# Assistant conversation SKY23A - Canonical URL: - Resource IRI: - Type: assistant conversation - Mode: quick ## Transcript ### 1. User do you see i’ve marked several blocks under 9XAKTW as needing revision? because they talk about the practice of the swapshop in the singular, and i am trying to change the chapter and the thesis to view brivbode as a nexus of multiple practices that meet in the site etc etc… ### 2. Assistant tool calls #### Tool call: `read` ```json { "blocks": [ "9XAKTW" ], "expand": false } ``` ### 3. Tool result: read SECTION #9XAKTW Document: #4V8VH7 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia Context: #4V8VH7 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #9XAKTW Keeping Things Moving: Brīvbode as Site of Circulation Children: - #PL9BXR paragraph - This chapter examines Brīvbode as a site where multiple practices are brought into working relation through the circulation of things. Following Schatzki's (2002) understanding of… - #SJE87E paragraph - Following the trajectory of things moving through Brīvbode, I begin with household divestment and the practices that generate incoming flow. I then turn to the swapshop as an acti… - #2JEZWG section: Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home - #PBFQ5E section: Where It Begins: The Site as Active Flow - #QP7HMF section: Reading the Room: Norms and Competencies of Circulation - #PZH45P section: Not a Charity: The Moral Economy of Exchange - #7Z8WUY section: Letting Go: Attachment Without Price - #W2WRDC section: What People Find Here: Plural Meanings of Acquisition - #GTJY22 section: Quiet or Reflected Sustainability? - #A3X9XX section: Conclusion: Holding Together Incompatible Orientations ### 4. Assistant tool calls #### Tool call: `read` ```json { "blocks": [ "9XAKTW" ], "expand": true } ``` ### 5. Tool result: read THESIS #4V8VH7 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia SECTION #9XAKTW Keeping Things Moving: Brīvbode as Site of Circulation PARAGRAPH #PL9BXR This chapter examines Brīvbode as a site where multiple practices are brought into working relation through the circulation of things. Following Schatzki's (2002) understanding of social sites as constituted through the interplay of practices and material arrangements, I treat Brīvbode as more than a physical backdrop for exchange: it is a material and normative arrangement through which divestment, acquisition, sorting, repair, sociality, sufficiency and care become connected. Hobson's (2016) notion of "generative spaces" for the circular economy helps specify the political stakes of this view: Brīvbode is one of the spaces where circularity is not designed elsewhere and merely "accepted" by consumers, but made through situated, improvised and often conflicting everyday practices. PARAGRAPH #SJE87E Following the trajectory of things moving through Brīvbode, I begin with household divestment and the practices that generate incoming flow. I then turn to the swapshop as an active material site where things, volunteers and visitors are brought into co-presence, producing both circulation and overflow. The chapter then examines the norms and competencies through which circulation is maintained, especially the moral boundary-work required to distinguish exchange from charity, waste disposal and resale. Finally, I consider how acquisition in Brīvbode recruits participants through plural meanings — dignity, experimentation, craft, sociality, sufficiency and sustainability — and how the absence of price reshapes attachment and detachment. Across the chapter, I argue that Brīvbode’s circularity is sustained not by a single shared meaning, but by the situated coordination of partially compatible practices. SECTION #2JEZWG Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home PARAGRAPH #5XUPCJ The things entering Brīvbode are not simply donations. They are the material outcomes of other practices: clearing wardrobes, managing small homes, dealing with inherited belongings, correcting failed purchases, and working on one’s attachment to things. Once they arrive, these outcomes become resources for acquisition, craft, repair, resale, or waste management. PARAGRAPH #CLU5VP Noting how meanings migrate across practices, Shove et al. (2012) mention how thrift, for example, is no longer expressed through darning socks at home – now a rather rare practice – but has moved, as Gregson (2007) shows, into methods and styles of disposal and divestment. Divesting responsibly has become one of the ways people sustain and recreate identity in relation to their things. PARAGRAPH #TYTN9E [tags: needs_revision] The ideal encouraged by the organisers in Brīvbode is for participants to both give and take, yet the two roles do not always recruit the same carriers or sustain participation through the same meanings. Giving in Brīvbode is typically more structured by the motives of givers rather than by the needs of the receivers. Giving contributes to a stock of the swapshop and is shaped by the givers’ assessments of their sense of responsibility toward still-usable objects (too good to throw away), hopes for things finding new trajectories with other carriers, and their capacity to manage the work of getting rid of things well. The practice is donor-driven, and things arriving reflect more the rhythms and pressures of household life, and coordination with receivers’ needs is only indirect. PARAGRAPH #WEBXCF Divestment in Brīvbode is distributed across time unevenly and concentrated around rhythms of domestic material arrangements and particular life events. People typically bring things in batches – no longer wanted items are set aside and accumulate at home until, e.g. a bag is full and is then divested to Brīvbode. PARAGRAPH #AB93FC Moving home, renovation, seasonal clearing, and sorting through a deceased relative’s belongings generate larger pulses of divestment. Participants described sorting through an entire previous owner’s life when buying a flat, routing things to Brīvbode and to friends when downsizing, helping relatives to divest after moving home. PARAGRAPH #7Y7J2Z The size of the home is a very constitutive material element for divestment as smaller living spaces generate a more immediate need to move things out in order to fulfill, for example, the ideal of an uncluttered home – this requires both strong competency for managing household material streams and established divestment routes for what must leave. Brīvbode functions as one such route. PARAGRAPH #CWZ4L2 The ideal of a decluttered home functions both as cultural script and as embodied relief. Gundega puts on tidying consultant TV shows when she sorts at home, though the volume of advice tends to produce anxiety rather than clarity – no one person can remember it all. Viesturs is more pragmatic about decluttering methods: "I sense there are all sorts of methods and things, but it all seems like a luxury problem to me. Although maybe we should promote something like that – users of those methods would definitely supply us with better quality content." PARAGRAPH #V83RLN The act of bringing things to Brīvbode performs moral work that throwing away does not – it can relieve guilt of having acquired unnecessarily, maintain the identity of a responsible consumer, and transfer some of the responsibility for what happens next to the swapshop. Divesting well and finding a route that feels appropriate to the object's remaining value is itself a practice with normative dimensions: there are right and wrong ways to let things go, and Brīvbode offers one of the right ways. PARAGRAPH #PQV5PN Participants who divest in Brīvbode mentioned the non-transparency of the textile container system in comparison to the freeshop. Both routes offer removal and a presumed social good, but participants expressed particular satisfaction for witnessing circulation in Brīvbode – moments when they saw someone taking the items they brought. Although giving and taking are decoupled and mediated by the swapshop, participants can sometimes observe the circulation during their visits, a characteristic noted by many with a kind of quiet pleasure. The divestment is completed by seeing or knowing an item was taken, and this visibility closes the divestment cycle affectively. The opportunity for other visitors to access the materials is valued, while the textile collection management system is deemed too distanced to imagine who benefits. PARAGRAPH #7ZXWJU [tags: needs_revision] In absence of a specific receiver, while trying to negotiate the appropriate value and quality standards for the items circulated, givers construct a figure of a receiver, a meaning which shapes the practice from the giving side. Aiga describes her hope that a homeless person from the neighbourhoods of Ķengarags or Purvciems, someone in genuine need would use what she brings. This imagery expands what counts as worth passing on: objects that might be marginal by taste standards become appropriate if genuine need is the criterion, and the threshold for what counts as good enough shifts accordingly. PARAGRAPH #YNY54V The threshold of acceptability in Brīvbode is negotiated situationally, and this uncertainty can become a source of tension. Aiga described how she continues wearing clothing that is slightly pilled and normally uses dry food items past their expiry date – her own standards of what remains usable are linked to the meaning of genuine need but she cannot know in advance whether the items she brings to Brīvbode will be acknowledged as suitable. After receiving comments once about the quality of something she brought to Brīvbode, she prefers to not linger and leave her things quickly. The imagined receiver who accepts everything gives way to the real social encounter where standards are negotiated by someone else. PARAGRAPH #MS53CN The supply arriving in Brīvbode is shaped by these contested meanings – participant competencies of evaluating items as appropriate and the rhythms of domestic life. As such it is often unpredictable. PARAGRAPH #796PVP In reality, Brīvbode also functions as a divestment route for items that more regulated reuse channels would not accommodate: unfinished repair projects and textile fragments can sometimes be found, photographs and used magazines, not entirely complete jigsaw puzzles. Sometimes volunteers would remark that they already look for signs of wear and tear in suspicion about reasons an item has been brought to Brīvbode. They are aware that the swapshop can become a route of last resort for objects that are genuinely difficult to route elsewhere. What counts as acceptable and what counts as waste is decided through social judgment rather than formal criteria. I sometimes brought things in my backpack but ended up not taking them out as on second thought they seemed too worn or not suited. PARAGRAPH #HN8W7V Fieldwork observations reveal different versions and scales of what counts as usable and worthy: I recall a collection of single-use sugar packages; a bundle of expired covid tests (I spent time unpacking the alcohol wipes and watched a woman take them); carefully washed plastic containers that were taken to the recycling bin after all (although the sour cream containers are useful in spring for growing plantings). A regular visitor brought coloured wire offcuts generated by her husband’s wireworking practice – she imagined someone who makes art or does craft work with children could be taking them, as they were never on the shelf anymore the next time she visited. Her husband generates surplus, she routes it to Brīvbode through her domestic management, an unknown hypothetical third person absorbs it into their own. The trajectory is sustained by an imagined right-owner who may not exist, and the volunteers did not have the heart to tell her the bags of small plastic pieces were not used that way. PARAGRAPH #5GWZER [tags: needs_revision] Yet unpredictability of supply works both ways – e.g. the same giver who took extra effort to send Brīvbode a parcel with stained old plates that raised volunteer questions about the balance of invested energy for handling it, divested a bag full of colourful folk-style knitted mittens another time – laid out on the table, those attracted many visitors’ attention with shared beauty. This uncertainty of supply is itself part of what sustains participant engagement with the practice through meanings of “serendipity” and magic moments of unexpected “good catch”. PARAGRAPH #4G43HR The same logic that makes divestment easy also can make Brīvbode available as a pressure valve. Fast fashion sometimes arrives with tags still attached; one participant brought clothing she had purchased online – after it did not fit she arranged a return, and was told by the company to donate it rather than send it back – the retailer in this case is routing their surplus to volunteers to manage. PARAGRAPH #9CFEH4 Divestment is normalised and sought after. As Brīvbode manager Rasa observed: "Often we're simply a place to dump it all and go buy new things." In this view, Brīvbode appears as evidence of the structural conditions it aspires to address rather than a solution to them. There is tension present in Brīvbode between the swapshop as an alternative caring system and as a low-threshold overflow channel, and this tension does not resolve easily. SECTION #PBFQ5E Where It Begins: The Site as Active Flow PARAGRAPH #2PU5ZY On Thursdays and Fridays a queue often forms by Brīvbode before noon – sometimes more than ten people wait to be let in. The first two hours are the busiest. Rasa sometimes takes a breath before unlocking the door: "It begins." PARAGRAPH #X8RDCG After an item is divested to Brīvbode, it does not belong to the donor anymore, it belongs to the swapshop. This transfer of ownership is actively managed: takers are discouraged from taking things from the sorting table before they are processed, as their enthusiasm has caused discomfort to other visitors in the past. PARAGRAPH #SUZYLN However, sorting is done “on the spot” and in the same room, and things move fast. As Larsen (2023) observes, in thrift shops, practices are often characterized by a "reversal" of standard economic logic, where the goal is to move things along as quickly as possible rather than to maximize the profit per individual item. This can also be said about Brīvbode – there’s excitement about things moving quickly. PARAGRAPH #RQ8CCN Physical instead of virtual co-presence shapes the quality of encounters between people and objects. As Tan and Yeoh (2024), writing about freecycling markets in Singapore, observe, “relational-material exchanges play out better as an embodied co-presence with others/things” – objects can be handled, tried on and assessed, and an item of decent quality will eventually find a taker. PARAGRAPH #LHLZ8Y [tags: needs_revision] The physicality and permanence of Brīvbode as a site is one of the main attributes setting it apart from other similar initiatives that often struggle with availability of affordable rental space, especially in high density urban areas. Tan and Yeoh (2024) note how, because of this reason, organisers of Singapore markets must bin or redistribute excess items after every event. They identify availability of rental and storage space as one of the main pre-requisites for functioning freecycling initiatives – thus it is important to note how regular operation in the same physical venue constitutes the practice of freecycling, as it becomes a stable and recurring weekly infrastructure for participants. This enables visitors to sustain a regular visiting rhythm through which, for many of them, freecycling becomes genuinely embedded in everyday life. PARAGRAPH #KMD7AJ [tags: needs_revision] The space in Brīvbode is organised and decorated to resemble a retail environment with a DIY aesthetic – with hangers and shelves, and garments sometimes arranged by colour in the manner of the formerly operating secondhand chain Degas. The aesthetic is not fixed, however, as curatorial disagreements exist over the best presentation and each shift can leave its own curatorial mark. Rasa describes the tension between celebrating volunteer initiative and an aesthetic that, in her view, would communicate more value through similarity to a retail environment, leaving more space between things, signifying that quality items can be found in Brīvbode. "The emptier the shelves, the more people find," she notes. A different aesthetic displaying abundance of things on offer and decorating with plushies appeals to another volunteer. These mundane disagreements hold competing views about which meanings the practice of freecycling should enact. Material and meaning elements of the practice are not settled but are actively contested through performance. PARAGRAPH #CL5CS8 The regularity of operation that the physical on-site format allows also fosters social contact among participants. Opening hours twice per week is both a way to manage the necessary volunteer labour and a social encounter catalyst – temporal tightening means that visitors are more likely to encounter each other. The volunteer in charge of the shift anchors the social experience, and the personal relationships accumulate over repeated visits. "On Thursdays everyone asks where Nadja is. And on Fridays everyone asks where Viesturs is." While Brīvbode is not a primary site for socialisation for most participants, regular visitors, especially those living in single person households, noted the meaningfulness of the social aspect of visiting, the casual contact with known “faces”, Brīvbode being a place to go and the visits giving a structure to the week. PARAGRAPH #WW8YUW Within the material realm, Brīvbode is also embedded in and dependent upon broader infrastructural arrangements in order to manage the overflow it cannot absorb. The swapshop passes leftover textiles – in some estimates up to 30 % of the received flow (Akule et al. 2023) – to textile collection containers. The shop would not be viable if it had to cover the costs of regular unsorted waste collection. Also, off-season clothing such as winter coats that take a lot of space are stored in collaboration with charity organisations that have access to larger storage premises. Brīvbode can sustain – in a pragmatic, improvised manner – because of this material entanglement instead of trying to resolve the full material cycle on its own. PARAGRAPH #2TPNCM The physical experience of overflow is a constant of volunteering, and bags often arrive faster than they can be processed. Often my task during shifts was to sort and put out children’s items. The boxes were already full, with piles forming, when I asked Rasa: 'Don't you feel like the things are just pouring down on you?' 