Minimalist Lifestyles and the Path to Degrowth: Towards an Engaged Mindfulness

This chapter combines hermeneutic and empirical methods to discuss contemporary minimalist lifestyles – lifestyles that revolve around the reduction of material belongings, mental distraction, and work-life stress. It examines understandings of social and ecological engagement among the advocates and practitioners of minimalist lifestyles in order to explore if and how minimalist lifestyles might promote a societal transition to degrowth. The chapter reveals that minimalists and degrowthers share concern about socio-environmental exploitation and the ideal of a good life under conditions of material sufficiency but that they diverge on their theories of change. To envision an alignment between minimalist lifestyles and degrowth ambitions, the chapter develops the concept of “engaged mindfulness.”