The modern homesteading community, is one of people seeking self-reliance and independence for a myriad of reasons through small scale independent farming and food preservation and crafting. The homesteader is more that just a famer and embodies a broad and contradictory spectrum of motives, affiliations, and material practices. (Wilbur, p.154). As Rebeca Kneale Gould states “the homesteader has converted to a new way of life in which the practice of everyday life is a chosen ‘answer’ to a particular constellation of personal, social and cultural questions” (p. 191). Just as diverse as the people, so to are the labels this community and lifestyle have been given. While homesteaders are the most common terms used by researchers and the community
…show more content…
These values are often connected to their ideology of voluntary simplicity and their views of technology’s connection to capitalism. (Housel, 2006, p. 85). A common lifestyle choice for many homesteaders is to live off the grid with no county utilities. “Off-gridders generally also practice relative self-sufficiency when it comes to water, sewage and garbage disposal, home-building and food production” (Vannini and Taggart, 2014, p.320). They may hall their water from a nearby source, chop wood for heat and cooking, or rely on solar or wind power. Jacob asserts that most homesteaders are not trying to be primitive but live a certain quality of life. He divides technology into two types: soft, what could be called environmentally friendly technology and hard. Soft is easily understood and low specialization while hard is difficult to understand and capital intensive. Most homesteaders strive to use soft technologies but he found in his surveys that there are grey areas when it comes to tools such as chainsaws and tractors. Gould reports that for one individual this is a creative way of responding to the dangers of industrial technological culture with out throwing out science and technology altogether. (2014) Housel finds that this selective use of technology “is connected to their views about its relationship to capitalism, influence on people’s loss of personal control, impact on the home’s domestic sphere, and effect on interpersonal relationships in capitalistic technologically oriented society” (2006, p.183). Another form of technology that seems to have been found acceptable for use by most homesteaders is the world wide web. The modern homesteader “turns to the internet and social media for support and instruction” (Smith, 2015, 142). They rely on personal blogs and networks in order to obtain new skills, get advice, or just socialize with other
These values are often connected to their ideology of voluntary simplicity and their views of technology’s connection to capitalism. (Housel, 2006, p. 85). A common lifestyle choice for many homesteaders is to live off the grid with no county utilities. “Off-gridders generally also practice relative self-sufficiency when it comes to water, sewage and garbage disposal, home-building and food production” (Vannini and Taggart, 2014, p.320). They may hall their water from a nearby source, chop wood for heat and cooking, or rely on solar or wind power. Jacob asserts that most homesteaders are not trying to be primitive but live a certain quality of life. He divides technology into two types: soft, what could be called environmentally friendly technology and hard. Soft is easily understood and low specialization while hard is difficult to understand and capital intensive. Most homesteaders strive to use soft technologies but he found in his surveys that there are grey areas when it comes to tools such as chainsaws and tractors. Gould reports that for one individual this is a creative way of responding to the dangers of industrial technological culture with out throwing out science and technology altogether. (2014) Housel finds that this selective use of technology “is connected to their views about its relationship to capitalism, influence on people’s loss of personal control, impact on the home’s domestic sphere, and effect on interpersonal relationships in capitalistic technologically oriented society” (2006, p.183). Another form of technology that seems to have been found acceptable for use by most homesteaders is the world wide web. The modern homesteader “turns to the internet and social media for support and instruction” (Smith, 2015, 142). They rely on personal blogs and networks in order to obtain new skills, get advice, or just socialize with other