'Yes, that's why I no longer have any tolerance for things. I realise I feel relief that these clothes are dirty, because there simply isn't any more space." PARAGRAPH #3USBHB During another shift, Rasa offered me a handmade black ceramic plate someone had brought that day. I was glad to take it, but before my departure confusion arose about where it had gone. It turned out, more stuff had piled up on top of it on the sorting table as visitors kept coming with their divestment. Rasa laughed: “This is how it is here.” As a material site, Brīvbode is an active flow that requires tending and occasionally swallows its own offerings. PARAGRAPH #PNCAWA [tags: needs_revision] The pull of Brīvbode as a divestment destination persists even when the physical site is temporarily absent. For several weeks after the Brīvbode pop-up venue in Āgenskalns closed at the end of summer 2021, people kept bringing boxes and bags of belongings, leaving them in front of the empty shop. The practice had recruited carriers so effectively that the site’s closure did not interrupt the flow. PARAGRAPH #UGWEVE The physical site matters because it makes practices that are often separated — giving, sorting, assessing, taking, chatting, refusing, storing and discarding — happen in proximity. Brīvbode’s generativity comes from this compression, but so do many of its frictions. SECTION #QP7HMF Reading the Room: Norms and Competencies of Circulation PARAGRAPH #TDQ4JL The material composition of Brīvbode reflects the gendered organisation of (clothing) consumption more broadly. The majority of items circulating through the freeshop are women’s and children’s clothing – a pattern that mirrors the more feminised character of household consumption management. As noted in the methodology chapter, men do participate in Brīvbode, but on a lesser scale and with different practice career tendencies – while men’s clothing is sought after, they also look for books to circulate in second hand markets, CD’s, electronics. PARAGRAPH #SY53PH If Brīvbode is a site where practices intersect, participation requires more than knowing the rule “bring and take.” It requires practical judgement about what kind of object this is, whose future practice it could enter, whether it should be displayed, repaired, removed, tolerated, or quietly redirected. These competencies are unevenly distributed and become visible especially where practices collide. PARAGRAPH #BCDC5C The gendered asymmetry extends to the competencies required to manage the space. Viesturs described his initial challenge of developing a workable system for sorting women’s clothing after he started volunteering: "Well, f*ck, look, where do I put it. Trying to systematize women’s clothing, it’s like a tree with many branches." The competence of sorting – especially women’s clothing as in this case – is not self-evident as the proliferation of categories resists simple organisation and has to be worked out through practice. PARAGRAPH #2U6CTU The standards applied to men’s clothing also operate differently. There is simply less of it, and the threshold for what is acceptable is lower – men’s clothing is assumed to be used for physical work and is assessed accordingly. One day two young women looking through the clothing boxes for film costumes picked up an undershirt and commented on how disgusting it was, while a man right next to them took it. Rasa later confirmed the shirt was not in a good condition, but she had put it out because, as she noted, everything gets taken from the men’s section. The norms of assessment reflect whose consumption practices the swapshop is organised around. PARAGRAPH #F9CK8T While there are explicit written rules governing exchange in Brīvbode, those are framed in general relational terms – “bring things that would bring joy to someone; bring things you would give to a friend” – and there are no formal categories of exclusion. Norms regarding acceptability are defined and enacted situationally and relationally, which can be both a strength and a source of friction about where the boundaries lie. PARAGRAPH #BZ6FJC Being in Brīvbode is characterized by constant sorting decisions, trying to maintain an acceptable level of presentation and quality of items. The work of maintaining quality and the work of maintaining relationships sometimes pull in different directions, and the balance between lenience and care is negotiated in every shift. At times I heard people felt uneasy about Viesturs openly commenting on things they had brought. PARAGRAPH #Y7K4KZ This is observable even in the circulation of food items, which, although not central, are also present in Brīvbode. As opposed to many community-based exchange initiatives where the circulation of food is governed strictly, e.g. accepting only unopened items and carefully monitoring expiration dates, in Brīvbode the circulation is shaped less by formal regulation and more by trust and familiarity among participants. Open packages may be accepted when brought by known visitors, suggesting that assessments of safety and acceptability are negotiated socially. PARAGRAPH #7CR75E A stronger boundary emerges in relation to certain categories of items, such as medicine. In one instance, a regular visitor brought various medications, explaining their uses to the day manager. While the items were initially placed on the table for taking, a while later another worker quietly removed them, remarking to me, “I don’t think I support this.” The removal was not communicated directly to the donor, suggesting a reluctance to enforce the norm explicitly. Instead of a formal refusal, workers might suggest that perhaps the giver has not noticed the defects, but items could be washed and brought back or simply delay decisions until the giver is no longer present. PARAGRAPH #CUBS5Q "Man kaut kā mazāka vēlme ņemt visu, ko es redzu, par spīti tam, ka tas it kā ir tas 'brīv'... es kaut kā vairāk cienu to visu, kas tur ir izlikts." [I somehow feel less desire to take everything I see, despite the fact that it's all "free" – I somehow have more respect for everything that's laid out there.] Madara explicitly contrasts her response to freeness with others' – she imagines the hoarder who grabs because it's free, and positions herself as someone for whom freeness activates restraint rather than acquisition. This is the moral economy of freeshopping from the perspective of someone still in the early stages of learning the practice's norms. "Kādam varbūt tas 'brīv' rada vēlmi, ka viss ir bez maksas, tagad ņemam, ņemam, ņemam. Man tas nospēlē kaut kā tieši otrādāk." [For some, maybe "free" creates the urge that everything is free, so now we take, take, take. For me it works the opposite way.] "Es to uztveru kā apmaiņu. To vārdu 'brīvu' kaut kā izslēdzu... Sākumā tas tā bišķiņ mulsināja, ka esmu kā apzagusies." [I see it as exchange. I somehow switch off the word "free"… At first it was a bit confusing, as if I had stolen something.] This is competency acquisition: Madara is learning how to understand and inhabit the value regime of Brīvbode, and she narrates the process explicitly. PARAGRAPH #76T3WR The competencies that sustain freecycling in Brīvbode are largely social and evaluative rather than technical, and none of them require formal training — but each is acquired through repeated participation and is unevenly distributed across practitioners. Material literacy — recognising wool from synthetic fibres, identifying well-made construction, spotting a hidden stain — is foundational, and volunteers develop it most acutely through handling what arrives. Rasa, in the recollection of one student researcher who spent time in the shop, has "the most trained eye for the quality of things" [visuztrenētākā acs uz mantu kvalitāti]; her own acquisition criteria turn on fibre type and durability, preferring what is "more nature-friendly, ecological, and long-lasting." Visitors develop a more limited version of the same competency. Laura describes herself as a careful second-hand user who checks everything thoroughly, though she admits she has still occasionally taken home items that turned out to be broken on closer inspection. PARAGRAPH #EXTCGS On the acquisition side, competence also means knowing when to come and how to navigate the space. Agate has mapped the visitor typology and times her arrivals strategically; Marta describes starting in the first room and returning when something new has arrived. Equally important is the negative competency of not taking — knowing what one needs and what one already has. Zane keeps a list on her phone of items she is actively looking for, and her stylist consultations work as an investment in self-knowledge that guards against impulsive acquisition. Agate explicitly asks herself while browsing whether a given item could be combined with what she already owns. This is cognitive work — holding a mental model of one's wardrobe and household — and without it, acquisition becomes impulsive and the divestment work follows. The competencies of acquisition and divestment are therefore inseparable: each unconsidered acquisition becomes future divestment labour. PARAGRAPH #73DSQT [tags: needs_revision] On the divesting side, the practice expects items to arrive clean and in reasonable condition, requiring washing, stain-checking, and sometimes minor repair, though norms vary: Marija leaves the washing to the recipient, while Anna says she never divests anything that has been repaired. The boundary between "ready to circulate" and "needs more work first" is itself negotiated through the practice. SECTION #PZH45P Not a Charity: The Moral Economy of Exchange PARAGRAPH #QU37KZ [tags: needs_revision] Practices have normative meanings – understandings upheld about what correct participation looks like, what the practice is for, and who belongs in it. In Brīvbode, normative work is done by organisers to uphold the meaning of the freecycling as an exchange as opposed to a charity. This framing is a normative aspiration – a claim about who belongs and on what terms, actively maintained against pressure from resellers and heavy-takers. The normative aspiration is held together by a moral vocabulary of equality and reciprocity – the norm that participants bring something or at least contribute in kind or offer their help at the shop is part of what defines active participation in the practice rather than use of a service. This positioning work is felt as particularly needed by organisers also because Brīvbode is located in the neighbourhood of Gaiziņš night shelter. PARAGRAPH #MS2WGV Brīvbode has to continuously distinguish itself from charity while also remaining useful to people who may need free access; distinguish itself from resale while sometimes tolerating resellers; distinguish non-monetary exchange from waste removal while depending on heavy takers to clear overflow. PARAGRAPH #KBESND As Rasa puts it: “Exchange is a very honest way of operating, it requires responsibility from both sides. When both wealthy and poor, old and young can participate, and everyone knows it's on the basis of exchange, that you are equal, nobody gets a discount, nobody is more special. To many people we simply say: “We are not a charity. It's not the case that you come and now demand that you need clean trousers. We are not a charity point, this is an exchange point. Do you actually have something with you for exchange, before you start setting the rules here?” Nadja is very good at negotiating this. “Go to the Red Cross, go to other places that are specifically a charitable institution! We are not a help institution.”” PARAGRAPH #T8P86W Widlok’s (2017) analysis of give boxes – small scale unattended exchange infrastructure in a German town – offers a frame for what the non-monetary arrangement achieves socially. Give boxes, he argues, separate the acts of giving and receiving – donors and recipients do not need to interact directly, and the intermediary space absorbs the social awkwardness of charity. Items move quickly, suggesting ongoing demand, while participants tend to frame their involvement in terms of giving even when they primarily take. PARAGRAPH #UFJ4GC Brīvbode operates on a similar logic: the physical space mediates between participants, making it possible to take without performing need. At the same time, Widlok notes that give boxes are not straightforwardly sharing practices – they tend to be understood within a moral register of charity or almsgiving rather than open-ended reciprocity, and tensions arise when participants extract items for resale rather than use. PARAGRAPH #7FPBUS The imperative to keep things flowing to avoid overflow creates a certain tolerance in case of suspicion for such practices that formally fall outside Brīvbode’s rules. Reselling is not allowed, yet resellers are a suspected presence in Brīvbode. Volunteers mentioned situations when other visitors in Brīvbode have told them they have recognized their divested items at the Āgenskalns flea market the following weekend, which Rasa acknowledges as straightforwardly unpleasant. Yet because it is not always possible to prove, there is also a working accommodation, and Rasa’s position is one of pragmatic acceptance: “At the same time it seems – if he'll find the next user for the thing anyway, the function is fulfilled. Better they make a little money and the thing finds its person, than some hoarder takes it and the things end up in a container." She laughs: "Well, what choice do I have but to believe… We support small businesses." PARAGRAPH #QKY57B This reveals a hierarchy of meanings operating within Brīvbode’s moral economy. The object’s arrival to a sequential user is weighed as more important than the forbidden monetary transaction that may or may not occur along the way. The ethos of non-monetary exchange can be subordinated to the deeper logic of circulation. Besides, if visitors come with something in return, further trajectory is difficult to control. PARAGRAPH #ERMRTL Viesturs frames this ecologically: "Well, I could see them now as forest sanitarians." Without moral approval, the resellers, the hoarders and heavy-takers are reframed as functional elements as they clear out the accumulation of materials that would otherwise clog the space. Viesturs response to this is tactical curatorial competency: if a person he suspects is present at the shop, he often doesn’t put new items out on the shelves until they leave. This is his practical judgement and competency to “read the room” enacted situationally. SECTION #7Z8WUY Letting Go: Attachment Without Price PARAGRAPH #GL6QPX The intensity of circulation of items in Brīvbode and its non-monetary context raise a question about the relationship between price and attachment. Evans’s (2020) framework suggests that attachment is produced through the acquisition-side moments of consumption – appropriation and appreciation, processes that are normally anchored by monetary investment. Assima et al. (2023) describe "financial myopia" – the difficulty of detaching from items one has spent significant money on, even when they are no longer used. This results in "neglected possessions" accumulating in wardrobes as disposal is deferred to avoid the feeling of wasting a significant investment. PARAGRAPH #Q9UXGA The anchor of monetary investment is absent from acquisition in Brīvbode, and some participants articulate the shift in their own relationship to objects directly. Rasa describes how price normally operates as a binding force which Brīvbode alleviates: “You no longer have that heaviness around a thing – I bought it for €40, how can I now throw it out or give it away, not wear it. Now it's simply: if it doesn't suit, bring it back. Try it – it works, or it doesn't. It's much more free." She is pragmatic about this beyond Brīvbode too: “No matter where the garment comes from, there is that percentage of things I take or buy or acquire for myself that I always know won't get worn regardless of whether I've paid money for them or not. So the safest thing to do is to invest as little as possible, so that afterwards there are fewer regrets." This is a recalibration of what kinds of commitment acquisition is. PARAGRAPH #PYZ6UH Fieldwork observations capture this in the dynamic