Rhetoric Society Quarterly Oct 2019

The Rhetorical Resistance of Tiny Homes: Downsizing Neoliberal Capitalism

Crystal Colombini

Abstract

Asking how post-crisis countercultural formations compose new means of resisting an unjust economic order, this essay centers the tiny homes movement, which takes the financialization and commodification of housing as a warrant for radically downsized dwellings. As I argue, the campaign to displace (from) big homes and emplace tiny homes relies on coordinating rhetorical modalities: the parrhēsiastic case against dominant but flawed materializations of “good living” and the eudaimonic envisioning of an alternative “good living” less beholden to capital. I conclude by reviewing both problematics and possibilities that emerge from this inventive play for social and economic change.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2019-10-20
DOI
10.1080/02773945.2019.1658213
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Topics
rhetorical criticism
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