Second-Hand Cultures and Economies of Reuse, Repair, Sharing, and Care

This book explores activities in the global landscape of second-hand cultures and economies of reuse, repair, sharing and care. Individual chapters provide ethnographic studies of how ordinary people live, revive, create, and refine practices of reuse, repair, sharing and care as they seek to prolong the lifespan of goods, contribute to planetary health, make a living, and create communities. The authors introduce practices like children's clothes swapping, repair of appliances, or reuse of domestic fabrics, and analyze how people exchange and share goods (farmers' market), buy used items in different venues, reuse or recycle materials (tires), repair items for resale (TVs), or avoid purchasing new goods (free stores). The volume examines activities in different settings across North America, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe, and Asia, and analyzes specific economic, gendered, social and cultural contexts, material conditions, and motivations. The authors theorize global second-hand circuits and economies and the potential of ordinary people and small projects in the making of a more sustainable and equitable world. This book will be of interest to readers in environmental anthropology or sociology, environmental studies, sustainability studies, consumer studies, and material and popular culture studies.

Highlights societal impact of ordinary practices in creating a more sustainable world through ethnographic case studies Draws from case studies in eight countries to emphasize their complex local and global impact Offers engaging and accessible content, making it an ideal text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses

Autorentext

Petra Kuppinger is Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Monmouth College, USA. She has conducted research on topics of space, globalization, and consumerism in Cairo, Egypt, and issues of space, culture, and Islam in Stuttgart, Germany. More recently she has been working on topics of urban transformations and sustainability.

Inhalt

Chapter 1. Introduction : Second-hand Cultures and Economies of Reuse, Repair, Sharing and Care.- Chapter 2. Reuse and ReUse: Informal and Institutional Transfer of Used Goods.- Chapter 3. Social Capital in Secondhand Markets.- Chapter 4. Greening Farmers Markets: How Communities Come Together to Keep Items and Waste Out of the Landfill.- Chapter 5. These System Will Provide their Own Lessons: University Reuse Programs as Sites of Material Care and Educational Praxis.- Chapter 6. Fixing Coffeemakers and Giving Away Couches: Urban Economies of Reuse, Repair, Sharing, and Care in Germany.- Chapter 7. Ready to Repair: Teleologies of Secondhand Electronics Market and Repairing in Tanzania.- Chapter 8. This is really genbrug! International Mothers' Consumption of Second-hand Children's Good in Copenhagen, Denmark.- Chapter 9. Frictional Infrastructures: Navigating the Socio-Spatial Landscape of Second-Hand and Waste Tires in Mega-City Lagos.- Chapter 10. The Immense Possibilities of Six Yards of Cloth: Saris, Recycling, and Power in Indian Households.- Chapter 11. Reclaimed wood in a reclaimed city? Or, the story of Joe's new table.- Chapter 12. Second-hand for the Third World: Charitable Gift Giving during Religious Volunteer-Tourism in the Dominican Republic.- Chapter 13. Secondhand Sacred: Christian Material Culture and Reseller Ethics.