers the amount earned. [8] Simply not working overtime or taking a half-day a week for leisure time, are work downshifts.

Career downshifts are another way of downshifting economically and entail lowering previous aspirations of wealth, a promotion or higher social status. [9] Quitting a job to work locally in the community, from home or to start a business are examples of career downshifts. Although more radical, these changes do not mean stopping work altogether.

Many reasons are cited by workers for this choice and usually center on a personal cost–benefit analysis of current working situations and desired extracurricular activities. High stress, pressure from employers to increase productivity, and long commutes can be factors that contribute to the costs of being employed. [6] If the down-shifter wants more non-material benefits like leisure time, a healthy family life, or personal freedom then switching jobs could be a desirable option.

Work down-shifting may also be a key to considerable health benefits as well as a healthy retirement. People are retiring later in life than previous generations. As can be seen by looking at The Health and Retirement Study, [10] done by the Health and Retirement Study Survey Research Center, [11] women can show the long term health benefits of down-shifting their work lives by working part time hours over a long period of years. Men however prove to be more unhealthy if they work part time from middle age till retirement. Men who down-shift their work life to part time hours at the age of 60 to 65 however benefit from continuing to work a part-time job through a semi retirement even over the age of 70. This is an example of how flexible working policies [12] can be a key to being healthy while in retirement. [13]

Spending habits

Another aspect of down-shifting is being a conscious consumer or actively practicing alternative forms of consumption. Proponents of down-shifting point to consumerism as a primary source of stress and dissatisfaction because it creates a society of individualistic consumers who measure both social status and general happiness by an unattainable quantity of material possessions. Instead of buying goods for personal satisfaction, consumption down-shifting, purchasing only the necessities, is a way to focus on quality of life rather than quantity. [5]

This realignment of spending priorities promotes the functional utility of goods over their ability to convey status which is evident in downshifters being generally less brand-conscious. [14] These consumption habits also facilitate the option of working and earning less because annual spending is proportionally lower. Reducing spending is less demanding than more extreme downshifts in other areas, like employment, as it requires only minor lifestyle changes.

Policies that enable downshifting

Unions, business, and governments could implement more flexible working hours, part-time work, and other non-traditional work arrangements that enable people to work less, while still maintaining employment. Small business legislation, reduced filing requirements and reduced tax rates encourage small-scale individual entrepreneurship and therefore help individuals quit their jobs altogether and work for themselves on their own terms. [15]

Environmental consequences

The catch-phrase of International Downshifting Week is "Slow Down and Green Up". [1] Whether intentional or unintentional, generally, the choices and practices of down-shifters nurture environmental health because they reject the fast-paced lifestyle fueled by fossil fuels and adopt more sustainable lifestyles. [16] The latent function of consumption down-shifting is to reduce, to some degree, the carbon footprint of the individual down-shifter. An example is to shift from a corporate suburban rat race lifestyle to a small eco friendly farming lifestyle. [17]

Down-shifting geographically

Downshifting geographically is a relocation to a smaller, rural, or more slow-paced community. This is often a response to the hectic pace of life and stresses in urban areas. [6] It is a significant change but does not bring total removal from mainstream culture.

Sociopolitical implications

Although downshifting is primarily motivated by personal desire and not by a conscious political stance, it does define societal overconsumption as the source of much personal discontent. By redefining life satisfaction in non-material terms, downshifters assume an alternative lifestyle but continue to coexist in a society and political system preoccupied with the economy. In general, downshifters are politically apathetic because mainstream politicians mobilize voters by proposing governmental solutions to periods of financial hardship and economic recessions. This economic rhetoric is meaningless to downshifters who have forgone worrying about money. [18]

In the United States, the UK, and Australia, a significant minority, approximately 20 to 25 percent, [19] of these countries' citizens identify themselves in some respect as downshifters. Downshifting is not an isolated or unusual choice. Politics still centers around consumerism and unrestricted growth, but downshifting values, such as family priorities and workplace regulation, appear in political debates and campaigns.

Like downshifters, the Cultural Creatives is another social movement whose ideology and practices diverge from mainstream consumerism and according to Paul Ray, are followed by at least a quarter of U.S. citizens. [20]

In his book In Praise of Slowness , Carl Honoré relates followers of downshifting and simple living to the global slow movement.

The significant number and diversity of downshifters are a challenge to economic approaches to improving society. [21] The rise in popularity of downshifting and similar, post-materialist ideologies represents unorganized social movements without political aspirations or motivating grievances. This is a result of their grassroots nature and relatively inconspicuous, non-confrontational subcultures. [22]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Consumer</span> Users or consumers of products or services

A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or use purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. The term most commonly refers to a person who purchases goods and services for personal use.

Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Consumerism</span> Socio-economic order that encourages the purchase of goods/services in ever-greater amounts

Consumerism is a social and economic order in which the aspirations of many individuals include the acquisition of goods and services beyond those necessary for survival or traditional displays of status. It emerged in Western Europe before the Industrial Revolution and became widespread around 1900. In economics, consumerism refers to policies that emphasize consumption. It is the consideration that the free choice of consumers should strongly orient the choice by manufacturers of what is produced and how, and therefore orient the economic organization of a society. Consumerism has been criticized by both individuals who choose other ways of participating in the economy and environmentalists concerned about its impact on the planet. Experts often assert that consumerism has physical limits, such as growth imperative and overconsumption, which have larger impacts on the environment. This includes direct effects like overexploitation of natural resources or large amounts of waste from disposable goods and significant effects like climate change. Similarly, some research and criticism focuses on the sociological effects of consumerism, such as reinforcement of class barriers and creation of inequalities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conspicuous consumption</span> Concept in sociology and economy

In sociology and in economics, the term conspicuous consumption describes and explains the consumer practice of buying and using goods of a higher quality, price, or in greater quantity than practical. In 1899, the sociologist Thorstein Veblen coined the term conspicuous consumption to explain the spending of money on and the acquiring of luxury commodities specifically as a public display of economic power—the income and the accumulated wealth—of the buyer. To the conspicuous consumer, the public display of discretionary income is an economic means of either attaining or of maintaining a given social status.

Overconsumption describes a situation where a consumer overuses their available goods and services to where they can't, or don't want to, replenish or reuse them. In microeconomics, this may be described as the point where the marginal cost of a consumer is greater than their marginal utility. The term overconsumption is quite controversial in use and does not necessarily have a single unifying definition. When used to refer to natural resources to the point where the environment is negatively affected, it is synonymous with the term overexploitation. However, when used in the broader economic sense, overconsumption can refer to all types of goods and services, including manmade ones, e.g. "the overconsumption of alcohol can lead to alcohol poisoning". Overconsumption is driven by several factors of the current global economy, including forces like consumerism, planned obsolescence, economic materialism, and other unsustainable business models and can be contrasted with sustainable consumption.

Lifestyle is the interests, opinions, behaviours, and behavioural orientations of an individual, group, or culture. The term was introduced by Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler in his 1929 book, The Case of Miss R., with the meaning of "a person's basic character as established early in childhood". The broader sense of lifestyle as a "way or style of living" has been documented since 1961. Lifestyle is a combination of determining intangible or tangible factors. Tangible factors relate specifically to demographic variables, i.e. an individual's demographic profile, whereas intangible factors concern the psychological aspects of an individual such as personal values, preferences, and outlooks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simple living</span> Simplified, minimalistic lifestyle

Simple living refers to practices that promote simplicity in one's lifestyle. Common practices of simple living include reducing the number of possessions one owns, depending less on technology and services, and spending less money. In addition to such external changes, simple living also reflects a person's mindset and values. Simple living practices can be seen in history, religion, art, and economics.

<i>The Theory of the Leisure Class</i> Book by Thorstein Veblen

The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions (1899), by Thorstein Veblen, is a treatise of economics and sociology, and a critique of conspicuous consumption as a function of social class and of consumerism, which are social activities derived from the social stratification of people and the division of labor; the social institutions of the feudal period that have continued to the modern era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juliet Schor</span> American economist and sociologist

Juliet B. Schor is an American economist and Sociology Professor at Boston College. She has studied trends in working time, consumerism, the relationship between work and family, women's issues and economic inequality, and concerns about climate change in the environment. From 2010 to 2017, she studied the sharing economy under a large research project funded by the MacArthur Foundation. She is currently working on a project titled "The Algorithmic Workplace" with a grant from the National Science Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frugality</span> Being frugal in the consumption of consumable resources

Frugality is the quality of being frugal, sparing, thrifty, prudent, or economical in the consumption of resources such as food, time or money, and avoiding waste, lavishness or extravagance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-consumerism</span> Opposition to excessive systemic buying and use of material possessions

Anti-consumerism is a sociopolitical ideology that is opposed to consumerism, the continual buying and consuming of material possessions. Anti-consumerism is concerned with the private actions of business corporations in pursuit of financial and economic goals at the expense of the public welfare, especially in matters of environmental protection, social stratification, and ethics in the governing of a society. In politics, anti-consumerism overlaps with environmental activism, anti-globalization, and animal-rights activism; moreover, a conceptual variation of anti-consumerism is post-consumerism, living in a material way that transcends consumerism.

