Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

5-2001

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Social Work

Major Professor

Catherine Faver

Committee Members

Sherry Cable, Suzanne Kurth, John Nolt

Abstract

People who live in the modem western society enjoy the benefits of a "post modern” life and also reap the negative consequences. Environmental degradation, intrusion of public entities into private life, and alienation are just a few. The purpose of this descriptive study was to analyze organizations that were members of a network promoting voluntary simplicity. New social movement theory guided this study. A survey was mailed to organizations across the US and 97 were returned. Data analyzed included organizational characteristics, goals, tactics and style of participation. Ideology of organizations and changes over time were also addressed. Specifically, organizations' orientations regarding four issues were studied; expressive/instrumental; fighting intrusion of public entities into private areas of life; prefigurative/active tactical style and the importance of democratic process and member input. Results indicated that while the organizations used expressive tactics, goals were fairly equally distributed between expressive and instrumental aims. Goals were more focused on addressing social justice issues than preventing intrusion. A prefigurative style was found in the area of tactics. The importance of democratic process and the importance of member involvement were each compared to the importance of outcomes/successes. Democratic process scores were higher than outcome scores, but the difference between the two was not statistically significant; member involvement scores were also higher than outcome scores, but here the difference was found to be statistically significant. Paired t-tests and the Wilcoxon non-parametric test were used in this study. Organizational characteristics such as age and size (budget, number of employees and number of members) were presented, as well as the presence of a spiritual focus and religious affiliation. Qualitative reports were compiled on ideology and in the area of changes over time. The findings of this study are important to social work for several reasons. In the area of social change, tactics and organizational functioning are examined. Voluntary simplicity also has implications for individual and community well being.

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