The world is moving at an increasingly rapid pace due to widening globalization. As a result of the technological development that has accelerated over the past decades, today, people are not only offered the opportunity to travel faster over geographical distances but also experience and achieve more per unit of time. This may cause negative consequences for humans and the environment, for example stress-related illnesses and an increased speed of climate change. The global slow movement has emerged as a response to this. Primarily, the movement advocates for valuing time higher than money, in order to slow down the speed of life. This thesis aims to investigate how members of the slow movement perceive the process of adopting a slow lifestyle within a fast-paced society. The aim is further to examine how identity can be constructed through slow principles. The study is based on interviews with seven individuals in Sweden, who all have made certain lifestyle changes in order to slow down. The result indicates that there are different motives behind the informants’ decision to adopt a slower lifestyle. These include environmental related reasons, health related reasons, and a common desire for increased self-determination in terms of being able to control one's own time. Furthermore, the result shows that the informants have slightly different experiences of the adopting process in terms of handling practical aspects as well as dealing with potential challenges such as financial uncertainty and lack of comprehension from the surroundings. In addition, the study illustrates that the informants perceive a connection between their lifestyles and a sense of identity. This is expressed by the informants’ ambition to change the surroundings, the way in which they manifest slow principles to others, and how they have experienced inner changes in relation to the slow living lifestyle.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:oru-85723 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Hall, Alva |
| Publisher | Örebro universitet, Institutionen för humaniora, utbildnings- och samhällsvetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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