Ecological sufficiency, or simply sufficiency, refers to the concept or strategy to reduce the environmental footprint of societies through moderating the need for energy, carbon and material-based services and products. The term was popularised by authors such as Thomas Princen, a professor at MIT, in his 2005 book The Logic of Sufficiency. As a goal, sufficiency is about ensuring that all humans can live a good life within planetary boundaries, meaning without overshooting the ecological limits of the Earth and thus limiting resource use and pollution. Princen argues that "seeking enough when more is possible is both intuitive and rational – personally, organizationally and ecologically. And under global ecological constraint, it is ethical."

Retirement planning, in a financial context, refers to the allocation of savings or revenue for retirement. The goal of retirement planning is to achieve financial independence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sustainable diet</span> Diet that contributes to the broader environmental and social sustainability

Sustainable diets are "dietary patterns that promote all dimensions of individuals’ health and wellbeing; have low environmental pressure and impact; are accessible, affordable, safe and equitable; and are culturally acceptable". These diets are nutritious, eco-friendly, economically sustainable, and accessible to people of various socioeconomic backgrounds. Sustainable diets attempt to address nutrient deficiencies and excesses, while accounting for ecological phenomena such as climate change, loss of biodiversity and land degradation. These diets are comparable to the climatarian diet, with the added domains of economic sustainability and accessiblity.

Sustainable consumption is the use of products and services in ways that minimizes impacts on the environment.

Degrowth is an academic and social movement critical of the concept of growth in gross domestic product as a measure of human and economic development. Degrowth theory is based on ideas and research from a multitude of disciplines such as economics, economic anthropology, ecological economics, environmental sciences, and development studies. It argues that the unitary focus of modern capitalism on growth, in terms of the monetary value of aggregate goods and services, causes widespread ecological damage and is not necessary for the further increase of human living standards. Degrowth theory has been met with both academic acclaim and considerable criticism.

Sustainable products are products who are either sustainability sourced, manufactured or processed that provide environmental, social and economic benefits while protecting public health and environment over their whole life cycle, from the extraction of raw materials until the final disposal.

Sustainable consumer behavior is the sub-discipline of consumer behavior that studies why and how consumers do or do not incorporate sustainability priorities into their consumption behavior. It studies the products that consumers select, how those products are used, and how they are disposed of in pursuit of consumers' sustainability goals.

Guilt-free consumption (GFC) is a pattern of consumption based on the minimization of the sense of guilt which consumers incur when purchasing products or commercial services.

Downshift or downshifting may refer to:

References

  1. 1 2 3 Tracey Smith, 2008
  2. ↑ Schor 1998, p. 67
  3. ↑ Levy 2005, p.176
  4. ↑ Both of Hamilton's case studies in 2003
  5. 1 2 Nelson 2007, p. 142
  6. 1 2 3 4 Schor 1998, p. 68
  7. ↑ Schor 1998, p. 66
  8. ↑ Schor 1998, pps. 66–69
  9. ↑ Juniu 2000, pp. 3–4
  10. ↑ "Welcome to the Health and Retirement Study". hrsonline.isr.umich.edu. Retrieved 2018-05-25.
  11. ↑ Gustman, Alan; Mitchell, Olivia; Steinmeier, Thomas (August 1994). "Retirement Research Using the Health and Retirement Survey". NBER Working Paper Series. Cambridge, MA. doi: 10.3386/w4813 .
  12. ↑ Lewis, Suzan; Roper, Ian (2009-09-02). Cartwright, Susan; Cooper, Cary L (eds.). "Flexible Working Arrangements: From Work–Life to Gender Equity Policies" (PDF). Oxford Handbooks Online. 1: 413–437. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199234738.003.0018. ISBN   978-0199234738.
  13. ↑ McDonough, Peggy; Worts, Diana; Corna, Laurie M.; McMunn, Anne; Sacker, Amanda (December 2017). "Later-life employment trajectories and health". Advances in Life Course Research. 34: 22–33. doi: 10.1016/j.alcr.2017.09.002 . ISSN   1040-2608.
  14. ↑ Nelson 2007, p. 145
  15. ↑ Zehner, Ozzie (2012). Green Illusions. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press.
  16. ↑ Taylor, Matthew (2019-05-22). "Much shorter working weeks needed to tackle climate crisis – study". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2019-05-22. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
  17. ↑ The Ultimate Growth Business; Many corporate refugees think green acres are the place to be. How do they make the transition? October 12, 2012 The Wall Street Journal
  18. ↑ Hamilton Jan. 2003, pp. 11–12
  19. ↑ Hamilton, Both 2003 Studies
  20. ↑ Hamilton Nov. 2003, 14
  21. ↑ Hamilton Nov. 2003, pp. 35–37
  22. ↑ Hamilton Nov. 2003, p. 25

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