#27 THE SMALL PRODUCER

I’m not happy just buying what others—like big corporations — provide. I like expressing who I am through what I make with my hands and small tools. Whether producing food, shelter, clothing, arts & crafts, etc— for my use or others’—I’m happiest doing this type of work —although earning a living this way is challenging! If I can’t have both, I value function more than pleasing form. I like societies based on families working land as small producers. They have great incentive to protect it /maintain its productivity out of self-interest, etc. (Note: many have no choice: they must produce to survive.)

More Information About This Worldview Theme--note this table is under construction, last update March 2024
a spade WV Theme...		...individual <---> nature
the theme is paired with: #26A The Consumerist to make Choice #46 in the Choices We Make cards
this theme as presented in older version of theme structure: is this theme new to version 4?--YES
click to look at the Project Worldview Cultural Literacy Encyclopedia Related Words, Beliefs, Background articles for the above choice
Project Worldview authored discussion, Worldview Watch related issues, songs, etc.
Worldview Watch issue #76, posted 3/11/2024 Tiny Homes—Support Transcends Culture War?

Wikipedia articles related to this theme:
Handicraft	Permaculture		Subsistence Agriculture
Handyman	Do It Yourself		Sewing
gardening	back to the land movement		manual labor
homesteading	may be imaginative, creative, and rejects functional fixedness		animal husbandry
	anti-consumerism		rainwater harvesting

worldview internal inconsistency related: Strongly valuing this theme and any of the themes in the list below is a contradiction:
#4 Spreading Disinformation / Tactical Deception	#19B Corporate Capitalism	#22B Imperialism	#26B More is Better Mentality / Abundance
#45A Borrowing Mentality	#51B Big Business Pushes Global Limits

More to Explore -- Worldview Theme #27: The Small Producer

Second Nature: A Gardener's Education by Michael Pollan (read portions of classic book at Google Books)

I Fix It ("repair guides for everything, written by everyone")

Art Farm (educating people about an alternative to consumerism through art, report from Cat Wise PBS News hour March 24 2023 )

One Tuscan village uses wool-insulated cooking boxes to save on energy costs by Sylvia Poggioli (from NPR Nov 29 2022)

How to Plant Food in Your Backyard for a Healthy Harvest by: Kris Bordessa (posted on attainable-sustainable.net April 15, 2021)

100 Home Repairs You Don’t Need to Call a Pro For by Jenny Stanley (posted on familyhandyman.com Mar 23 2021)

“Working With Your Hands Does Wonders for Your Brain” by Susan Biali Haas (article from Psychology Today June 21 2019)

"Community repair: a pop-up alternative to the throwaway society" by Christine Cole (post on Discard Studies May 2017)

"Backyard gardening: grow your own food, improve your health" By Heidi Godman (from Harvard Health Letter June 29, 2012)

Working with your hands: the secret to happiness? By Oliver Burkeman (article in The Guardian May 2010)

The Case for Working With Your Hands By Matthew B. Crawford (from The New York Times May 21, 2009)

back to Theme Choices version 5.0 structure

"As you shop in "The Reality Marketplace" avoid spending your "reality cash" too early, before you have seen everything. "
from Coming of Age in the Global Village, by Stephen P. Cook, with Donella H. Meadows.