of circulation. A woman arrives and leaves in different shoes than she came in: “I left mine here instead. Today with these trousers, the high heel doesn't suit. Hopefully no fungus..." Another laughs as she leaves her jacket in Brīvbode on a sunny day because she feels too hot: “I left home with clothes on but will be coming back in socks only. I don't need anything.” A third also swaps her jacket on the spot for one she prefers. The meaning of novelty comes across in these cases. PARAGRAPH #34Z7TB Another aspect to the quality of attachment is the possibility of a return after trial and seeing whether attachment will form. It can be difficult to assess in the moment of acquisition whether an item will settle in person’s life. Bringing something back if it does not further loosens the relationship between taking and keeping, allowing a lower stakes and a more experimental participation. This trial opportunity was appreciated by participants whose physical attributes and body shapes are not always catered to in retail: "Because for a small person it's quite hard to find trousers... But here there's the opportunity to try them for some time and see." PARAGRAPH #VXG4LU However, if acquisition carries less commitment, the same conditions that make divestment easier may make acquisition more frequent and less deliberate. My own divestment to Brīvbode often consists of things bought secondhand online as a preferred route of acquisition, but choosing not to invest effort in reselling when they don’t work out. The non-monetary regime does not automatically produce more careful consumption; its relationship to sufficiency depends on the meanings participants bring to it. PARAGRAPH #5NWUSK Elīna describes feeling a sense of responsibility toward everything she acquires – whether bought secondhand, taken from a swap event, or found in Brīvbode. Once something has come to her, she feels obligated to find it a good next home rather than simply discard it: "If this has come to me, then this material... energy and work and transport went into producing it, and I can't just throw it away. I feel I have a duty to figure out how to pass it on to hands where it will be useful." She adds, however, that this sense of responsibility sometimes feels like too heavy a burden to carry. PARAGRAPH #7397K7 Managing the impulse to take because it is free. Marta describes this explicitly – learning to replace "free" with "exchange" in her mental vocabulary, developing the decision rule that if she is not sure she does not need it. This is deliberate self-regulation work, and it is not trivial. The non-monetary arrangement removes one natural brake on acquisition – financial cost – and participants who want to avoid accumulating must supply that brake themselves through conscious effort. PARAGRAPH #9XUDV9 [tags: placeholder] "Man bija ļoti daudz dažādu veidu... pēdējos pāris gadus es kaut kā esmu no tā atkāvusies, ka es tā vairs nedaru. Es tiešām ļoti izvērtēju, vai man tā lieta tiešām ir nepieciešama." [I used to have so many different kinds of things… in the last couple of years I've somehow weaned myself off it; I no longer do that. I really do evaluate whether the thing is genuinely necessary for me.] Madara describes a conscious shift away from impulse acquiring in secondhand contexts – she recognizes her own past behavior as a problem and has worked to change it. This is deliberate practice modification. Madara: "Es tiešām cenšos nebūt tā tante ar trīs maisiem, kas staigā katru dienu tur no vienas točkas uz otru. To es cenšos nepieļaut un cenšos arī sadraudzēties maksimāli ar tām lietām, kas man ir." [I really try not to be that auntie with three bags who walks every day from one spot to another. I try to avoid that, and try to make peace as much as I can with the things I already have.] Making peace with what you have – sufficiency as an active practice of relationship with objects rather than deprivation. This is a positive formulation of sufficiency that does not rely on environmental discourse. PARAGRAPH #QCXR6D [tags: placeholder] Elīna R. "S1: Bet kā tu nonāci pie tās sajūtas, pie tās atziņas – man jau pietiek? S2: Man vienkārši skapī vairs nav vietas. (smejas) Nu, arī, teiksim, tagad ir ziema, un ir džemperu laiks, un es saprotu, ka es tāpat neuzvelku visus savus džemperus. Nu, tātad man viņu ir acīmredzami par daudz. Un man arī patīk novalkāt lietas. Tur ir kaut kāds tāds, nu, man vismaz, īpašs tā kā kaifs, ka es ar šo lietu esmu tik daudz lietas darījusi kopā, ka viņa ir tik novalkāta, ka viņu, iespējams, pat vairs nevar salabot." [Interviewer: But how did you arrive at that feeling, that realisation – I already have enough? Elīna: There's simply no more space in my wardrobe. (laughs) Well – say it's winter now, sweater season, and I realise I don't wear all my sweaters anyway. So I obviously have too many of them. And I also like wearing things out. There's a kind of – well, for me at least, a special pleasure when I've gone through so much with a thing that it's worn down to the point where maybe it can't even be repaired anymore.] PARAGRAPH #Z2Y4K8 [tags: placeholder] "Es esmu krājēja. Jā, es esmu krājēja." [I'm a hoarder. Yes, I'm a hoarder.] Aiga recognised hoarding tendencies in herself. She links it to scarcity experience – not having had much as a student, learning to keep things because things were hard to come by. The accumulation habit is understood as a survival response to past material insecurity, but she is actively working to change. The turning point was a month-long solo trip through Europe after her employment ended: "Es aizbraucu, un tad ar to arī sākās, ka tagad, nu, tagad tas ir izdarīts, tagad ir jādomā kaut kas par lietām, kas ir par daudz." [I went away [on the trip], and that's when it started – that now, well, it's been done, and now I have to think something about the things that are too many.] Travel – where you carry only what fits in a bag – reframed her relationship to possessions and worked as a biographical rupture that catalyzed practice change. PARAGRAPH #AB5XLD [tags: placeholder] "Es labāk šobrīd lēnā garā atbrīvojos... man nav vienkārši žēl paņemt somu un aizbraukt." [I'd rather let go of things slowly now… I just don't want it to be hard to pick up a bag and leave.] The war anxiety dimension: she is releasing things partly because she wants to be able to leave quickly if necessary. The geopolitical context of Latvia – proximity to Russia, uncertainty since 2022 – appears explicitly in her divestment motivation. PARAGRAPH #LG8X4N [tags: placeholder] "Pieķeršanās jautājums tiek risināts. Viņš ir procesā." [The question of attachment is being worked on. It's in process.] "Brīvbode palīdz, tā teikt, šim procesam attīstīties." [Brīvbode helps, so to speak, this process to develop.] "Šobrīd jau ir uz robežas, tāpēc es saku, ka ir jāatvadās jau no tā, kas jau ir atrasts." [I'm already at the edge now, that's why I say one has to start saying goodbye even to what one has already found.] Māra is explicitly working on her attachment to things – she names it as a problem and frames it as ongoing work. Brīvbode as a tool for developing the capacity to let go. This is the freeshop as infrastructure for a personal practice of detachment. It is a positive framing of the same phenomenon that Rasa describes as generating excess – from Māra's perspective, having a route makes it easier to release. PARAGRAPH #8VF9D7 The generativity of Brīvbode is not limited to material circulation. By lowering the stakes of acquisition and providing a trusted route for return, the site also reshapes participants’ competencies of attachment, detachment and restraint. SECTION #W2WRDC What People Find Here: Plural Meanings of Acquisition PARAGRAPH #5L3QYB Taking things in Brīvbode is sustained by a variety of meanings that do not need to be shared or mutually coherent across practitioners. The heterogeneity of meanings allows practices to recruit across a wide and socially diverse public. The following section examines the main meaning clusters and how they operate in the swapshop's nexus of practices. PARAGRAPH #54GE84 For Marija, the primary meaning is access and dignity as Brīvbode enables a form of self-presentation beyond her regular means: "I dressed like an absolute princess. You can’t even find things like that in a shop." She takes pleasure in the secret source as other people in her networks cannot tell the difference between her clothing originating from Brīvbode or retail. This also has a competence dimension: knowing where to look, when to come, having access to a source others do not use. PARAGRAPH #NMQ6KB Anna frames her participation with a desire for aesthetic autonomy: “I've always really disliked it when I'm wearing something and someone else is wearing exactly the same." Instead of sustainability or thrift, this meaning is based on distinctiveness. Anna also has a sewing competency that works as an extension of the same desire – making her own clothing is the ultimate guarantee of uniqueness: the competency of sewing is sustained by the meaning. Additionally Brīvbode also enables Anna's daily performance of festivity: wearing a glitter dress as everyday wear is possible because Brīvbode provides a low-stakes supply resource. PARAGRAPH #N2JHPC Elīna describes a similar dynamic at a lower threshold of commitment: “You can try out different styles for free. I took a bomber jacket I would never have bought myself." The jacket became one of her most-worn items. Brīvbode enabled a style experiment that she would not have risked financially. Similarly, a practitioner who was exploring cross-dressing also described: "What gives me joy is that I can create different characters from those clothes. For example, yesterday I went to my first cross-dresser date with this beautiful purple wig. I also got these court shoes... And that somehow challenged me to put them to use." PARAGRAPH #D4H3PB Madara’s participation is organised around her craftsperson's gaze – a competency that allows her to notice objects as made of particular components and materials. "When I see an item, I see it not just as a finished garment, but also, for example, as a material – fabric, beads, zippers." This competency distinguishes her participation from others and allows her to find value also in objects that other people might not find useful at all: "I found an old, cut mosquito net, which I use as a base for embroidery." Something that appeared to be waste turned out to be a useful resource to her. This is a heightened version of the right-owner logic – the object finds not just a user but a user who recognizes a value in it that is largely invisible to others. Also Madara’s rugmaking practice originated in having accumulated too many secondhand clothes – material surplus became the origin of a new practice. PARAGRAPH #VGRDGV The craftsperson's gaze has a negative counterpart, however, when it is decoupled from valuing items as a shared resource: some visitors treat the shop as a source of free raw materials, cutting off buttons or zippers from garments, and leaving the damaged items behind – extracting the value themselves while diminishing it for everyone else. PARAGRAPH #86WW2X [tags: needs_revision] Alongside the meanings of novelty, originality, and access runs a meaning of class-related stigma, and its presence significantly shapes who is recruited into acquiring at Brīvbode and on what terms. Some participants hinted at it subtly in conversation, but denied it when asked about it directly. Marija is the only one who explicitly named the shame associated with freecycling, and this cuts against any simple narrative of taking from Brīvbode as a normalised exchange for people of all walks of life. While actively and regularly using Brīvbode and praising the things she has managed to acquire as high quality and aesthetically pleasing, she also compares taking from Brīvbode to going through someone else's trash. Especially when a TV crew came to Brīvbode and a journalist approached her for a couple of words, she flatly refused: "I will not let them see that I've fallen so low as to come to Brīvbode." Yet in the same conversation she also reclaims the class label: "I'm common, simply common (prasta – common, plain, I.L.). I will go and get what I need." The value is privately experienced but restricted in representation – stigma differentiates which of Brīvbode's practices a participant is willing to enact openly and which remain claimed only in private. PARAGRAPH #ZEVQDB For some potential practitioners this association with lower class status is a barrier to entry, while others manage it strategically. Several participants mentioned withholding information about the origin of items, especially when passing things acquired in Brīvbode to other people as gifts. As volunteer Anna noted, grandmothers say: “I don't tell my daughter where I got that jacket, because she wouldn't take it.” PARAGRAPH #Z4WUR2 A related strong negative meaning for second hand acquisition holds that these items carry the energy of previous – often deceased – owners. Several participants mentioned this trope but adjusted it to their practice. Viesturs, half-laughing, keeps the spiritual language but reframes it institutionally: "Others say that things have some kind of energy, or the aura of previous owners... We're able to transform that. In a way, Brīvbode is also like a kind of purgatory for things." With this adjusted meaning Brīvbode can function as a threshold space in the object biographies where the weight of previous owners can be released. PARAGRAPH #MD2XMJ [tags: needs_revision] This stigma of second hand acquisition is, however, also generationally uneven and appears to be dissolving, similar to patterns reported elsewhere (Gurova, 2024). Changing meanings are shifting the practice’s recruitability. Madara notes how a broader normalization of secondhand acquisition in recent years has produced a shift within her own family, who previously held strong norms against it. Luīze, a highschooler preparing for graduation, uses the English word "thrift shops" to talk about her consumption practices, frames her participation in explicit environmental terms, and reports that her classmates are actively seeking secondhand options for graduation dresses. She attributes the negative meaning her parents hold towards second hand acquisition to “Soviet mentality”. SECTION #GTJY22 Quiet or Reflected Sustainability? PARAGRAPH #T6FW9N In our conversation, Viesturs also positions Brīvbode against charity but from a different angle than Rasa: "Our goal is not to do good for people, I think. Our goal is to do good for the planet… Charity is always related to the meaning of poverty. I think that we need to emphasize the fun factor, the joy factor – swapping, changing clothes. That it's cool, fun, that it's joyful." He is not only describing the meanings that sustain his own participation, but also making a claim about which meanings should be foregrounded to recruit and retain more practitioners. This orientation is present in Brīvbode and practically expressed through organising photo shoots and parties, encouraging playfulness with clothing. PARAGRAPH #LUDRGT [tags: needs_revision] When I ask Viesturs if he sees working in Brīvbode as helping visitors or helping a cause, the question turns out to be beside the point: "To me it's so natural now, I don't evaluate it anymore. Others should evaluate it. It's simply a thing I do, without going into philosophical meanings." Sorting, switching clothing, chatting with visitors and attending to the shop so that it continues operating well – have become sufficiently routinised for him that they no longer require justification or meaning-work. The practice has stabilized to the point where the question of what it means has receded behind the doing. PARAGRAPH #M9983A Rasa answers similarly when I enquire about the environmental and sustainability aspects of Brīvbode: “Everything else is so intense… It has remained somehow, in a way, a little secondary." While the sustainability framing remains present – and is foregrounded e.g. when writing project funding applications or designing info materials – it does not need to be actively held by every practitioner in every performance. For both Viesturs and Rasa philosophical meaning-making has receded. This is what Smith and Jehlička (2013) describe as quiet sustainability: practices that produce sustainable outcomes without requiring their practitioners to hold or articulate sustainability as a motivation. PARAGRAPH #CX2SM8 Sustainability as a meaning is present for practitioners, and e.g. Luīze is at the other end of the spectrum for whom it is expressed as primary rather than peripheral. She explicitly framed her participation in terms of ecological responsibility and the wider politics of avoiding fast fashion and microtrends. PARAGRAPH #78HBEQ Līva discussed how the environmental meaning is present for her, but in tension with her actual acquisition practices. She identifies textile consumption as probably one of her most environmentally problematic behaviors, yet was open that knowing it does not resolve it. She estimates she buys an item of clothing every month and frames this as more than she used to in adolescence. The meanings she uses to evaluate her consumption patterns are in tension with the meanings that sustain the acquisition, and neither cancels the other one out. Researching household textile disposal, Sigaard (2026) concludes