Downshifting

Downshifting Definition

Downshifting is a process in which people — usually middle class — voluntarily opt for a simpler, more frugal lifestyle. The ultimate aim is to escape the “rat race”: to take a less demanding job, reduce working hours, or move into voluntary work in order to free time for the things one really wants to do, accepting a lower income and reduced consumption as the price.

Evidence of the Trend

The phenomenon attracted attention in the United States during the 1990s. The American Trends Research Institute predicted that by the year 2000 some 15 percent of people in their thirties and forties would have chosen a less consumer-oriented lifestyle, preferring to buy simple, durable products. A random sample of 800 Americans carried out in 1995 suggested the shift was already well under way, with 28 percent reporting that they had “downshifted” in some form.

Sociological Significance

Downshifting interests sociologists because it appears to reverse the assumptions of consumer society: status and satisfaction are sought not through ever-greater earning and spending but through time, autonomy, and self-fulfillment. It is closely related to the ideal of voluntary simplicity and to debates about post-materialist values, in which security and affluence lead some groups to prize quality of life over further material accumulation. It also connects with concerns about overwork, stress, and work–life balance among professionals. Critics note, however, that downshifting is largely an option for the comfortably placed: it presupposes savings, marketable skills, or a partner’s income to fall back on, and is far less available to those for whom frugality is a necessity rather than a choice. In this sense the phenomenon may say as much about middle-class privilege as about any general turn away from consumerism.