A recent visit to a convenience store prompted me to reflect on the meanings of the word "convenience." Dictionaries tell us that convenience is the state of being able to proceed with one's actions with ease or little effort. Convenience means accessibility, availability, affordability, speed, and ease. A convenience store...

Because it is the one-year anniversary of the Occupy movement I was recently asked by a member of the press whether people who live off the grid are planning to unite, like in some kind of social movement. My answer was skeptical. I doubt that individualists who take great pleasure...

Off the Grid in Ontario from InnovativeEthnographies on Vimeo.

In this short video Murray and Nan, the off-gridders from rural Ontario mentioned in our last blog post,...

Rotating blackouts are a great thing. No, not for everyone, of course. While some of us can draw mild relief from a mandated break from our PlayStation, the truly happy Canadians during a blackout are off-gridders. It is on those discomforting (for the rest of us) blackout days that the...