Self-sufficiency in a ‘time of plenty’: mass consumerism and freedom in 1970s Australia

Abstract

This article examines the notion of post-industrial self-sufficiency in 1970s Australia. Against a backdrop of more than 20 years of economic prosperity from which the majority of Australians had benefited, an increasingly dissatisfied minority voluntarily chose to ‘opt out’ of mainstream society. Despite their material affluence, those who were drawn to self-sufficiency did not feel free under the constraints of consumer capitalism. Their solution would be to reunite the dual spheres of production and consumption to regain control over their lives by providing for as many of their needs as possible themselves. Thus, to understand the complexities of the movement (and the failings of the consumerist ideal), this article contends that one needs to view post-industrial self-sufficiency as much as a product of post-war consumer capitalism as a reaction against it.