Publication details
Residential preferences in the context of voluntary simple lifestyles: What motivates contemporary Czech simplifiers to reside in the countryside?
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Human Affairs: Postdisciplinary Humanities & Social Sciences Quarterly |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/humaff-2016-0035 |
| Field | Sociology, demography |
| Keywords | Relocation motivations; voluntary simplicity; environmentally friendly lifestyles; qualitative longitudinal research; Czech Republic |
| Attached files | |
| Description | The aim of our paper is to broaden the international discussion on environmentally friendly lifestyles. In most of the previous research, via a survey technique involving the self-nomination of participants, voluntary simplifiers are presented as part of a social movement typically connected with an urban environment. Our paper follows the third wave of longitudinal research conducted in the post-socialist Czech Republic in the years 1992, 2002 and 2015. The data were collected using in-depth interviews combined with observations in 20 voluntary modest households. The biographical style of interview enables us to interpret the sources of the participants’ motivation for relocating to the countryside or staying in the urban environment as they interpret it retrospectively. Four dominant narratives emerged: 1) narrative of distaste for city life, 2) narrative of a nice life, 3) narrative about living in freedom, 4) narrative of a return to roots. |
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