that even while sustainable consumption is ideally endorsed, disposal is very normalized because it is strongly embedded in identity work, relational considerations and in facilitating other practices. PARAGRAPH #P6X2DJ Also, as I argue, most participants come to Brīvbode for practical and social reasons instead of self-professed environmental conviction. This resonates with Smith and Jehlička’s (2013) concept of quiet sustainability, developed through their research on Czech urban gardeners: sustainable practices that can be widespread and effective but are not articulated in terms of sustainability by their practitioners. Smith and Jehlička contend that quiet sustainability is defined by practices “that result in beneficial environmental or social outcomes, that do not relate directly or indirectly to market transactions, and that are not represented by the practitioners as relating directly to environmental or sustainability goals. Cultures of sharing, repairing, gifting and bartering characterise quiet sustainability” (2013: 155). Latvia provides a productive context for this concept – several participants trace their orientations towards reuse and frugality to generational experience rather than sustainability aspiration. [..] PARAGRAPH #FLSHWG Some participants do find meanings for their participation in explicit sustainability terms, though, and this difference should not be overlooked. The thesis holds both the quiet and the articulated dimensions without collapsing them into a single category, treating the variation between them as empirically interesting. In practice-theoretical terms, however, what practitioners say about why they do what they do is only one element of practice and “doings” hold the centre. PARAGRAPH #SY28Z3 [tags: needs_revision, fragment] (Lifestyles of Enough) “Finally, the meanings attached to sufficiency-oriented consumption practices go way beyond altruistic motives like environmental concern. As a study by Kropfeld et al. (2018) showed, environmentally concerned consumers (with more altruistic motives) have a higher environmental impact than voluntary simplifiers (with more self-related motives). Personal or egocentric motives, therefore, can lead to sufficiency-oriented behavior, as the example for sharing services from this review showed. This is in line with Sandberg’s (2021) findings on sufficiency practices related to miscellaneous consumption, as she connects a reduction of consumption of various products (incl. clothing) to anti-consumption lifestyles such as voluntary simplicity or frugality. PARAGRAPH #JDEYZH [tags: needs_revision, fragment] Quiet sustainability – sustainable practices without added sustainability meaning. PARAGRAPH #Q9T2SN [tags: needs_revision, fragment] what matters in sustainability? e.g. people gather egg cartons because it is easy, but issues that are more impactful and require more resources are more difficult to enact. PARAGRAPH #8B2Y8N Several participants in this study trace their orientations toward thrift and reuse to generational experience of the scarcity of the early post-Soviet period, or to upbringings in which resources were used carefully as a matter of practical necessity rather than environmental commitment. PARAGRAPH #VFPYU2 The “activists” are part of the visitors, yet a large part do not frame their participation in Brīvbode primarily in environmental terms: they come because they have things to give away, because they sometimes find things they need. Their practices have sustainable dimensions that they do not necessarily name or claim. PARAGRAPH #V445EY This framing does not require flattening the diversity of participant orientations. Some visitors do articulate explicit sustainability motivations – concerns about fast fashion, about waste, about the environmental costs of overconsumption. The thesis holds both the quiet and the articulated dimensions without forcing them into a single category, and treats the tension between them as empirically interesting rather than theoretically problematic. One question that remains open is whether explicit articulation makes sustainable practices more effective at retaining practitioners – more resistant to disruption when material or social conditions change. This is beyond the scope of the present study but worth noting as a direction for future research. PARAGRAPH #FV3V4W Māra: "Mammai to lietu nebija daudz, un tās lietas tika visas, nu, ļoti labi uzturētas. Bet tad, kad jau parādījās tie humāno preču veikali, tad savukārt bija otrā drusku galējība." [My mother didn't have many things, and those things were all, well, very well looked after. But then, once the second-hand goods shops (humāno preču veikali, lit. "humanitarian goods shops") appeared, the other extreme came.] PARAGRAPH #ZCZQHX [tags: placeholder] Because Brīvbode coordinates multiple practices, sustainability does not need to be the shared meaning that recruits everyone. SECTION #A3X9XX Conclusion: Holding Together Incompatible Orientations PARAGRAPH #5U4GTQ [tags: placeholder] Brīvbode’s significance lies not in resolving the contradictions of circular consumption, but in making them practically workable. It is at once a route for domestic divestment, a source of acquisition, a sorting and curatorial workplace, a social meeting point, a space of style experimentation, a source of craft materials, a threshold between use and waste, and sometimes a pressure valve for overconsumption. These practices intersect without becoming one coherent moral project. The site holds them together just enough for things to keep moving. PARAGRAPH #4V448P [tags: needs_revision] Sustainability can be an outcome without it being a requirement and a conscious orientation for practitioners. The practice recruits and retains carriers through meanings that also have little to do with environmental concern and yet the circulation it enables has sustainable dimensions that persist regardless of how participants frame their involvement. ### 6. Assistant Yes — I can see them. Under #9XAKTW you’ve marked a cluster of paragraphs as `needs_revision`, including #TYTN9E, #7ZXWJU, #5GWZER, #LHLZ8Y, #KMD7AJ, #PNCAWA, #73DSQT, #QU37KZ, #86WW2X, #MD2XMJ, #LUDRGT, #SY28Z3, #JDEYZH, #Q9T2SN, and #4V448P. And yes, your diagnosis makes sense: the chapter opening already does the new framing well — Brīvbode as a site/nexus where multiple practices are coordinated (#PL9BXR, #SJE87E). The revision task is mostly to make the older paragraphs stop saying “the practice” as if Brīvbode/freecycling were one coherent practice. A useful rule for revising: > **Do not make Brīvbode itself “the practice.” Make Brīvbode the site/infrastructure/nexus where practices of divesting, acquiring, sorting, volunteering, curating, refusing, repairing, socialising, and circulating meet.** So instead of: > “the practice recruits carriers” use, depending on context: > “the practice of divesting through Brīvbode recruits carriers…” > “acquisition at Brīvbode is sustained by…” > “the site coordinates several partially overlapping practices…” > “the freecycling arrangement links divestment and acquisition without making them identical…” Some quick paragraph-level fixes: - #TYTN9E — should distinguish **giving/divesting** and **taking/acquiring** as adjacent but differently recruited practices. Suggested move: “The organisers’ ideal is that participants move between giving and taking, but these are not simply two roles within one practice. Divesting through Brīvbode and acquiring from it recruit different practitioners through different meanings…” - #7ZXWJU — “the practice from the giving side” can become **the practice of divestment**. Suggested: “In the absence of a specific receiver, givers construct an imagined recipient; this figure becomes a meaning element in divestment through Brīvbode.” - #5GWZER — the ending should say uncertainty of supply sustains **acquisition/browsing**, not “the practice” generally. Suggested: “This uncertainty of supply feeds the acquisition-side practices of browsing, waiting, returning, and hoping for a lucky find…” - #LHLZ8Y — this one says the venue “constitutes the practice of freecycling.” Better: the venue enables the **coordination and routinisation of several practices**. Suggested: “Regular operation in the same physical venue does not simply host freecycling; it stabilises the coordination of giving, sorting, browsing, taking and social visiting as recurring weekly practices.” - #KMD7AJ — strong paragraph, just needs pluralisation. Instead of “which meanings the practice of freecycling should enact,” maybe: “which meanings the site should foreground and which practices it should support — retail-like curation, abundance, playfulness, accessibility, or quick circulation.” - #PNCAWA — “the practice had recruited carriers” should specify **the divestment route**. Suggested: “The divestment route had recruited carriers so effectively that the closure of the site did not immediately interrupt the flow.” - #73DSQT — “On the divesting side, the practice expects…” → “The practice of divesting through Brīvbode expects…” or “Divestment through Brīvbode is expected to…” - #QU37KZ — this one is theoretically important. The issue is not “the freecycling as an exchange” but **organisers trying to frame the whole nexus as exchange rather than charity**. Suggested: “In Brīvbode, organisers do normative work to frame the site’s interlinked practices as exchange rather than charity. This framing does not describe every participant’s orientation, but it sets the terms through which giving, taking, volunteering and heavy use are judged.” - #86WW2X and #MD2XMJ — here “practice’s recruitability” should probably become **recruitability of second-hand/free acquisition** or **acquisition at Brīvbode**. - #LUDRGT — “The practice has stabilized…” should be specified as Viesturs’s **volunteering/sorting/attending practice**. Suggested: “For Viesturs, the practices of sorting, switching clothes, chatting with visitors and keeping the shop going have become sufficiently routinised that explicit justification recedes behind the doing.” - #4V448P — conclusion needs plural. Suggested: “Sustainability can emerge from the coordination of multiple practices without being a shared conscious orientation among their practitioners. Brīvbode recruits and retains participants through meanings that often have little to do with environmental concern, while the circulation it enables can still have sustainable dimensions.” The chapter is already moving in the right direction. The main revision is basically a de-singularising pass: every time you see “the practice,” ask: **which practice exactly — divesting, acquiring, sorting, volunteering, curating, socialising, repairing, refusing, or circulating?** Academic whack-a-mole, but a very productive mole. ### 7. User we should think about e.g. we cite i think the idea that 'consumption' isn't a practice but an element or whatever of many different practices. where's that from? that should inform our view of what the practices may be that mingle at brivbode ### 8. Assistant tool calls #### Tool call: `search_text` ```json { "limit": 10, "query": "consumption is not a practice element of many practices" } ``` ### 9. Tool result: search_text Exact matches 1. Source: After Practice? Material Semiotic Approaches to Consumption and Economy (#4EFC4F), David M. Evans, p. 5 Context: #AG3WUY Theories of Practice and Material Semiotics Matching excerpt #A2PJJV: My view in this article is that there are other approaches that have yet to be engaged with but could be utilised to help locate practice theoretic accounts of consumption in the context of wider political and economic processes. I suggest that material semiotic approaches to economy and politics are a useful place to look. My reasons are as follows. First, because I question the extent to which practice theoretic approaches to consumption deal adequately with materials and objects. While they take seriously the role of the non-human in configuring the practices for which consumption occurs, they say very little, for example, about the materiality of markets, processes of commodity consumption, or the enactment of political and economic realities. Second, because in these approaches, attention to technologies, objects and devices does not necessitate the deletion of cultural considerations such as representations or sentiments. On this point, I note that theories of practice can also be considered material semiotic. In addition to the open question of whether or not they break with cultural theory (cf. Reckwitz, 2002), even the most parsimonious and frequently invoked definition of 'a practice' (see Shove et al., 2012) emphasises meanings or images as a key configurational element. 4 Taken together, then, I suggest that there is significant potential to bring material semiotic approaches to economy and politics together with a material semiotic approach to consumption. 2. Source: After Practice? Material Semiotic Approaches to Consumption and Economy (#4EFC4F), David M. Evans, p. 1 Context: #4NL6AV Introduction #B2R4TY Corresponding author: Matching excerpt #KN858R: proliferation of accounts that focused more concretely on the process and experience of consumption. Cultural theories of various persuasions established a named sociology of consumption and underpinned many of its foundational accounts (see Featherstone, 2007). More recently, theories of practice have gained momentum (following Warde, 2005) to influence contemporary developments in consumption studies. The appraisal of practice theoretic approaches, specifically their relationship with – and possible mode of succession to – the prevailing orthodoxy of cultural perspectives is now a key concern for the sociology of consumption (see the introduction to this special issue). This article – which was given as a keynote address to the 2018 conference of the European Sociological Association (ESA) Consumption Research Network – joins these debates. It suggests that studies of consumption face a suite of challenges that result, at least in part, from their analytic separation from production. Specifically, it proceeds from the observation that practice theoretic approaches to consumption do not adequately account for the intersection of everyday life and political economy. My core argument is that material semiotic approaches – a family of theories that suggest ‘the social’ is constituted by relational and heterogeneous practices – offer some promising avenues for reconciling contemporary developments in consumption scholarship with understandings of broader economic processes. 3. Source: Consumption and Practice (#QRRZP2), Benjamin Julien Hartmann, p. 52 Context: #F4KA5L 2. Theoretical perspectives #ASYK8A 2.2 A Practice-theoretical Approach to Consumption #F8J2JD 2.2.2 Tenets of practice-theoretical ontology #4RNZSW The conceptual crisis of the consumer #XU2H85 2. Theoretical perspectives Matching excerpt #UMBNYZ: sense to label those who engage in some form of consumption as consumers. But—and this is the point that Warde (2005) emphasizes—the consumer as a level of analysis to understand consumption fades into the background in a practice-theoretical approach. Consumption is an element in many practices—not an element within individuals. Consumption takes place in the course of performing practices. It is the practice that consumes; and individuals become carriers of this consumption, because they are carriers of practices. This means that eventually, consumption belongs more to the practice than to the individual performing the practice. This is because practice theory treats the social agent, here ‘the consumer’, never purely as the sole subject of the practices the agent conducts (see Schatzki 2001a; 2002; Schatzki 2005). Consumption emerges as it is accomplished in and through practices. Thus, consumption can be seen as a method for achieving the performance of practice, as indicated in the idea that consumption takes place for the sake of practices (Warde 2005). 4. Source: Consumption and Practice (#QRRZP2), Benjamin Julien Hartmann, p. 21 Context: #LSJS5V I. Introduction #R9MPHV 1.2 Problematizing Consumption #32NPCZ 1.2.1 Consumption in relation to practice #MRS3X3 1. Introduction Matching excerpt #79WK5B: Warde's point of view resonates with research that demonstrate how consumption objects are utilized in and for the conduct of a specific practice (Magaudda 2011; Reckwitz 2002; Schatzki 2001; 2002; Shove and Pantzar 2005; Whittington et al., 2006; Watson and Shove 2008). This means not only that the practice requires and necessitates consumption, but also that individuals engage in moments of consumption required by the practice. Consumption in this view becomes an element of practice. This can be illustrated by Shove and Chappells' (2001) study showing how water and electricity is typically consumed in the course of the routines of daily practices; and Watson and Shove (2008) demonstrating how screws, nails, and tools are consumed in the course of DIY practices. Tools, raw materials, water, and electricity are not consumed for their own sake, but their consumption is steered by routine activities of everyday life or specific practices. In other words, engaging in a certain practice necessitates the consumption of certain objects. Thus, the needs for these objects are less 'consumer needs' than practice needs (Warde 2005). In Watson and Shove's (2008) reading of Warde (2005), consumption thus is an outcome of practice. 