I read Chapters 4–5 and the relevant theory/literature sections. Overall: the empirical material is strong, and the main issue is not lack of theory but sorting the theoretical jobs of the two chapters so they do not blur into each other.

Main structural recommendation

I would make the division very explicit:

• Chapter 4 = practice-theory chapter: how freecycling in Brīvbode is constituted through materials, meanings, competencies, performances, tensions. This is already announced well in #E3QN63 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / The circulation of things and things that sustain it #3X7JKL #E3QN63 This chapter examines freecycling practice and how it is constituted by its physical venue and the materials flowing through it, the meanings that recruit and retain participants and the competencies that order the exchange processes in Brīvbode. Throughout the chapter I move between analysis of freecycling as practice-entity and the level of individual performances of freecycling as performed, especially attending to moments of friction and tension where the two pull against each other. and #QZ8Q4K Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / The circulation of things and things that sustain it #3X7JKL #QZ8Q4K The chapter follows the trajectory of things moving through Brīvbode. It begins with the incoming flow: how and in what cases people divest from their households, how meanings shape what arrives, and how Brīvbode is positioned among other possible divestment routes. It turns to the site itself and the material and infrastructural elements that sustain the practice, and how overflow is managed, including competencies of handling norms on the site. From there it turns to the plurality of meanings sustaining acquisition: how participants experience Brīvbode as useful for acquisition and how the non-monetary context shapes the giving and taking. The chapter closes with a consideration of participant orientation towards freecycling as a sustainability practice. .

• Chapter 5 = consumption-work chapter: what this circulation costs in labour, time, valuation, care, modal redistribution, gendered household work. This is already clear in #AFFP4F Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / The Work of Circular Consumption #F2943E #AFFP4F In one conversation Brīvbode manager Rasa compared the operation of the swapshop to the flight of a bumblebee as it is often said to defy conventional laws of aerodynamics, yet somehow manages to fly in practice. The comparison foregrounds the felt fragility of the initiative, even though it has operated consistently for years now. The swaphsop is sustained collectively, by volunteer labour and curation work, by the participation of visitors and their acquisition and divestment work and the informal networks through which things move between households and the swapshop. The operation of Brīvbode depends on substantial labour that is unpaid, unevenly distributed and absorbed into existing practices of household management. and #DKNKM6 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / The Work of Circular Consumption #F2943E #DKNKM6 In this chapter I examine what this work consists of and how it is performed. The analytical framework for this is Wheeler and Glucksmann’s (2015) concept of consumption work – the activities, skills and labour that consumers engage in to acquire, use, manage and dispose of goods. Wheeler and Glucksmann’s framework distinguishes three dimensions: technical labour – the division of tasks and skills across different people; modal labour – the interdependencies of work across different socio-economic arrangements (paid and unpaid, formal and informal); and processual labour – the connections across the full span of production and consumption process (Wheeler & Gluckmann, 2015: 35-36). In circular economy contexts, becoming a circular consumer requires varied and unevenly distributed forms of consumption work whose nature and scope have been underplayed in circular economy debates, but which has significant implications for whether such initiatives can succeed (Hobson et al., 2021). As Mesiranta et al. (2025: 25) observe, even frontrunner consumers who have integrated circular practices into their lives perceive them as laborious and at times troublesome. .

This framing would make the chapters feel more cohesive and reduce repetition.

Chapter 4: flow and possible reordering

Suggested outline

1. Incoming flow: divestment from home
   Keep #M45HLW Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #M45HLW Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home as the opening. It works well because it begins before the shop, with domestic divestment as the source of circulation.

2. Brīvbode as circulation infrastructure
   Combine “Managing the flow on site” and “Material elements” more tightly. Start with the queue/opening scene #ALYNWW Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Managing the flow on site #WY6KPH #ALYNWW 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." , then ownership transfer #2YWFSM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Managing the flow on site #WY6KPH #2YWFSM 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. , speed of circulation #TVPES3 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Managing the flow on site #WY6KPH #TVPES3 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. , then physical permanence/co-presence/storage #Z48STM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #Z48STM 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. – #HZZ52R Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #HZZ52R 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. .

3. Norms and moral economy of non-monetary exchange
   Put explicit rules, relational acceptability, charity/exchange distinction, resellers, heavy takers together. This would include #QY9B8B Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #QY9B8B 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. , #9X74TE Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #9X74TE 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. , #VJU6JZ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Meanings: the moral economy of exchange #QLVPVE #VJU6JZ 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. , #ETSGMU Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Meanings: the moral economy of exchange #QLVPVE #ETSGMU 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.”” , #B3A7P8 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Meanings: the moral economy of exchange #QLVPVE #B3A7P8 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. – #VZMVZA Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Meanings: the moral economy of exchange #QLVPVE #VZMVZA 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. .

4. Freeness, attachment and detachment
   Keep the Evans/attachment material here: #G5UMDM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #G5UMDM 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. , #4ALAE2 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #4ALAE2 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. , #UZH6RE Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #UZH6RE 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." , #5YYBKM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #5YYBKM 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. , #H28B2Q Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #H28B2Q 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. , #U575JS Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #U575JS "Pieķeršanās jautājums tiek risināts. Viņš ir procesā." "Brīvbode palīdz, tā teikt, šim procesam attīstīties." "Šobrīd jau ir uz robežas, tāpēc es saku, ka ir jāatvadās jau no tā, kas jau ir atrasts." 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. . But I would move the more “self-management work” paragraphs into Chapter 5.

5. Plural meanings of acquisition
   This section is one of the best parts: dignity, experimentation, craft gaze, stigma, generational change. Keep #Z7Y86N Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #Z7Y86N Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode mostly as is, but finish the fragment #8R7Q44 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #8R7Q44 While alternative, these meanings simultaneously overlap with some of the meanings present in capitalist consumption – .

