ABSTRACT
In recent years, living simply, and sustainably, has become a legitimate, or even trendy, way for individuals to contribute to a better society in the global North. Rural areas in this context are seen as a place for people who seek voluntary simplicity to resettle, for either business purposes or personal reasons. However, little research has examined the phenomenon of voluntary simplicity in quantitative manner and the mobility aspect is often missing from the general discussion of voluntary simplicity and degrowth literature. This chapter therefore looks at holistic simplifiers, as those who seek voluntary simplicity and move to smaller towns, rural areas or other less affluent or urbanized parts of the country, with the help of longitudinal register data from Statistics Sweden. The results show demographic and economic features of holistic simplifiers and some of them are unexpected, challenging some of the assumptions and definitions of voluntary simplicity. We conclude that the number of holistic simplifiers is low in Sweden, and while individuals meet the overall criteria for voluntary simplicity they do not necessarily behave accordingly by cutting levels of consumption and living a simpler life. Some possible reasons are discussed and questions for future studies are suggested.
