Americans who identify as “homesteaders” and “preppers” seek to live “self-sufficient” lifestyles by distancing themselves from institutions that mediate access to the environment. This paper asks why individuals adopt “self-sufficiency” based practices and finds that they respond to discomfort about being embedded in risk society by adopting self-sufficiency as an emotion management strategy that fits within an American cultural logic of individualism . Based on ethnographic methods including interviews and participant observation representing two sub-cultures of American self-sufficiency movements, I show that cultural narratives about risk generate uncomfortable emotions that must be managed, resulting in material changes to daily practice via emotion management strategies that embrace cultural individualism. Self-sufficiency allows participants to reconcile American individualism with the lived experience of dependence on untrustworthy institutions, that expose them to global, impersonal risks, thus alleviating discomfort and reinforcing cultural beliefs. The self-sufficiency practices homesteaders and preppers adopt result in changing relationships to the environment. This paper intervenes in environmental theories that overlook the significance of emotion in shaping environmental practices and calls for a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between emotions, culture, and material practices.

中文翻译：

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风险的情感景观：美国自给自足运动中的情感与文化

被认定为“自耕农”和“准备者”的美国人寻求通过与调节环境的机构保持距离来过“自给自足”的生活方式。本文询问为什么个人采用基于“自给自足”的做法，并发现他们通过采用自给自足作为一种符合美国个人主义文化逻辑的情绪管理策略来应对融入风险社会的不适。基于人种学方法，包括代表美国自给自足运动的两种亚文化的访谈和参与者观察，我表明关于风险的文化叙事会产生必须加以管理的不舒服的情绪，通过包含文化的情绪管理策略导致日常实践的重大变化个人主义。自给自足使参与者能够调和美国的个人主义与依赖不可信机构的生活经历，这使他们面临全球性的、非个人的风险，从而减轻不适感并强化文化信仰。自给自足的做法自耕农和准备者采用的结果改变了与环境的关系。本文介入了忽视情感在塑造环境实践中的重要性的环境理论，并呼吁对情感、文化和物质实践之间的关系有更细致的理解。自给自足的做法自耕农和准备者采用的结果改变了与环境的关系。本文介入了忽视情感在塑造环境实践中的重要性的环境理论，并呼吁对情感、文化和物质实践之间的关系有更细致的理解。自给自足的做法自耕农和准备者采用的结果改变了与环境的关系。本文介入了忽视情感在塑造环境实践中的重要性的环境理论，并呼吁对情感、文化和物质实践之间的关系有更细致的理解。