Currently Browsing: Housing
Feb 23, 2012
Our country is set up structurally to oppose voluntary simplicity. – Michael Jacobson
Our lifestyle decisions, especially our consumption decisions, are not made in a vacuum. Instead, they are made within social, economic, and political structures of constraint, and those structures make some lifestyle decisions easy or necessary and other lifestyle decisions difficult or impossible. Change the social,...
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Overcoming Barriers to Sustainable Consumption
Feb 17, 2012
I’m pleased and excited to announce the launch of the latest initiative of the Simplicity Institute – The Simpler Way: A Practical Action Plan for Living More on Less.
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The Simpler Way, created in collaboration with Ted Trainer, consists of a website and booklet which provide detailed practical advice on how to live a ‘simpler life’ of reduced and restrained consumption. More...
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The Simpler Way: A Practical Action Plan for Living More on Less
Aug 9, 2011
Just Enough is Plenty: Thoreau’s Alternative Economics (Audio Lecture and E-Book)
I’ve recently started teaching a Masters of Environment course called, “Consumerism and Sustainability,” through the Office for Environmental Programs, University of Melbourne. Last night I was privileged enough to deliver a lecture on Thoreau, and I have attached an audio file of part of that lecture if anyone would like to have a listen. I have also attached an e-book called ‘Just... read more
Jun 6, 2011
Deconstructing the Shed: Where I Live and What I Live For
My essay, ‘Deconstructing the Shed: Where I Live and What I Live For,’ is about to be published in the Concord Saunterer: The Journal of Thoreau Studies. I sent out a draft to some of you a few months ago but have been given generous permission to post the final version here (see link below). The essay gives an account of the two years just past that I spent living in a small, self-constructed, inner... read more
Jan 20, 2011
What Kind of Shelter Does One Need to Live Well and Be Free?
Housing (whether purchasing, building, or renting) is typically life’s greatest single expense, so simple livers must think especially carefully about where they live and why, and how much of their lives they are prepared to spend seeking a ‘nicer’ place to live. Exactly what kind of shelter does one need to live well and be free? Obviously, we must answer this question for ourselves – at least,... read more