5. Source: Consumption and Practice (#QRRZP2), Benjamin Julien Hartmann, p. 117 Context: #QGJ7DX 4. Findings and Discussion #753QNY 4.3 Implications and Contributions #YYZ6AW 4.3.3 The operation of consumption in consumer culture Matching excerpt #XVD7WM: The notion of consumer culture describes how consumption encompasses almost every aspect of daily life and indicates how many contemporary societies can be thought of as “culture(s) of consumption” (Slater 1997, 24). According to Holt (2002) and Arnould and Thompson (2005), such consumer cultures operate structured by consumption as a dominant practice. This implies the view that consumption can be conceived of as a practice, a point that is also advocated in Bourdieu’s writings (1990; 1984). With the introduction of the idea that consumption itself is not a practice in its own right, but rather that moments of consumption are enjoined within practices, Warde (2005) presents a conception of consumption that portrays consumption as something practices bring about. In this understanding, social life is not primarily organized by consumption, but by practices (Reckwitz 2002; Schatzki 1996; 2001a; 2002) of which consumption is a part. 6. Source: Consumption and Practice (#QRRZP2), Benjamin Julien Hartmann, p. 105 Context: #QGJ7DX 4. Findings and Discussion #RU7VHR 4.2 Unfolding the Entanglement of Consumptive Moments with Productive Aspects #FEF83D 4.2.1 Theorizing productive consumption through performative consumptive moments #RS2GQZ Momentum Matching excerpt #5UM5WM: Consider the momentum-giving qualities of the gear deployed in electric guitar playing (paper 3). For example, respondents explain that "your playing absolutely sucks when you have a shit sound" and that "Good sounds make you want do something. That's what it's about. That's why we play around with this... all this stuff", with 'stuff' being the guitar rig or, in theoretical terms, the consumption constellation. The agentic qualities of the formation of the material arrangements depicted in paper 3 pinpoint the importance of consumptive moments in the practice of electric guitar playing and their abilities to 'make or break' a performance. However, consumptive moments are not to be seen in isolation—consumption of a guitar rig alone is not productive in practice-theoretical terms. But as a moment within practices, the use and appreciation of the rig gains relevance in terms of its abilities to provide momentum to the practice. The consumptive moment is performative in the practice of guitar playing and it is in this way that it participates in making the performance. This includes not only the 'sound' element, as the excerpted statements above allure to, but also the production of meaning. The teleoaffective communicative end of the formation of consumption constellation suggests that a range of particular objects does not only influence 7. Source: Consumption and Practice (#QRRZP2), Benjamin Julien Hartmann, p. 48 Context: #F4KA5L 2. Theoretical perspectives #ASYK8A 2.2 A Practice-theoretical Approach to Consumption #QQPH4C 2.2.1 Motivation #NWZ596 2. Theoretical perspectives Matching excerpt #P7UT27: First, studying consumption implies recognizing relationships to production. Consumption holds an analytical category, but shall not be treated singularly and in isolation of production. Most prominently, this is indicated in literatures of prosumption, which highlight the need for paying attention to the spectrum of consumption and production (e.g., Ritzer 2010). As Campbell's (2005) craft consumption highlights, consumption still takes place but is embedded within productive activities. This resonates broadly with Marx' (1971) work suggesting that dialectical relations of consumption and production can be found not only on levels of theoretical abstraction but also on the level of actual processes. While co-creation literature frames such processes in terms of actions of and interactions between firms and consumers, a practice-theoretical perspective introduces the idea of framing such processes as practices. Thus, it shifts emphasis away from the individual subject, or role, but rather suggests viewing production and consumption as being entangled with practices. This speaks to Warde's (2005) practice moments of consumption as embedded within practices, but also recognizes relations to productive aspects of practices. In the context of consumption and production, this means appreciating the dyadic linkages between consumption and production as previous literature has suggested (e.g., Arnould 2007; Arnould and Thompson 2007; Ritzer, Dean, and Jurgenson 2012; Warde 1992)—but without the necessity of collapsing consumption and production into one category (Firat and Venkatesh 1995). The idea introduced by Schatzki (2005) of regarding practices as 'sites' translates here into practices becoming the site for studying consumption and its entanglement with productive aspects. As an implication, production and consumption must be defined in the light of the site in which they take place—the practices. In other words, consumption and production are not defined as universal categories, but must be understood in terms of the practice in which they take place. Marx recognized the many forms production can take, referring to different sectors of production. However, his reasoning on the entanglement of consumption with production was on a highly abstract level. Regarding practices as the site for consumption and production means paying attention to the relatively immediate forms of consumption and production taking place within this site. 8. Source: Lifestyles of enough exploring sufficiency-oriented consumption behavior from a social practice theory perspective (#QWH9YU), Maren I Kropfeld, p. 16 Context: #8JHLB5 Lifestyles of enough exploring sufficiency-oriented consumption behavior from a social practice theory perspective #8YBH9M Conclusion Matching excerpt #D34SY9: This paper reviewed sufficiency consumer practices that have so far been studied in the literature by aggregating the central elements of sufficiency practices, with a specific focus on so far underrepresented areas. The review shows that consumption practices outside the areas of mobility, housing, energy, and nutrition have not been extensively studied from a social practice theoretical lens. Also, the element of "rules" has only been taken up by few papers so far but might provide interesting insights for the policy level. The studies investigated closer in this paper give insights into different sufficiency-oriented practices, especially related to clothing consumption, and their respective elements and thus can serve as a starting point for further research on changing unsustainable consumption behavior. The findings of this paper support the current notion that a reduction of consumption is yet rather unattractive for consumers and businesses, while strategies such as modal shifts, extension of lifespans, or sharing practices are much more 9. Source: The Nexus of Practices: Connections, Constellations and Practitioners (#R49AUC), Allison Hui, Elizabeth Shove, Theodore Schatzki, p. 90 Context: #9ZHWYC EPIGENETICS, THEORIES OF SOCIAL PRACTICE AND LIFESTYLE DISEASE #DLA6YY Intervening in lifestyle diseases: a social practice-epigenetic perspective Matching excerpt #XBT2ZG: Aside from this, the key strategy to change health outcomes from a practice-epigenetic perspective is to (a) intervene in relevant practices and their elements of meanings, materials and competence and (b) orchestrate the making and breaking of links that sustain practices, as well as those between practice bundles and complexes (Blue et al. , 2016; Shove et al. , 2012; Spurling and McMeekin, 2014). For example, controlling fat as a material element in multiple practices causing multigenerational obesity could include: changes to practices of shopping and food consumption by developing competencies in preparing and consuming low-fat meals or developing new practices of meal preparation; changes to the meanings and materials of meals in relation to frequency, size and content; new or changed practices of policymaking to reduce the availability of fatty, sugary and highly processed foods and drinks and medical or surgical practices, such as bariatric (lap band or gastric) surgery. The latter has been shown to be effective in circumventing epigenetic changes that result in the birth of overweight children (Rhee et al. , 2012). Of course, these are not new ideas. However, from a practice-epigenetic perspective, the difference is to recognise and capitalise on where and how these attempts intervene in practices, bundles and their elements and therefore better to coordinate and systematise what are usually treated as one-off, separate or unrelated interventions, directed at individuals and their behaviour at single points in time. In Spurling and McMeekin's (2014: 79) words: 'intervention should not be viewed as "external" or "one-off" but as continuous and reflexive, historical and cumulative'. From a practice-epigenetic viewpoint, intervening may also involve targeting new, or to date unrecognised material elements, such as genes, cells and molecules implicated in epigenetic modifications. 10. Source: How temporal orientations trigger, nurture and sustain deep engagement with consumption practices (#UGBANU), Benjamin Rosenthal, p. 14 Context: #4D6GKT How temporal orientations trigger, nurture and sustain deep engagement with consumption practices #V8KPL2 Discussion Matching excerpt #AHVXB4: The enmeshment of these three temporal orientations affects the formation of deep engagement with practices but I suggest – and support this assertion with the fact that not all interviewees manifested the rupture with the past as a motivation for practice adoption – that the transformative orientation is not a necessary condition for one to become deeply engaged. For instance, one can become deeply engaged with yoga (Kuuru, 2022), cosplay (Seregin and Weijo, 2017) and house decor (Arsel and Bean, 2013) without having negative affectivities and goals of change against one's past. Nevertheless, when one has strong reasons (affectivities and goals) to change one's route and adopts a practice as a path for change, the contrast between the past and the present constitutes an important driver of deep engagement. Also, I suggest that the maintenance orientation should be considered an important element in the formation of deep engagement for many practices. For one to become deeply engaged, a constant present orientation (a 'focus') is needed to nurture the recurrent performance in the quotidian, not only for sports practices but also for other types of practices – that is, hobbies (Arsel and Bean, 2013; Beverland et al., 2024; Seregin and Weijo, 2017). Finally, I suggest that the envisioned-future orientation is an important (but not necessary) element in the formation of deep engagement with practices. Although all the cases in the dataset manifested an envisioned-future orientation, this may be due to the relationship between sports practices and Approximate matches 1. Source: The Habits of Consumption: Introduction (#72GVQ9), Alan Warde, Dale Southerton, p. 9 Context: #FVQG84 Introduction #9MNUCP Consumption in practice Score: 0.68 Related excerpt #MWEVCT: for the purpose of analysing consumption while attributing minor significance to consumer choice. Types and levels of consumption tend to be determined socially and collectively. Practice-theoretical accounts propose that consumption is less a matter of individual personal display or expression of self-identity, and more a corollary of the conventions associated with specific, socially-organized practices felt to be necessary to live a good life. Consumption is more a matter of the use of goods and services than of purchase. Participation in a practice means the requisitioning of familiar items and their regular application to well understood activities. Practice theories thus emphasise habits and routines, based on conventionally shared understandings about appropriate conduct, paying attention to both 'sayings' and 'doings' (Schatzki 1996). In some versions (e.g. Warde 2005), the theory of practice sees consumption as explained by the necessity for people to become competent exponents of the many practices which each necessarily embraces in the course of everyday life and for which particular services and goods are mandatory. Performances, to be recognised as competent, for example in the fields of dress, interior design, motoring, or listening to music, find their orientation in collectively accredited and locally situated conventions associated with specific practices. Hence, behaviour change targeted at influencing individual choice at the point of purchase is unlikely to be sufficient to remedy unsustainable practices. 2. Source: Theories of Practice and Sustainable Consumption (#KWZ2A4), Alan Warde, Daniel Welch, p. 3 Context: #STMANK Theories of Practice and Sustainable Consumption #6U6DVD 5.1 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THEORIES OF PRACTICE Score: 0.67 Related excerpt #HM3LXK: the field of consumption (e.g. Halkier et al. 2011; Røpke 2009). Perhaps the central contribution of the paper is to reconceptualize consumption as 'not itself a practice but ... rather, a moment in almost every practice' (Warde 2005, p. 137). Thus for Warde, whilst there are practices in which people may understand their behaviour as 'consuming', such as shopping, these are by far the exception amongst practices in which consumption is a moment. The figure of 'the consumer' is decentred from accounts of consumption as 'wants are fulfilled only in practice, their satisfaction attributable to effective practical performances' (Warde 2005, p. 142): 3. Source: Consumption and Practice (#QRRZP2), Benjamin Julien Hartmann, p. 20 Context: #LSJS5V I. Introduction #R9MPHV 1.2 Problematizing Consumption #32NPCZ 1.2.1 Consumption in relation to practice #MRS3X3 1. Introduction Score: 0.688 Related excerpt #2XCFPS: More recent thinking on consumption and practice suggests that consumption is "a moment in almost any practice" (Warde 2005, 137). Drawing on practice theorists Schatzki (1996, 2001) and Reckwitz (2002), Warde (2005) asserts that consumption 'occurs' alongside practices. 3 Warde (2005) situates consumption within practices and suggests that consumption takes place as moments within them. Thus, consumption is not a practice by itself, but rather transpires within practices. His argument develops along the following lines. 4. Source: Consumption and Practice (#QRRZP2), Benjamin Julien Hartmann, p. 52 Context: #F4KA5L 2. Theoretical perspectives #ASYK8A 2.2 A Practice-theoretical Approach to Consumption #F8J2JD 2.2.2 Tenets of practice-theoretical ontology #4RNZSW The conceptual crisis of the consumer #XU2H85 2. Theoretical perspectives Score: 0.661 Related excerpt #UMBNYZ: sense to label those who engage in some form of consumption as consumers. But—and this is the point that Warde (2005) emphasizes—the consumer as a level of analysis to understand consumption fades into the background in a practice-theoretical approach. Consumption is an element in many practices—not an element within individuals. Consumption takes place in the course of performing practices. It is the practice that consumes; and individuals become carriers of this consumption, because they are carriers of practices. This means that eventually, consumption belongs more to the practice than to the individual performing the practice. This is because practice theory treats the social agent, here ‘the consumer’, never purely as the sole subject of the practices the agent conducts (see Schatzki 2001a; 2002; Schatzki 2005). Consumption emerges as it is accomplished in and through practices. Thus, consumption can be seen as a method for achieving the performance of practice, as indicated in the idea that consumption takes place for the sake of practices (Warde 2005). 5. Source: Consumption and Practice (#QRRZP2), Benjamin Julien Hartmann, p. 21 Context: #LSJS5V I. Introduction #R9MPHV 1.2 Problematizing Consumption #32NPCZ 1.2.1 Consumption in relation to practice #MRS3X3 1. Introduction Score: 0.651 Related excerpt #JKZR95: this view of consumption as a moment carries connotations of consumption as depletion, using up, and destruction of resources, he portrays at the same time the function that moments of consumption have in relation to practice. Second, he asserts that consumption takes place and is not governed and steered by the practice, adding that consumption takes place not only within, but crucially, for the sake of practices. 6. Source: Consumption and Practice (#QRRZP2), Benjamin Julien Hartmann, p. 99 Context: #QGJ7DX 4. Findings and Discussion #ZAHQPV 4.1 Unfolding Consumption as Practice Moments #U7N37J 4.1.3 Consumption as momentum Score: 0.651 Related excerpt #D987EX: The above conceptualization of consumption as an ingredient in practices resonates with previous conceptions of consumption in relation to practices. In addition, my findings suggest that consumption can be understood also as a moment in terms of providing momentum. As Warde (2005) points out, consumptive moments take place for the sake of practice performances. However, with this notion Warde (2005) refers more to the procedural necessity of using some consumption object in the course of practice performance. The following considerations, however, foreground the way in which this consumption matters for the sake of practice performances, exceeding the notion of consumption as merely a procedural ingredient. 