Journal ArticleDOI
Out of control? An ethnographic analysis of the disposal of collectable objects through auction
TLDR
In this paper, a glimpse of the cultural biographies of a number of collectable objects as they are disposed of through the public arena of auction is provided, with the objects themselves implicated in this transfer of meaning indicating that objects do have some kind of social agency.Abstract:
This research contributes to our understanding of disposal by attempting to foreground the journey of the disposed object rather than examining disposal from the perspective of the seller as previous consumer researchers have done. Drawing on ideas taken from anthropological analyses of objects and markets the paper provides a glimpse of the
cultural biographies of a number of collectable objects as they are disposed of through the public arena of auction. Analysing the disposal of meaningful possessions through
auction provides a different context and associated dynamics to that studied in previous research on disposal. Ethnographic analysis indicates that in spite of the fact that the practices and rituals of auction facilitate a process of commoditisation which erases the cultural biography of objects, still traces of their previous cultural history transfer with these objects to their new owners. The objects themselves are implicated in this transfer of meaning indicating that objects do have some kind of social agency.read more
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Alternative marketplaces in the 21st century: Building community through sharing events
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine alternative consumption including collaborative consumption, sharing, and unconsumption at non-monetary-based private and public sharing events including Really Really Free Markets (RRFMs) and find that a sense of community is both a driver of participation and an outcome of these events.
Journal ArticleDOI
Anti-Consumption In East Germany: Consumer Resistance To Hyperconsumption
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the consumption resistance (anti-consumption) of "cheap and low-quality" goods experienced by consumers living in former East Germany and reveal a deep aversion among East Germans to the modern, bureaucratic and obligatory practice of throwawayism and hyperconsumption.
Journal ArticleDOI
Giving and sharing in the computer‐mediated economy
TL;DR: This paper examined how digital technology mediates the behaviour of consumers in three online systems that facilitate offline gift giving and sharing (Freecycle, Couchsurfing, and Landshare) and found that technology is used to enact and influence the management of identity, partner selection, ritual normalisation, and negotiation of property rights.
Journal ArticleDOI
What we know about anticonsumption: An attempt to nail jelly to the wall
TL;DR: In this paper, an integrated framework of anticonsumption research, including antecedents, moderators, and consequences, is proposed, and a research agenda based on this integrated framework indicates promising areas for future research.
Journal ArticleDOI
Consumer Behavior in the Disposal of Products: Forty Years of Research
TL;DR: In this paper, consumer behavior in the disposal of products has consequences for the consumer's well-being and also for businesses, society, and the environment, and this field of research has exper...
References
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Book
Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography
James Clifford,George E. Marcus +1 more
TL;DR: The authors explore the ways in which writing culture has changed the face of ethnography over the last 25 years. But they do not discuss the role of writing culture in the development of ethnographies.
BookDOI
The social life of things: commodities in cultural perspective
TL;DR: Farriss and Reddy as discussed by the authors presented a cultural biography of things: commoditization as process Igor Kopytoff Part II, and two kinds of value in the Eastern Solomon Islands William H. Davenport and William M. Cassanelli Part V.
Book ChapterDOI
The social life of things: The cultural biography of things: commoditization as process
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the production of commodities is also a cultural and cognitive process: commodities must be not only produced materially as things, but also culturally marked as being a certain kind of thing.
Posted Content
The Social Life of Things
TL;DR: The authors examine how things are sold and traded in a variety of social and cultural settings, both present and past, focusing on culturally defined aspects of exchange and socially regulated processes of circulation, illuminate the ways in which people find value in things and things give value to social relations.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Sacred and the Profane in Consumer Behavior: Theodicy on the Odyssey
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the ritual substratum of consumption and describe properties and manifestations of the sacred inherent in consumer behavior, and the processes by which consumers sacralize and desacralize dimensions of their experience.