Prepper-Worthy Identity Work: A Cultural Repertoire for Constructing a Secure Self in an Insecure World

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to gain knowledge of why and how people engage in prepping. Their beliefs, values, life circumstances, and practices were studied. Preppers seek to be self-sufficient and prepared for catastrophic events. Drawing from in-depth interviews of 13 preppers in the Midwest, a grounded theory approach was used to analyze the themes emerging from the data. We describe how preppers link their beliefs and practices and how they use prepping to construct worthy identities that value self-sufficiency, self-reliance, personal responsibility, and independence. They establish worthy identity as people able to survive in contrast to nonpreppers who they believe are unprepared thus establishing superior identity. Preppers were found to be highly engaged in the private sphere, where they felt more control and greater capacity to enact self-sufficiency in times of crisis.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amanda Sims

Amanda Sims was born and raised in South Florida, where she went through many hurricane seasons. Her research interests include culture, identity, gender, and responses to perceptions of risk. She earned a BA in sociology from Georgia State University in 2010 and completed an MS in 2012 and a PhD in 2017 in rural sociology with a minor in women and gender studies at the University of Missouri–Columbia. She is now an assistant professor of sociology at Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa.

Mary Grigsby

Mary Grigsby is Professor Emeritus of Rural Sociology at the University of Missouri–Columbia. Her research focuses on culture, identity, and gender. She is the author of Buying Time and Getting By: The Voluntary Simplicity Movement (2004), College Life Through the Eyes of Students (2009), and Noodlers in Missouri: Fishing for Identity in a Rural Subculture (2012). In 2013–2014 and 2015–2016, she served as a Faculty Fellow in Graduate Studies and conducted qualitative research on mentoring experiences of PhD students. In 2014–2015 she was a Faculty Fellow at Reynolds Journalism Institute, where she conducted ethnographic research on young adult (ages 18–29) use of digital media.