7. Source: Consumption and Theories of Practice (#RZ8QTE), Alan Warde, p. 6 Context: #XRLTMB Consumption and Theories of Practice #QPZWT7 IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ANALYSIS OF CONSUMPTION #MWSLFL Consumption and practices Score: 0.689 Related excerpt #VZEBCR: In this view, consumption is not itself a practice but is, rather, a moment in almost every practice . 6 Appropriation occurs within practices: cars are worn out and petrol is burned in the process of motoring. Items appropriated and the manner of their deployment are governed by the conventions of the practice; touring, commuting and off-road sports are forms of motoring following different scripts for performers and functions for vehicles. The patterns of similarity and difference in possessions and use within and between groups of people, often demonstrated by studies of consumption, may thus be seen as the corollary of the way the practice is organized, rather than as the outcome of personal choice, whether unconstrained or bounded. The conventions and the standards of the practice steer behaviour. This is consistent with Alfred Marshall's claim (see Swann, 2002: 30) that activity generates wants, rather than vice versa. Practices, rather than individual desires, we might say, create wants. For example, the paraphernalia of the hot rod enthusiast – modified vehicles, manuals and magazines, memorabilia, 'records of auto-racing sounds', etc. (Moorhouse, 1991: 82) – are more directly the consequence of engagement in the 8. Source: Consumption and Theories of Practice (#RZ8QTE), Alan Warde, p. 14 Context: #XRLTMB Consumption and Theories of Practice #TFHBDN CONCLUSIONS Score: 0.674 Related excerpt #P7RZ4V: To sum up, from the point of view of a theory of practice, consumption occurs within and for the sake of practices. Items consumed are put to use in the course of engaging in particular practices like motoring and being a competent practitioner requires appropriate consumption of goods and services. The practice, so to speak, requires that competent practitioners will avail themselves of the requisite services, possess and command the capability to manipulate the appropriate tools, and devote a suitable level of attention to the conduct of the practice. This is, of course, in addition to exhibiting common understanding, know-how, and commitment to the value of the practice. Such a view is consistent with an approach to 9. Source: Consumption and Theories of Practice (#RZ8QTE), Alan Warde, p. 0 Context: #XRLTMB Consumption and Theories of Practice #WLBNB4 Key words Score: 0.666 Related excerpt #RCFKBG: consumption • practices • social differentiation • theories of practice 10. Source: The Assembling of Circular Consumption: A sociomaterial practice approach (#Y3CFPX), Christian Fuentes, Elina Närvänen, Nina Mesiranta, p. 2 Context: #QQDSF8 Practice theory in the field of consumption Score: 0.694 Related excerpt #FT2E3J: Central to the practice theory approach to consumption is the assertion that “consumption is not itself a practice but is, rather, a moment in almost every practice” (Warde, 2005, p. 137). Warde defined consumption as “a process whereby agents engage in appropriation and appreciation, ### 10. Assistant tool calls #### Tool call: `read` ```json { "blocks": [ "VZEBCR", "P7RZ4V" ] } ``` #### Tool call: `read` ```json { "blocks": [ "HM3LXK", "FT2E3J" ] } ``` #### Tool call: `read` ```json { "blocks": [ "2XCFPS", "UMBNYZ", "79WK5B" ] } ``` ### 11. Tool result: read PAPER EXCERPT #VZEBCR Document: #RZ8QTE Consumption and Theories of Practice Context: #RZ8QTE Consumption and Theories of Practice #XRLTMB Consumption and Theories of Practice #QPZWT7 IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ANALYSIS OF CONSUMPTION #MWSLFL Consumption and practices #VZEBCR excerpt In this view, consumption is not itself a practice but is, rather, a moment in almost every practice . 6 Appropriation occurs within practices: cars are worn out and petrol is burned in the process of motoring. Items appropriated and the manner of their deployment are governed by the conventions of the practice; touring, commuting and off-road sports are forms of motoring following different scripts for performers and functions for vehicles. The patterns of similarity and difference in possessions and use within and between groups of people, often demonstrated by studies of consumption, may thus be seen as the corollary of the way the practice is organized, rather than as the outcome of personal choice, whether unconstrained or bounded. The conventions and the standards of the practice steer behaviour. This is consistent with Alfred Marshall's claim (see Swann, 2002: 30) that activity generates wants, rather than vice versa. Practices, rather than individual desires, we might say, create wants. For example, the paraphernalia of the hot rod enthusiast – modified vehicles, manuals and magazines, memorabilia, 'records of auto-racing sounds', etc. (Moorhouse, 1991: 82) – are more directly the consequence of engagement in the PAPER EXCERPT #P7RZ4V Document: #RZ8QTE Consumption and Theories of Practice Context: #RZ8QTE Consumption and Theories of Practice #XRLTMB Consumption and Theories of Practice #TFHBDN CONCLUSIONS #P7RZ4V excerpt To sum up, from the point of view of a theory of practice, consumption occurs within and for the sake of practices. Items consumed are put to use in the course of engaging in particular practices like motoring and being a competent practitioner requires appropriate consumption of goods and services. The practice, so to speak, requires that competent practitioners will avail themselves of the requisite services, possess and command the capability to manipulate the appropriate tools, and devote a suitable level of attention to the conduct of the practice. This is, of course, in addition to exhibiting common understanding, know-how, and commitment to the value of the practice. Such a view is consistent with an approach to ### 12. Tool result: read PAPER EXCERPT #HM3LXK Document: #KWZ2A4 Theories of Practice and Sustainable Consumption Context: #KWZ2A4 Theories of Practice and Sustainable Consumption #STMANK Theories of Practice and Sustainable Consumption #6U6DVD 5.1 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THEORIES OF PRACTICE #HM3LXK excerpt the field of consumption (e.g. Halkier et al. 2011; Røpke 2009). Perhaps the central contribution of the paper is to reconceptualize consumption as 'not itself a practice but ... rather, a moment in almost every practice' (Warde 2005, p. 137). Thus for Warde, whilst there are practices in which people may understand their behaviour as 'consuming', such as shopping, these are by far the exception amongst practices in which consumption is a moment. The figure of 'the consumer' is decentred from accounts of consumption as 'wants are fulfilled only in practice, their satisfaction attributable to effective practical performances' (Warde 2005, p. 142): PAPER EXCERPT #FT2E3J Document: #Y3CFPX The Assembling of Circular Consumption: A sociomaterial practice approach Context: #Y3CFPX The Assembling of Circular Consumption: A sociomaterial practice approach #QQDSF8 Practice theory in the field of consumption #FT2E3J excerpt Central to the practice theory approach to consumption is the assertion that “consumption is not itself a practice but is, rather, a moment in almost every practice” (Warde, 2005, p. 137). Warde defined consumption as “a process whereby agents engage in appropriation and appreciation, ### 13. Tool result: read PAPER EXCERPT #2XCFPS Document: #QRRZP2 Consumption and Practice Context: #QRRZP2 Consumption and Practice #LSJS5V I. Introduction #R9MPHV 1.2 Problematizing Consumption #32NPCZ 1.2.1 Consumption in relation to practice #MRS3X3 1. Introduction #2XCFPS excerpt More recent thinking on consumption and practice suggests that consumption is "a moment in almost any practice" (Warde 2005, 137). Drawing on practice theorists Schatzki (1996, 2001) and Reckwitz (2002), Warde (2005) asserts that consumption 'occurs' alongside practices. 3 Warde (2005) situates consumption within practices and suggests that consumption takes place as moments within them. Thus, consumption is not a practice by itself, but rather transpires within practices. His argument develops along the following lines. PAPER EXCERPT #UMBNYZ Document: #QRRZP2 Consumption and Practice Context: #QRRZP2 Consumption and Practice #F4KA5L 2. Theoretical perspectives #ASYK8A 2.2 A Practice-theoretical Approach to Consumption #F8J2JD 2.2.2 Tenets of practice-theoretical ontology #4RNZSW The conceptual crisis of the consumer #XU2H85 2. Theoretical perspectives #UMBNYZ excerpt sense to label those who engage in some form of consumption as consumers. But—and this is the point that Warde (2005) emphasizes—the consumer as a level of analysis to understand consumption fades into the background in a practice-theoretical approach. Consumption is an element in many practices—not an element within individuals. Consumption takes place in the course of performing practices. It is the practice that consumes; and individuals become carriers of this consumption, because they are carriers of practices. This means that eventually, consumption belongs more to the practice than to the individual performing the practice. This is because practice theory treats the social agent, here ‘the consumer’, never purely as the sole subject of the practices the agent conducts (see Schatzki 2001a; 2002; Schatzki 2005). Consumption emerges as it is accomplished in and through practices. Thus, consumption can be seen as a method for achieving the performance of practice, as indicated in the idea that consumption takes place for the sake of practices (Warde 2005). PAPER EXCERPT #79WK5B Document: #QRRZP2 Consumption and Practice Context: #QRRZP2 Consumption and Practice #LSJS5V I. Introduction #R9MPHV 1.2 Problematizing Consumption #32NPCZ 1.2.1 Consumption in relation to practice #MRS3X3 1. Introduction #79WK5B excerpt Warde's point of view resonates with research that demonstrate how consumption objects are utilized in and for the conduct of a specific practice (Magaudda 2011; Reckwitz 2002; Schatzki 2001; 2002; Shove and Pantzar 2005; Whittington et al., 2006; Watson and Shove 2008). This means not only that the practice requires and necessitates consumption, but also that individuals engage in moments of consumption required by the practice. Consumption in this view becomes an element of practice. This can be illustrated by Shove and Chappells' (2001) study showing how water and electricity is typically consumed in the course of the routines of daily practices; and Watson and Shove (2008) demonstrating how screws, nails, and tools are consumed in the course of DIY practices. Tools, raw materials, water, and electricity are not consumed for their own sake, but their consumption is steered by routine activities of everyday life or specific practices. In other words, engaging in a certain practice necessitates the consumption of certain objects. Thus, the needs for these objects are less 'consumer needs' than practice needs (Warde 2005). In Watson and Shove's (2008) reading of Warde (2005), consumption thus is an outcome of practice. ### 14. Assistant Yes — that idea is **Alan Warde (2005), “Consumption and Theories of Practice.”** The key line is: > “Consumption is not itself a practice but is, rather, a moment in almost every practice” (Warde 2005, p. 137, #VZEBCR). Warde’s point is that goods are not consumed because isolated “consumers” have wants; rather, things are appropriated, used up, appreciated, worn out, displayed, maintained, etc. **within the performance of practices**. He says that “practices, rather than individual desires… create wants” (#VZEBCR), and in the conclusion that “consumption occurs within and for the sake of practices” (#P7RZ4V). Welch and Warde restate this as the central contribution: consumption is “not itself a practice but… a moment in almost every practice,” which decentres “the consumer” (#HM3LXK). Hartmann says it even more directly: “Consumption is an element in many practices — not an element within individuals”; “it is the practice that consumes” (#UMBNYZ). And Fuentes et al. use this same Warde line in relation to circular consumption (#FT2E3J), so it is very relevant for Brīvbode. For your chapter, the implication is strong: > **“Freecycling” or “swapshopping” should not automatically be treated as one practice, just as “consumption” is not treated as one practice. Brīvbode is better analysed as a site where moments of acquisition, divestment, assessment, display, repair, reuse, disposal and appreciation are folded into several different practices.** So the question becomes: **for the sake of which practices do people acquire/divest things through Brīvbode?** Possible practices mingling at Brīvbode: 1. **Domestic divestment / household material management** Clearing wardrobes, managing small homes, dealing with inherited belongings, making space, relieving guilt. This is already clear in #5XUPCJ, #7Y7J2Z, #V83RLN. Brīvbode is one route within these practices. 2. **Wardrobe management / self-presentation / dressing** People take clothing not simply because they are “consuming,” but for dressing, experimenting with style, looking dignified, trying identities, managing body fit, performing festivity. See #54GE84, #NMQ6KB, #N2JHPC. 3. **Craft, repair, and material repurposing** Madara does not “consume” a mosquito net as a consumer good; she appropriates it as material for embroidery/craft (#D4H3PB). This is very Wardean: the object is needed by the practice. 4. **Volunteering / sorting / curating / maintaining the site** Volunteers consume time, space, attention, storage, judgement — not as “consumers” but as carriers of the practice of keeping Brīvbode workable. Sorting, display, refusing, redirecting are practices in their own right (#SY53PH, #BZ6FJC, #76T3WR). 5. **Social visiting / neighbourhood routine** For some regulars, Brīvbode is partly a place to go, a rhythm in the week, a site of familiar faces (#CL5CS8). Acquisition may happen inside a social practice rather than being the primary practice. 6. **Resale / informal market practice** Resellers are not just “bad freecyclers”; they bring market practice into the site. Brīvbode’s objects become inputs into another circulation system (#7FPBUS, #QKY57B, #ERMRTL). 7. **Waste management / overflow management** Textile containers, charity storage, rejecting medicine, discarding unusable items — these are not outside Brīvbode but part of how the nexus is kept from collapsing into piles of stuff (#WW8YUW, #2TPNCM, #7CR75E). 8. **Sufficiency / restraint / attachment-work** Not taking, bringing back, learning to detach, making peace with what one has — these are also practices, or at least practice-modifications, that Brīvbode enables (#7397K7, #9XUDV9, #LG8X4N, #8VF9D7). A possible sentence for the chapter/theory bridge: > Following Warde’s argument that consumption is “not itself a practice but… a moment in almost every practice” (2005: 137, #VZEBCR), I do not treat free acquisition at Brīvbode as a single practice of “swapshopping.” Instead, I ask what practices acquisition and divestment become moments of: household clearing, wardrobe management, dressing, crafting, volunteering, social visiting, resale, repair, disposal, and sufficiency work. Brīvbode’s circularity emerges from the coordination of these practices rather than from one coherent practice shared by all participants. Or shorter, for #PL9BXR / #SJE87E logic: > If consumption occurs within and for the sake of practices (Warde 2005, #P7RZ4V), then Brīvbode should be analysed not as a practice of consumption but as a nexus where multiple practices make use of the same material arrangement. This also helps with the singular/plural revision: “freecycling” can stay as a loose emic/institutional label, but analytically the chapter can say: **what looks like one practice from the outside is actually a coordination device for many practices.** ### 15. User now i'm wondering if it would actually be relatively straightforward to reframe the whole chapter 4 as being an analysis of a diverse set of practices that operate in brivbode and how in fact perhaps elements "circulate" between these practices themselves, brivbode as a site where diverse things meet and likewise also diverse practices... ### 16. Assistant tool calls #### Tool call: `search_text` ```json { "limit": 8, "query": "elements circulate between practices meanings materials competences migrate travel between practices Shove Pantzar Watson" } ``` ### 17. Tool result: search_text Exact matches 1. Source: The Dynamics of Social Practice (#5AXAEJ), Elizabeth Shove, Matt Watson, Mika Pantzar, p. 137 Context: #GUVB7V REPRESENTING THE DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL PRACTICE #Q8XDZB REPRESENTING ELEMENTS AND PRACTICES #2A3N85 CHARACTERIZING CIRCULATION Matching excerpt #TA88QJ: artefacts 'script' bodily performance and the types of competence required to produce configurations that work (Akrich, 1992). This is much the same as saying that objects act as vectors or carriers of other elements of practice. Since practices-as-performances are culturally and historically situated, elements are unlikely to be integrated in identical fashion in every setting (Shove and Pantzar, 2005). Even so, we have argued that it is useful to think about how elements travel and to consider the implications and consequences of these trajectories for the chances that relevant sets of meanings, materials and competences might coincide (such that practices might be reproduced), and for how these elements are distributed (and thus for who might qualify as an actual or potential practitioner). 