Since the middle of the 1970s, the cost of higher education, childcare, healthcare, and housing have all risen relative to median earnings, threatening the balance sheets of many middle-income households. A large number of these households have maintained their lifestyles and aspirations by taking on debt, leaving them highly leveraged and living paycheck to paycheck. Whether voluntarily or forced, many have responded to these economic pressures by reducing spending where they can, in ways large and small. Seeking “financial freedom,” one “large” response has been attempts to reduce the costs of housing, typically the largest regular expense that households face. People have done this in a variety of ways, including moving into tiny homes, the focus of this paper. Due to the association between homeownership and middle-class achievement norms, a move into an unconventional tiny home on wheels requires use of an alternative cultural vocabulary to support positive identity construction, meaning-making, and sociability, as well as claims for class status and distinction. In this paper, I draw on an original study of the tiny home community to exhibit and analyze that symbolic vocabulary. I find that an emphasis on the biography of production is at the center of a coherent system of meaning that helps tiny home enthusiasts negotiate their middling position in rental and housing markets, as well as in the larger stratification system. I close by discussing the implications of these findings for scholarly understanding of “alternative” consumption behaviors, including so-called “ethical” or “conscientious” consumption, and preferences for craft, artisanal, and local production. To foreshadow my central argument, I believe that “simple affluence” arguments are incomplete, and that these behaviors are instead concentrated among those with high levels of education but low or modest earnings.

自1970年代中期以来，相对于中位数收入，高等教育，育儿，保健和住房的成本都在上涨，这威胁到许多中等收入家庭的资产负债表。这些家庭中的许多人通过背负债务来维持自己的生活方式和愿望，使他们拥有高杠杆能力并依靠薪水支付薪水。无论是自愿还是被迫，许多人已经通过减少支出的方式以大大小小的方式应对了这些经济压力。寻求“财务自由”的一种“大”回应是试图降低住房成本，这通常是家庭面临的最大的经常性支出。人们以多种方式做到了这一点，包括搬入小房子，这是本文的重点。由于房屋所有权与中产阶级成就规范之间的联系，搬入非常规的微型房屋需要使用替代的文化词汇，以支持积极的身份建构，意义表达和社交能力，以及对阶级地位和荣誉的要求。在本文中，我将对小型家庭社区进行原始研究，以展示和分析该象征性词汇。我发现，对生产传记的重视是一个连贯的意义系统的核心，该意义系统可以帮助小型家庭爱好者在租赁和住房市场以及更大的分层体系中协商其中间地位。最后，我将讨论这些发现对学术界对“替代”消费行为（包括所谓的“道德”或“尽责”消费）以及对手工艺，手工和本地生产的偏好的理解的含义。