Living simply, owning very few items
Max-Neef (1991, p. 112) wrote:
"You can never understand love, unless you fall in love. This is valid for every living system. You can not attempt to understand something of which you are not a part. Hence, how can we understand a society, a world, a planet, a biosphere, detaching ourselves from it?
How many of us actually understand the problems we are trying to solve? Problem solving belongs to the realm of knowledge and requires fragmented thinking. In the realm of understanding problem posing and problem solving do not make sense, because we must deal with transformations that start with, and within, ourselves."
I believe that the same applies to (over)consumption and practising simple living as academics trying to contribute to bringing about a genuinely sustainable society. Yesterday I had a wonderful interview with a German farmer who mentioned that we do not need more people studying sustainable food production, we need more people participating in it. This made me once again reflect on the practice of sustainability in which we should actively participate. I hope that an opportunity will arise for me to participate in sustainable food production, but in the meantime my personal practice is focused on transforming my own consumption, practising simple living and even "extreme" minimalism.
Within the sustainability discourse, it is too easy to propose some "universal" solutions, such as travelling by train. Train travel has been an important practice for me since approximately 2012 (since then, I travelled by plane only once). It is only via engaging with this practice closely, I began to notice the multiple nuances thereof, such as how unaffordable train journeys can be, how limited one's geographical scope is. Same goes for veganism, slow work, alternative organising and other post-growth solutions and proposals. It could be helpful if each post-growth scholar would engage closely (and publicly) in one or several post-growth practices.
Below are some of the images from my recent journey to Paris.
Travelling very lightly:
Difficulty with finding zero-waste food while travelling over several days
Hotel prices are high, travelling over several days requires overnight stays
Difficulty with making better choices while changing trains quickly:
Reference:
Max-Neef, M. (1991) Human scale development: Conception, application and further reflections. London: The Apex Press.