2. Source: The Dynamics of Social Practice (#5AXAEJ), Elizabeth Shove, Matt Watson, Mika Pantzar, p. 57 Context: #XG9NDT THE LIFE OF ELEMENTS Matching excerpt #TVDX4P: In Chapter 2 we argued that practices like driving develop as links between defining elements are made and broken. In so far as this is true, the potential for practices to spread and take hold depends, at least in part, on the ready availability of requisite elements. If we are to understand how practices are distributed within and between societies, we need to think about how materials, meanings and forms of competence circulate and persist. This requires a shift of emphasis. Whereas Chapter 2 concentrated on connections between elements, this chapter discusses what one might think of as generic features or ‘elemental’ characteristics. In proceeding as if these could be somehow separated out, and in suggesting that materials, meanings and competences travel and endure in distinctly different ways, we seem to go against the grain of the previous chapter, in which we made much of the point that elements constitute each other and change through processes of integration . This is no accident. By moving between analytic frames, some chapters prioritizing links and connections, others concentrating on elements, practitioners or forms of feedback, we examine the dynamics of practice from different angles. At the same time, we try to keep sight of the interdependencies involved. 3. Source: Practice theory approach to Gen Z's sustainable clothing consumption in Finland (#86EHHS), Olga Gurova, p. 3 Context: #Q9Y7AV Practice theory approach to Gen Z's sustainable clothing consumption in Finland #2SQ58Y Theoretical approach: following sustainable fashion as an integrative practice Matching excerpt #XL67W8: Practice theory focuses on actions per se . Practice theory is another powerful theoretical framework widely applied, also in consumption studies (Schatzki, 1996; Reckwitz, 2002; Shove and Pantzar, 2005; Shove et al. , 2012; Warde, 2005). Reckwitz (2002, pp. 249) defines practices as a "routinized type of behavior"; as a block or pattern that consists of interdependencies between diverse elements including "forms of bodily activities, forms of mental activities, "things" and their use, a background knowledge in the form of understanding, know-how, states of emotion and motivational knowledge" (Shove et al. , 2012, pp. 6–7). Shove et al. (2012) suggest a scheme based on three main elements of practices: materials, meanings and competences. Materials encompass objects, infrastructure, tools, hardware and the body itself (Shove et al. , 2012, p. 23). For this research, among the most important part of the materials is, for instance, the availability of infrastructure for thrifting and recycling or tools for repairing and upcycling clothing. Meanings is a term that represents the social and symbolic significance of participation in practices (Shove et al. , 2012, p. 23). For this study, this means justifications that young consumers give for why and how they follow clothing consumption practices. Competences are multiple forms of understanding and practical knowledgeability (Shove et al. , 2012, p. 23). Competencies would mean knowledge and awareness about sustainable fashion. When the elements combine, the practice is born or, in terms of practice theory, the practice recruits a practitioner. Then, the practices are reproduced in everyday life. A practice can fall apart if a needed element or a link between the elements are missing. 4. Source: Sustainable Consumption and Practice Theories: Connecting Elements of Clothing Sharing (#EPZXEW), Marcia de Freitas Duarte, Minelle E. Silva, Márcia R. Cavalcante Costa, p. 10 Context: #MZZYT2 5. FINDINGS Matching excerpt #8Q3AAD: Even if the focus of the research is the consumer, called a practitioner of the practice theories (Shove & Pantzar, 2005), the analysis of the practice has to submit to the context, involving the practices, the providers, and practitioners, and how the practices are carried out (Jarzabkowski et al., 2015). Through the context, it is possible to identify the three elements that make up the practice located (Shove et al., 2012): materials (objects, tools and infrastructure), competences (embedded knowledge and skills) and meanings (cultural conventions, expectations, and socially shared meanings) (Shove et al., 2012; Spurling et al., 2013). 5. Source: Food practices as part of daily routines: A conceptual framework for analysing networks of practices (#N5VYH8), Aricia F.M. Castelo, Martina Schäfer, Minelle E. Silva, p. 1 Context: #PXPU7G Food practices as part of daily routines: A conceptual framework for analysing networks of practices #ZPYNHS 2. Social practice theory: 'zooming in and out' as the lens of social analysis Matching excerpt #KKPJNS: Elements of practices represent the basic link within and between practices as entities, and it is through the association and combinations of a variety of elements and repeated performances that practice entities evolve over time (Shove et al., 2015; Shove & Pantzar, 2007; Warde, 2005). Although the SPT identifies no single typology to refer to the elements that compose practices, theorists have applied a variety of terms to such classifications. For Schatzki (2002), these elements encompass practical understanding, rules and teleaffective structures. Warde (2005) used the terms understandings, procedures, engagements and items of consumption, while Shove and Pantzar (2005) referred to competences (skills), meanings/conventions (images) and products/material artefacts (stuff). Other slightly different typologies of practice elements exist as well (cf. Gram-Hanssen, 2011; Reckwitz, 6. Source: The Nexus of Practices: Connections, Constellations and Practitioners (#R49AUC), Allison Hui, Elizabeth Shove, Theodore Schatzki, p. 75 Context: #9ZA2Z7 VARIATION AND THE INTERSECTION OF PRACTICES #C4CY9W Variation within practices #5EQ45L Variation in terms of groups and categories Matching excerpt #JJZS62: While the bodies of practitioners and materiality of objects function as tangible points of intersection between practices, there is also a range of more ambiguously tangible things that can be similarly positioned. For Shove, Pantzar and Watson, meanings exist alongside materials as elements of practices that are shared and therefore 'zones of overlap and intersection' (2012: 113). Likewise, Schatzki discusses how components such as rules can apply to multiple practices (2002: 87). The diverse traces left by meanings, rules, concepts or categories can be difficult to follow as they weave through the nexus of practices. In order to focus this final subsection, 7. Source: The Nexus of Practices: Connections, Constellations and Practitioners (#R49AUC), Allison Hui, Elizabeth Shove, Theodore Schatzki, p. 184 Context: #HWFWXX PLACING POWER IN PRACTICE THEORY #FYWPPS Is practice theory all about power? Matching excerpt #67PFWA: Among the ways in which the shaping of individual action is conceptualised, rules are easiest to grasp. Particularly in formalised or codified form, rules can look like means of exercising power in a conventional sense: after all, laws are prime examples of codified rules. Indeed, for Schatzki, rules 'are formulations interjected into social life for the purpose of orienting and determining the course of activity, typically by those with the authority to enforce them' (2010b: 79). However, rules as apparent means of power are situated amidst a great range of other ways in which action is constituted and influenced. In Reckwitz's (2002b) 'ideal type' practice theory, it is the conventionalised assembly of the diverse elements and their interconnections which constitute the pattern reproduced in the performance of a practice and in the action of individual practitioners. The routes through which power might be considered to be exercised are still more obscure in Shove, Pantzar and Watson's model of practices as composed by the relations between meanings, competences and materials, even if rules and other means of normativity run through accounts of how practitioners integrate these elements in moments of performance (2012). This model has provided the basis for attempts to reconceptualise possible targets for intervention (Shove et al. , 2012: 152–63), but it has little to say about the means through which power operates. 8. Source: The Nexus of Practices: Connections, Constellations and Practitioners (#R49AUC), Allison Hui, Elizabeth Shove, Theodore Schatzki, p. 95 Context: #8UPZTD TECHNOLOGIES WITHIN AND BEYOND PRACTICES #7Y5ZUN Materials as elements of practice and beyond Matching excerpt #XV42EH: Drawing on this general idea, Shove, Pantzar and Watson identify three broad kinds of elements (material, competence and meaning), which constitute practices when actively integrated by practitioners (Shove and Pantzar, 2005a; Watson and Shove, 2008; Pantzar and Shove, 2010b; culminating in Shove et al. , 2012). These elements define the practice as an entity distinct from other activities, act as a set of 'resources' that organise the practice and are themselves constituted through instances of engagement in the practice (performances). Through this recursive interplay, practices come into being as links between elements are established through performances, evolve as new elements and/or new interlinkages are (per)formed and disappear as links are broken. That is, practices change as the elements of which they are composed change or as relations between these elements are reconfigured. Approximate matches 1. Source: The Dynamics of Social Practice (#5AXAEJ), Elizabeth Shove, Matt Watson, Mika Pantzar, p. 53 Context: #W6VMCW MAKING AND BREAKING LINKS #QM4X2J STANDARDIZATION AND DIVERSITY Score: 0.746 Related excerpt #PU3SNX: This distinction between elements – which can and do travel – and practices, viewed as necessarily localized, necessarily situated instances of integration (which do not travel) is useful in making sense of the roles consumers, producers and governments play in the reproduction and diffusion of different ways of life (Shove and Pantzar, 2005: 62). We return to this topic in Chapter 8, ‘Promoting transitions in practice’, but for the time being, it is enough to notice that institutions involved in developing or circulating the elements of which practices are made rarely control the manner in which they are combined. 2. Source: The Dynamics of Social Practice (#5AXAEJ), Elizabeth Shove, Matt Watson, Mika Pantzar, p. 58 Context: #XG9NDT THE LIFE OF ELEMENTS Score: 0.74 Related excerpt #PWJ5NB: This is a tricky course to steer, but as mentioned in Chapter 2, elements do seem to travel in ways that practices do not. As structured and situated arrangements, practices are always in the process of formation, re-formation and de-formation. By contrast, elements are comparatively stable and are, as such, capable of circulating between places and enduring over time. We are consequently surrounded by things that have outlived the practices of which they were once a vital part (Shove and Pantzar, 2006). Abandoned biscuit presses, outdated computer equipment and tools for tasks no longer undertaken are obvious examples, but understandings, meanings and types of expertise are also discarded as practices evolve. Changing systems of provision have clearly undermined the importance of knowing how to darn socks, maintain a car or bake fancy biscuits at home. But as some of these examples demonstrate, seemingly defunct skills are occasionally resurrected: in some circles baking is a newly popular thing to do. At the same time, the meaning of home baking as a daily duty has probably changed for good. As hinted at here and discussed in greater detail at the end of this chapter, elements seem to 'last' in different ways. 3. Source: Theories of Practice and Sustainable Consumption (#KWZ2A4), Alan Warde, Daniel Welch, p. 9 Context: #STMANK Theories of Practice and Sustainable Consumption #6U6DVD 5.1 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THEORIES OF PRACTICE #UQZN9F 5.4 AGENCY, CHANGE AND CONVERGENCE Score: 0.706 Related excerpt #YFRLU6: Any brief summary of the field would be incomplete without acknowledging the important recent book by Shove, Pantzar and Watson, The Dynamics of Social Practice (Shove et al. 2012), which is both an important general contribution to the application of practice theory and explicitly orientated to promoting transitions in practice. It presents an avowedly 'radically simplified' account of practice theory, the better to elucidate complex dynamics. Central to this project is to model practices as composed as three generic elements: meaning, competence and material. It stresses the relative independence of the trajectories of these elements of practices from practices themselves. Practices come into being and are transformed through the circulation and recombination of elements. Shove et al. (2012) elaborate Giddens's (1984) notion of the 'reproduction circuit' or feedback between the self-monitoring of actors and social structure. 'Circuits of reproduction' include: the reproduction of practice through the integration of elements; cross-practice configurations of elements that affect the former; and inter-practice circuits (Shove et al. 2012, p. 114). 4. Source: Food practices as part of daily routines: A conceptual framework for analysing networks of practices (#N5VYH8), Aricia F.M. Castelo, Martina Schäfer, Minelle E. Silva, p. 4 Context: #PXPU7G Food practices as part of daily routines: A conceptual framework for analysing networks of practices #F2UNMP 3. Dimensions and perspectives of a network of practice analysis #JFF3NY 3.6. Tracing complexes of practices Score: 0.698 Related excerpt #DKHK6A: These practices can encompass common constitutive elements, such as materials, meanings and competencies (Shove et al., 2012). Therefore, the elements can be shared across practices when the meaning of being healthy, for example, becomes part of practices like shopping, 5. Source: The Nexus of Practices: Connections, Constellations and Practitioners (#R49AUC), Allison Hui, Elizabeth Shove, Theodore Schatzki, p. 95 Context: #8UPZTD TECHNOLOGIES WITHIN AND BEYOND PRACTICES #7Y5ZUN Materials as elements of practice and beyond Score: 0.73 Related excerpt #XV42EH: Drawing on this general idea, Shove, Pantzar and Watson identify three broad kinds of elements (material, competence and meaning), which constitute practices when actively integrated by practitioners (Shove and Pantzar, 2005a; Watson and Shove, 2008; Pantzar and Shove, 2010b; culminating in Shove et al. , 2012). These elements define the practice as an entity distinct from other activities, act as a set of 'resources' that organise the practice and are themselves constituted through instances of engagement in the practice (performances). Through this recursive interplay, practices come into being as links between elements are established through performances, evolve as new elements and/or new interlinkages are (per)formed and disappear as links are broken. That is, practices change as the elements of which they are composed change or as relations between these elements are reconfigured. 