Is it time for new understandings of the role of work in society? This chapter introduces the other chapters in this book’s second section as it relates their contents with the meaning of work derived from sociology and political science. It discusses intrinsic motivations for work and relates these with indigenous people’s traditional-ness and health issues in northern Sweden. It then relates this with old and new takes on downshifting from different angles (such as Retrotopia and Utopia). Links are also made with Thai food women entrepreneurs in rural Sweden and alternative farming and food networks in the north. This chapter argues that routinely proclaimed growth strategies should be revised to make them “adaptive” to more realistic goals.