The US minimalist movement represents an increasingly popular critical reflection on the ills of consumerism and an effort to forge new ways of living amidst consumer capitalism. In the face of escalating consumption, debt, and environmental degradation, minimalists’ calls for rethinking “needs” is timely and highlights important problems that typify US capitalism. This article explores minimalists’ social-theoretical insights and resistance to consumerism considering whether, and to what extent, minimalism represents a radical, anti-capitalist movement.

In 2007 the Indian government deployed police and soldiers in Bodhgaya to oversee the demolition of a number of long-standing businesses and homes. These actions were pursued as part of the "Master Plan," a sweeping, fifty-year government-led development plan for Bodhgaya, place of Buddha's enlightenment in the north Indian state of Bihar, designed to manage Bodhgaya's increasing global significance as a pilgrimage and tourism destination while negotiating an array of competing interests. In this article I argue that understanding the Master Plan requires an attention to how such place-making takes shape with and against the Indian state, neoliberal policies, the ongoing emergence of a contemporary global Buddhist sacred geography, and the diverse, multifaceted desires of Bodhgaya residents.

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