6. Source: The Nexus of Practices: Connections, Constellations and Practitioners (#R49AUC), Allison Hui, Elizabeth Shove, Theodore Schatzki, p. 96 Context: #8UPZTD TECHNOLOGIES WITHIN AND BEYOND PRACTICES #MENDJD Modulating human participation: when machines 'take over' Score: 0.713 Related excerpt #WUUQNP: For instance, Shove, Pantzar and Watson note that 'the contours of any one practice – where it is reproduced, how consistently, how long and on what scale – depend on changing populations of more and less faithful carriers or practitioners' (2012: 63, original emphasis). In other words, who undertakes a practice, and how, has implications for how that practice changes from within, through the creation and circulation of variety (thus the configurations of elements). In addition, if practices can be seen to colonise 'peoples' time and energy' (Shove et al. , 2012: 65) these are important 'resources' by which practices connect to each other, for example, through forms of competition and collaboration. In simple terms, time spent 'energising' one practice cannot be 7. Source: The Nexus of Practices: Connections, Constellations and Practitioners (#R49AUC), Allison Hui, Elizabeth Shove, Theodore Schatzki, p. 72 Context: #9ZA2Z7 VARIATION AND THE INTERSECTION OF PRACTICES #C4CY9W Variation within practices #8F6WU9 Variation in terms of practitioners or materials at the intersection of practices Score: 0.703 Related excerpt #DCEVRD: The material components of practices can be similarly understood as intersections between multiple practices. Elements of practices are 'a point of connection between them' – albeit not fixed and static points but ones more akin to 'zones of overlap and intersection' (Shove et al. , 2012: 113) or 'a form of connective tissue that holds complex social arrangements in place, and potentially pulls them apart' (Shove et al. , 2012: 36). While not using the concept of material 'elements', Schatzki highlights the ability of practices to 'overlap': 'a particular doing, for instance, might 8. Source: The Assembling of Circular Consumption: A sociomaterial practice approach (#Y3CFPX), Christian Fuentes, Elina Närvänen, Nina Mesiranta, p. 3 Context: #D6XSXA Theories of practice and the assembling of circular consumption Score: 0.725 Related excerpt #NAPLNK: However, accomplishing this typically involves the (re)assembling of the elements of practices. As is made clear from the definition presented previously, practices involve and interconnect several heterogeneous elements. For the sake of analytical clarity, this wide arrangement of possible elements is often summarised as meanings, competencies, and materialities (Shove & Pantzar, 2005; Shove et al., 2012). ### 18. Assistant tool calls #### Tool call: `read` ```json { "blocks": [ "TA88QJ", "TVDX4P", "PU3SNX", "YFRLU6" ] } ``` #### Tool call: `read` ```json { "blocks": [ "JJZS62", "DCEVRD", "XV42EH" ] } ``` ### 19. Tool result: read PAPER EXCERPT #TA88QJ Document: #5AXAEJ The Dynamics of Social Practice Context: #5AXAEJ The Dynamics of Social Practice #GUVB7V REPRESENTING THE DYNAMICS OF SOCIAL PRACTICE #Q8XDZB REPRESENTING ELEMENTS AND PRACTICES #2A3N85 CHARACTERIZING CIRCULATION #TA88QJ excerpt artefacts 'script' bodily performance and the types of competence required to produce configurations that work (Akrich, 1992). This is much the same as saying that objects act as vectors or carriers of other elements of practice. Since practices-as-performances are culturally and historically situated, elements are unlikely to be integrated in identical fashion in every setting (Shove and Pantzar, 2005). Even so, we have argued that it is useful to think about how elements travel and to consider the implications and consequences of these trajectories for the chances that relevant sets of meanings, materials and competences might coincide (such that practices might be reproduced), and for how these elements are distributed (and thus for who might qualify as an actual or potential practitioner). PAPER EXCERPT #TVDX4P Document: #5AXAEJ The Dynamics of Social Practice Context: #5AXAEJ The Dynamics of Social Practice #XG9NDT THE LIFE OF ELEMENTS #TVDX4P excerpt In Chapter 2 we argued that practices like driving develop as links between defining elements are made and broken. In so far as this is true, the potential for practices to spread and take hold depends, at least in part, on the ready availability of requisite elements. If we are to understand how practices are distributed within and between societies, we need to think about how materials, meanings and forms of competence circulate and persist. This requires a shift of emphasis. Whereas Chapter 2 concentrated on connections between elements, this chapter discusses what one might think of as generic features or ‘elemental’ characteristics. In proceeding as if these could be somehow separated out, and in suggesting that materials, meanings and competences travel and endure in distinctly different ways, we seem to go against the grain of the previous chapter, in which we made much of the point that elements constitute each other and change through processes of integration . This is no accident. By moving between analytic frames, some chapters prioritizing links and connections, others concentrating on elements, practitioners or forms of feedback, we examine the dynamics of practice from different angles. At the same time, we try to keep sight of the interdependencies involved. PAPER EXCERPT #PU3SNX Document: #5AXAEJ The Dynamics of Social Practice Context: #5AXAEJ The Dynamics of Social Practice #W6VMCW MAKING AND BREAKING LINKS #QM4X2J STANDARDIZATION AND DIVERSITY #PU3SNX excerpt This distinction between elements – which can and do travel – and practices, viewed as necessarily localized, necessarily situated instances of integration (which do not travel) is useful in making sense of the roles consumers, producers and governments play in the reproduction and diffusion of different ways of life (Shove and Pantzar, 2005: 62). We return to this topic in Chapter 8, ‘Promoting transitions in practice’, but for the time being, it is enough to notice that institutions involved in developing or circulating the elements of which practices are made rarely control the manner in which they are combined. PAPER EXCERPT #YFRLU6 Document: #KWZ2A4 Theories of Practice and Sustainable Consumption Context: #KWZ2A4 Theories of Practice and Sustainable Consumption #STMANK Theories of Practice and Sustainable Consumption #6U6DVD 5.1 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THEORIES OF PRACTICE #UQZN9F 5.4 AGENCY, CHANGE AND CONVERGENCE #YFRLU6 excerpt Any brief summary of the field would be incomplete without acknowledging the important recent book by Shove, Pantzar and Watson, The Dynamics of Social Practice (Shove et al. 2012), which is both an important general contribution to the application of practice theory and explicitly orientated to promoting transitions in practice. It presents an avowedly 'radically simplified' account of practice theory, the better to elucidate complex dynamics. Central to this project is to model practices as composed as three generic elements: meaning, competence and material. It stresses the relative independence of the trajectories of these elements of practices from practices themselves. Practices come into being and are transformed through the circulation and recombination of elements. Shove et al. (2012) elaborate Giddens's (1984) notion of the 'reproduction circuit' or feedback between the self-monitoring of actors and social structure. 'Circuits of reproduction' include: the reproduction of practice through the integration of elements; cross-practice configurations of elements that affect the former; and inter-practice circuits (Shove et al. 2012, p. 114). ### 20. Tool result: read PAPER EXCERPT #JJZS62 Document: #R49AUC The Nexus of Practices: Connections, Constellations and Practitioners Context: #R49AUC The Nexus of Practices: Connections, Constellations and Practitioners #9ZA2Z7 VARIATION AND THE INTERSECTION OF PRACTICES #C4CY9W Variation within practices #5EQ45L Variation in terms of groups and categories #JJZS62 excerpt While the bodies of practitioners and materiality of objects function as tangible points of intersection between practices, there is also a range of more ambiguously tangible things that can be similarly positioned. For Shove, Pantzar and Watson, meanings exist alongside materials as elements of practices that are shared and therefore 'zones of overlap and intersection' (2012: 113). Likewise, Schatzki discusses how components such as rules can apply to multiple practices (2002: 87). The diverse traces left by meanings, rules, concepts or categories can be difficult to follow as they weave through the nexus of practices. In order to focus this final subsection, PAPER EXCERPT #DCEVRD Document: #R49AUC The Nexus of Practices: Connections, Constellations and Practitioners Context: #R49AUC The Nexus of Practices: Connections, Constellations and Practitioners #9ZA2Z7 VARIATION AND THE INTERSECTION OF PRACTICES #C4CY9W Variation within practices #8F6WU9 Variation in terms of practitioners or materials at the intersection of practices #DCEVRD excerpt The material components of practices can be similarly understood as intersections between multiple practices. Elements of practices are 'a point of connection between them' – albeit not fixed and static points but ones more akin to 'zones of overlap and intersection' (Shove et al. , 2012: 113) or 'a form of connective tissue that holds complex social arrangements in place, and potentially pulls them apart' (Shove et al. , 2012: 36). While not using the concept of material 'elements', Schatzki highlights the ability of practices to 'overlap': 'a particular doing, for instance, might PAPER EXCERPT #XV42EH Document: #R49AUC The Nexus of Practices: Connections, Constellations and Practitioners Context: #R49AUC The Nexus of Practices: Connections, Constellations and Practitioners #8UPZTD TECHNOLOGIES WITHIN AND BEYOND PRACTICES #7Y5ZUN Materials as elements of practice and beyond #XV42EH excerpt Drawing on this general idea, Shove, Pantzar and Watson identify three broad kinds of elements (material, competence and meaning), which constitute practices when actively integrated by practitioners (Shove and Pantzar, 2005a; Watson and Shove, 2008; Pantzar and Shove, 2010b; culminating in Shove et al. , 2012). These elements define the practice as an entity distinct from other activities, act as a set of 'resources' that organise the practice and are themselves constituted through instances of engagement in the practice (performances). Through this recursive interplay, practices come into being as links between elements are established through performances, evolve as new elements and/or new interlinkages are (per)formed and disappear as links are broken. That is, practices change as the elements of which they are composed change or as relations between these elements are reconfigured. ### 21. Assistant Yes — I think this is not only workable, it may actually be the cleanest version of Chapter 4. The chapter already has the empirical material for it. The reframing would mainly make explicit that **Brīvbode is not one practice but a site where multiple practices and their elements are brought into proximity, recombined, and sometimes made to clash**. The theoretical support is good: - Warde: consumption is not a practice in itself but a “moment in almost every practice” (#VZEBCR). So acquisition/divestment at Brīvbode should be analysed by asking: *which practices are these moments part of?* - Shove, Pantzar and Watson: practices are made from meanings, materials and competences, and these elements can “travel” or circulate (#TVDX4P, #TA88QJ). Practices are transformed through the “circulation and recombination of elements” (#YFRLU6). - Hui/Shove/Schatzki: material objects and meanings can be “zones of overlap and intersection” between practices (#JJZS62), and elements are “connective tissue” between practices (#DCEVRD). So the argument could become: > **Chapter 4 analyses Brīvbode as a site of circulation in two senses: things circulate through the swapshop, but so do practice elements — meanings, competences, norms, material arrangements and imagined users. Brīvbode gathers together practices of household divestment, acquisition, sorting, styling, repair, craft, social visiting, resale, waste management, volunteering and sufficiency work. Its circularity emerges from the provisional coordination of these practices rather than from a single shared practice of “freecycling.”** This is elegant because it lets you keep the chapter title **“Keeping Things Moving”**, but deepen what “moving” means. ### The existing chapter sections can already fit this frame You probably don’t need to rebuild the chapter from scratch. More like: rename/revoice the sections so each one asks **which practices are being connected here?** #### 1. Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home This becomes about **household management practices feeding the site**. Things enter Brīvbode as outcomes of clearing wardrobes, managing small homes, dealing with inherited belongings, failed purchases, attachment work (#5XUPCJ). So the first movement is not “donation” but the transfer of objects from domestic ordering practices into Brīvbode. Possible framing sentence: > The incoming flow is generated outside Brīvbode, in practices of household management, decluttering, inheritance sorting, wardrobe maintenance and attachment work. Brīvbode becomes one route through which the material outcomes of these practices are redirected. #### 2. Where It Begins: The Site as Active Flow This becomes about **the site compressing practices into co-presence**. You already have the perfect sentence in #UGWEVE: the site makes “giving, sorting, assessing, taking, chatting, refusing, storing and discarding” happen in proximity. This is basically the chapter’s core claim. Brīvbode is not just where things meet. It is where **practices that are usually spatially and temporally separated are made simultaneous**. #### 3. Reading the Room This becomes about **competences circulating across practices**. Sorting competence, material literacy, social tact, knowing when to put things out, knowing when not to take, knowing what future practice an object might enter — these are not only Brīvbode-specific. They are shared with wardrobe management, second-hand shopping, repair, craft, domestic care, and volunteering. This connects beautifully to Shove et al.: competences travel, persist, and are recombined (#TVDX4P, #TA88QJ). #### 4. Not a Charity This becomes about **meanings and rules as contested connective tissue**. “Exchange,” “charity,” “waste disposal,” “resale,” “help,” “fairness,” “need” — these are meanings/rules that attach to different practices and collide in Brīvbode. Hui/Shove/Schatzki’s point that meanings and rules can apply to multiple practices is directly useful here (#JJZS62). So Rasa’s “not a charity” work is not just defining “the practice.” It is an attempt to stabilise which meanings should govern the encounter among multiple practices. #### 5. Attachment Without Price This becomes about **Brīvbode altering links between acquisition, keeping, return and divestment**. This section can show how the absence of price changes not one practice but several linked practices: acquisition, trial, wardrobe experimentation, detachment, responsibility, restraint, return. The same object can move from “possible style experiment” to “future divestment burden” to “resource for someone else.” #### 6. What People Find Here This becomes about **acquisition as a moment in different practices**. This is very Wardean. People do not simply “consume” Brīvbode things. They acquire things for dressing, dignity, craft, self-presentation, experimentation, cross-dressing, gifting, repair, resale, household provisioning. The same act of taking can belong to different practices. #### 7. Quiet or Reflected Sustainability This becomes about **sustainability emerging from coordination, not shared meaning**. The strongest point here: if Brīvbode coordinates multiple practices, sustainability does not need to be the shared meaning that recruits everyone. You already have this in placeholder form in #ZCZQHX and conclusion form in #5U4GTQ. ### The most useful conceptual phrase I’d use something like: > **Brīvbode as a site of element circulation and practice intersection.** Or slightly less jargon-heavy: > **Brīvbode as a site where things, meanings, competences and practices circulate together.** The word “circulate” can do double work, but you should define it clearly once so it doesn’t become mystical academic fog-machine smoke. ### Possible revised chapter opening You could replace/expand #PL9BXR with something like: > This chapter examines Brīvbode as a site where multiple practices are brought into working relation through the circulation of things. Following Warde’s argument that consumption is “not itself a practice but… a moment in almost every practice” (2005: 137, #VZEBCR), I do not treat taking or giving in Brīvbode as a single practice of freecycling. Instead, I ask what practices these moments become part of: household divestment, wardrobe management, dressing, craft, repair, volunteering, sorting, social visiting, resale, waste management and sufficiency work. Drawing on Shove, Pantzar and Watson’s account of practices as composed of materials, meanings and competences, I also attend to how these elements travel and recombine (#TVDX4P, #YFRLU6). Brīvbode is therefore a site of circulation in two senses: things move through it, but so do the meanings, competences and norms that connect otherwise separate practices. And then #SJE87E could become: > Following the trajectory of things moving through Brīvbode, I begin with household practices that generate incoming flow. I then turn to the swapshop as an active material site where practices of giving, sorting, assessing, taking, chatting, refusing, storing and discarding are compressed into proximity. The chapter then examines the competencies and normative meanings through which this circulation is maintained, especially the boundary-work required to distinguish exchange from charity, waste disposal and resale. Finally, I consider how acquisition in Brīvbode is folded into plural practices of dignity, experimentation, craft, sociality, sufficiency and sustainability. Across the chapter, I argue that Brīvbode’s circularity is sustained not by a single shared practice, but by the situated coordination of partially compatible practices. ### The thesis payoff This reframing makes the chapter more theoretically coherent and more ethnographically accurate. It lets you say: > Brīvbode works because it does not require everyone to be doing the same thing. That is a strong anthropological argument. People can be decluttering, hunting, styling, helping, volunteering, socialising, reselling, avoiding waste, making art, seeking dignity, or just getting out of the house — and the site coordinates these enough for things to keep moving. The frictions are not failures of the practice; they are evidence that multiple practices are meeting.