Taking it day-by-day: an exploratory study of adult perspectives on slow living in an urban setting

ABSTRACT

This study is based within a local context and is focused on a number of adults within a family setting who had transitioned to a slower lifestyle. The key purpose of the study was to uncover their motivations and the challenges they faced in changing their lifestyle and how they interpreted their slower life. The participants for this study were recruited using my own contacts and through a number of organizations that supported alternative lifestyles. Focus groups were used to elicit information through discussion on a range of issues related to the realities of this lifestyle. This method allowed participants’ voices to be expressed and heard first-hand and as a result five key themes emerged from the data. The themes included the ethics and principles of living a slow life, the impact on family life and leisure, and issues to do with work, technology, media and money.

KEYWORDS:

• Slow living
• urban
• focus group
• leisure and work-life balance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

David Lamb http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4473-3153

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Lamb

Dr David Lamb is an experienced and senior academic who has worked in Universities in the UK, New Zealand and Australia. He lectures primarily in the disciplines of sport, leisure, event and recreation studies and has a wide range of research interests in these areas. He is interested in many aspects of slow living, but in particular his research focuses on the ways in which the philosophy of slowness is integrated into peoples’ lives to facilitate change and transformation.