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Downshifting or Conspicuous Consumption? A Sociological Examination of Treechange as a Manifestation of Slow Culture

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Culture of the Slow

Part of the book series: Consumption and Public Life ((CUCO))

Abstract

At least since the Industrial Revolution, ‘progress’ in Western societies has frequently been equated with speed. Examples abound in advanced industrial and post-industrial societies, with capitalists and consumers developing a taste for fast food and desiring increasingly faster machines. In an historical nanosecond, computers made typewriters obsolete and Henry Ford’s automobiles fostered the creation of Grand Prix winners. Today, optical networks permit even faster telecommunication, turning the vast majority of our planet into a so-called ‘global village’ where modern perils and advances now reach even the remotest locations. Modern technology has permitted nearly every corner to be electronically mapped, and hence accessible, thanks to imagery provided by Google Earth (earth.google.com).

In the early years of the twenty-first century, everything and everyone is under pressure to go faster.

(Honoré 2004, p. 3)

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Authors
  1. Angela T. Ragusa
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Monash University, Australia

    Nick Osbaldiston

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© 2013 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

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Ragusa, A.T. (2013). Downshifting or Conspicuous Consumption? A Sociological Examination of Treechange as a Manifestation of Slow Culture. In: Osbaldiston, N. (eds) Culture of the Slow. Consumption and Public Life. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137319449_7

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