Reuse of pre-owned goods is increasingly recognized as an important practice to reduce consumer waste and benefit the planet through developing a circular economy. This chapter examines the styles and social relations enacted in garage sale exchange and a not-for-profit brick and mortar store dedicated to reuse. Although both the ReUse Center and garage sales trade in similar used goods, they afford different experiences of exchange. Overall, garage sale exchange can be viewed as more family and home related, while trade in the ReUse Center is more public and community oriented. Community in the ReUse Center is a conscious social creation. In contrast, garage sale trade is prosocial and involved with relationships to the object’s past and future use. The ReUse Center is an institutional setting in which unique affective attributes have been separated from the goods transferred, and exchange at ReUse is more oriented to the item’s functionality and design. ReUse Center offerings bespeak collective sentiments such as pride in community, value of the environment, and avoidance of rampant consumerism.

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Reuse and ReUse: Informal and Institutional Transfer of Used Goods

  • Gretchen Herrmann

摘要

Reuse of pre-owned goods is increasingly recognized as an important practice to reduce consumer waste and benefit the planet through developing a circular economy. This chapter examines the styles and social relations enacted in garage sale exchange and a not-for-profit brick and mortar store dedicated to reuse. Although both the ReUse Center and garage sales trade in similar used goods, they afford different experiences of exchange. Overall, garage sale exchange can be viewed as more family and home related, while trade in the ReUse Center is more public and community oriented. Community in the ReUse Center is a conscious social creation. In contrast, garage sale trade is prosocial and involved with relationships to the object’s past and future use. The ReUse Center is an institutional setting in which unique affective attributes have been separated from the goods transferred, and exchange at ReUse is more oriented to the item’s functionality and design. ReUse Center offerings bespeak collective sentiments such as pride in community, value of the environment, and avoidance of rampant consumerism.