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.