essay

The main idea here: Minimalism is having its cultural moment in the sun. Lots of people are thinking, talking and debating about it. By virtue of having taken this class, you are in privileged position to think about these arguments.

Your first step should be to complete the readings on minimalism and make sure you understand them. Begin, by identifying two or three succinct and cogent definitions of minimalism. What does it even mean? Do all the authors mean the same thing? What are the origins of the term? What do you think it means in its most common usage?

Once you have a sense of what it is, then you can begin to take it apart (deconstruct it, if you will) and begin evaluating it. To do this, identify the arguments made in favor of minimalism and the arguments made by those skeptical of minimalism. How do supporters justify it and how do detractors attack it? It might help to write that out (either on scrap paper or in a Word document that you later delete. What is their reasoning? What is their evidence? Can you spot any flaws in their reasoning?

Now begin to apply what you’ve learned in this class. Remember: you’re becoming an expert now and can speak to these issues better than most people. Do the proponents of skeptics of minimalism evince a good understanding of consumer culture? Do the arguments in favor of (or skeptical of) minimalism use any of the flawed consumer culture critiques we’ve encountered in this class? You should look for connections between those points of reasoning (pro and skeptical) and content from the class. How does the content of this class, and what you have learned, affect how you think about minimalism? In other words, how does the material from this class affect what you make of the arguments for and against minimalism?

Allow me to illustrate with some examples of connections with the content from week #1 in the readings by Arnold, Csikszentmihalyi and Teitell. The first and last of these (Arnold and Teitell) are very critical of consumption and stuff and focus on some of the negative consequences of a very non-minimalist lifestyle. The reading by Csikszentmihalyi is a little more balanced. Csikszentmihalyi identifies a dependence on things and identifies some very powerful reasons why we absolutely need things/consumption/stuff. In other words, Arnold and Teitell would probably agree with the proponents of minimalism while Csikszentmihalyi might find some of the arguments skeptical of minimalism more compelling.

Try listing out some of the main argument Arnold, Teitell and Csikszentmihalyi make.

For example, Arnold and Teitell note that an abundance of things is exhausting, depleting (of time and money) and stressful (as measured via stress hormones). Csikszentmihaly, on the other hand, notes consumers’ “increasing dependence on objects for survival and comfort.”

From there, it’s easy to make more connections to more course content. The easy way to do that would be to cite and connect those pieces that say something similar to Arnold and Teitell (such as Cline, Packer or the BBC documentary on used clothes) and Csikszentmihalyi (such as Fournier and Miller).

Helpful advanced hint: if you want to really go all out, when you discuss the status angle (which is a big part of the critiques of minimalism, oops, I gave away something big there), you could make connections to any of the pieces from the three sessions we spend on taste and status. There is a lot to be made there.

In the end, you want to aim for at least four or five solid, well-explained connections to course content. More can be better. I am looking for explicit and well-explained connections.