Luk Bouckaert, Hendrick Opdebeeck, & Laszlo Zsolnai ‘Frugality.’ , in The Palgrave Handbook of Spirituality and Business, eds. Luk Bouckaert, and Laszlo Zsolnai, Palgrave-Macmillan, London, 2011.
The paper defines frugality as art de vivre, which implies low material consumption and a simple lifestyle, to open the mind for spiritual goods as inner freedom, social peace, justice or the quest for “ultimate reality.” The authors argue that realizing a genuine spirituality of frugality as self-detachment and other-centeredness does not exclude instrumental economic rationality. To be implemented, a spiritual-driven praxis of frugality needs always a rationally conceived business plan. And from a macro point of view, spiritually based frugal practices may lead to rational outcomes.