slow movement.
It is a cultural revolution against the notion that faster is always better.
The Slow Movement intends to reveal the possibility of living life fully but at a slower pace, where individuals can take hold of their life, instead of just rushing through (Movimiento Slow 2008).
It is not about doing everything at snail’s pace, but seeking to do everything at the right speed – tempo giusto (Honoré, C. 2004, p15).
The concept of slowness has branched out into different categories, such as slow food, slow fashion, slow cities, and slow sex. What these manifestations of the Slow Movement share in common is an appreciation for the value of taking more effort and care to make something – a dish, a dress, a city, a relationship on the assumption that it will be better than something put together in a hurry (Mewburn, I. 2011).
Evolution of Slow Movement
People have been defending the value of slowness for at least 200 years – think of the Romantic, the Transcendentalists and the hippies. However, the idea of a Slow Movement, which seeks to blend fast and slow to help people work, live and play better in the modern world, is more recent (Honoré, C. 2016).
Italian journalist, Carlos Petrini and other protestors gathered on the famous Spanish Steps of Rome, holding bowls of penne and other Italian specialities, to demonstrate the social and culinary cost of homogenised eating. They were protesting against the opening of Italy’s first McDonald’s franchise at the heart of Rome (McCamy, S. 2011).
1986
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Petrini then established the Slow Food association, aiming to protect traditional food and advocating for agricultural biodiversity (Rayman, N. 2014).
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"We are enslaved by speed and have all succumbed to the same insidious virus - Fast Life, which disrupts our habits, pervades the privacy of our homes and forces us to eat Fast Food."
by Folco Portinari, 1989
(McCamy, S. 2011)
1989
Delegates from 15 countries including Petrini endorsed a manifesto that is drafted by Slow Food co-founder, Folco Portinari. The Slow Food Manifesto confronted the contemporary lifestyle at large, condemning the “virus” of fast living (Tusker Trail 2011).
1999
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Cittaslow means slow town or city in Italian. Cittaslow towns began to develop concepts that expand the Slow ethos across the entire fabric of a town (Cittaslow UK 2011).
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2002
Geir Berthelsen created a think tank called The World Institute of Slowness and articulated a vision for a whole Slow Planet (Wendikae 2014).
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Alistair Fuad-Luke first used the term “slow design” in his paper “Slow Design – a paradigm in design philosophy” and “The Slow Principles” (Alter, L. 2012).
2004
Carl Honoré has written “In Praise of Slowness”, to explore how the Slow philosophy could be impressed upon every field of human endeavour (Wendikae 2014).
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