The Self-sufficient Citizen: Ecological Habitus and Changing Environmental Practices

Abstract

Past research demonstrates that social practices are not simply a matter of individual choices, but a reflection of social conditions that take place within systems of power. Applying theories of practice to environmental practices, this paper analyzes the adoption of self-sufficiency by two groups, homesteaders and preppers, based on evidence from interviews ( n = 23, 13 homesteaders and 10 preppers) and participant observation between 2013 and 2017. Seeking to re-negotiate the material flows of their daily lives to account for discomfort with contemporary social and environmental risk, homesteaders and preppers adopt an environmental self-sufficiency practice that purports to decrease or eliminate reliance on institutions they distrust, a model I call “the self-sufficient citizen.” Homesteaders and preppers experience a double bind of reliance and distrust, which they channel into renegotiating their ecological habitus. They do so by calling on traditional American beliefs in individual responsibility, which, although they appear politically neutral, reinforce the dominant power structures that they distrust. By situating self-sufficiency as reflexively cultural and material, I suggest that our study of environmental practices must move beyond individual attitudes, beliefs, values, and practices, to consider environmental subjectivities: the lived experience of relating to the environment in a social context that incorporates the study of power, ideology, and agency.