6. Quiet and articulated sustainability
   Keep, but tighten. It currently has several note-like fragments. The strongest line is: sustainability is sometimes explicit, often not, and practice theory lets you analyse sustainable outcomes without reducing them to declared environmental motivation.

Concrete Chapter 4 citation anchors

Practice theory / elements of practice

Use Shove et al. to support the chapter’s “materials, meanings, competencies” framing. You already say this in #E3QN63 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / The circulation of things and things that sustain it #3X7JKL #E3QN63 This chapter examines freecycling practice and how it is constituted by its physical venue and the materials flowing through it, the meanings that recruit and retain participants and the competencies that order the exchange processes in Brīvbode. Throughout the chapter I move between analysis of freecycling as practice-entity and the level of individual performances of freecycling as performed, especially attending to moments of friction and tension where the two pull against each other. and the theory chapter defines it in #VVZXM9 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Theories of Practice #L2J4AM #VVZXM9 A particularly influential contribution, especially in anthropological approaches to practice, is the work of Elisabeth Shove, Mika Pantzar and Matt Watson (2012) in which the authors offer a deliberately compact three-component framework for analysing practices: practice as entity. Shove and colleagues define a practice element frame consisting of meanings, materials, and competencies. “Meanings” refer to the ideas, aspirations, shared understandings and related values that give practice its purpose and make it intelligible for practitioners and guide how practices are performed. “Materials” refer to objects involved and used in practice, necessary technologies and infrastructure through which practices are enacted. It also refers to bodies and physicality. “Competencies” are the skills (across cognitive and physical realms) and practical knowledge necessary for participation in a practice, including understanding how to use objects, follow rules, and navigate social norms. . A literature block you can cite directly is Gurova’s summary of Shove: practices combine materials, meanings and competences, and recruit practitioners when elements link together ( #XL67W8 Practice theory approach to Gen Z's sustainable clothing consumption in Finland #86EHHS / Theoretical approach: following sustainable fashion as an integrative practice #2SQ58Y #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. ). Tölg also gives a compact version ( #L87E64 The (im)possibilities of circular consumption: Producing and performing circular clothing consumption in retail and household settings #8EVNK8 / Defining practices #HP5NWV #L87E64 Shove et al. (2012) offer an alternative framework for describing a practice. They argue that practices are constituted by three different elements, that is, materials, competences and meanings. Materials refer to the different "things, technologies, tangible physical entities, and the stuff of which objects are made", competences include "skill, know-how and technique" and lastly, meanings include "include symbolic meanings, ideas and aspirations" (Shove et al., 2012: 14). These different elements then need to be linked together by the practice carrier to perform the practice. ).

Good insertion point: after #E3QN63 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / The circulation of things and things that sustain it #3X7JKL #E3QN63 This chapter examines freecycling practice and how it is constituted by its physical venue and the materials flowing through it, the meanings that recruit and retain participants and the competencies that order the exchange processes in Brīvbode. Throughout the chapter I move between analysis of freecycling as practice-entity and the level of individual performances of freecycling as performed, especially attending to moments of friction and tension where the two pull against each other. or #QZ8Q4K Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / The circulation of things and things that sustain it #3X7JKL #QZ8Q4K The chapter follows the trajectory of things moving through Brīvbode. It begins with the incoming flow: how and in what cases people divest from their households, how meanings shape what arrives, and how Brīvbode is positioned among other possible divestment routes. It turns to the site itself and the material and infrastructural elements that sustain the practice, and how overflow is managed, including competencies of handling norms on the site. From there it turns to the plurality of meanings sustaining acquisition: how participants experience Brīvbode as useful for acquisition and how the non-monetary context shapes the giving and taking. The chapter closes with a consideration of participant orientation towards freecycling as a sustainability practice. .

Divestment, attachment, detachment

For #GXDTQG Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #GXDTQG The material outcome of one practice present in Brīvbode (domestic divestment: things arrive) is a direct resource for another (sequential acquisition: things are taken), sustaining the circularity between different households and the freeshop. Instead of starting at the “shop”, freecycling in Brīvbode can be viewed as starting with the outward flow of things no longer needed or wanted in the household and the question of what to do with them. The practice of managing this flow (what Počinkova et al. (2023) call voluntary disposal) is what brings most givers to Brīvbode. The swapshop offers them an opportunity for circulating materials as well as a way of managing attachment and detachment from things. Brīvbode is one node in the available infrastructure of divestment, and is distinguished from others by what it means to route things through it. , #9XUQEC Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #9XUQEC 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. , #WWSZA8 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #WWSZA8 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. , #G5UMDM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #G5UMDM 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. , #4ALAE2 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #4ALAE2 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. , #U575JS Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #U575JS "Pieķeršanās jautājums tiek risināts. Viņš ir procesā." "Brīvbode palīdz, tā teikt, šim procesam attīstīties." "Šobrīd jau ir uz robežas, tāpēc es saku, ka ir jāatvadās jau no tā, kas jau ir atrasts." 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. :

• Evans defines consumption beyond acquisition: appropriation, appreciation, devaluation, divestment, disposal ( #NZ35DC After Practice? Material Semiotic Approaches to Consumption and Economy #4EFC4F / Theories of Practice and Material Semiotics #AG3WUY #NZ35DC The analysis that follows makes this argument through reference to three bodies of work: (i) actor-network approaches to market agencements ; (ii) perspectives on the social life of things, and (iii) discussions of ontological politics. In each case, I use brief examples from a recent project on the significance of 'freshness' in the agro-food sector 5 to demonstrate the basis and potential for integration with practice theoretic accounts of consumption. Before getting to this, it is important to present a working definition of consumption. I understand consumption as a process involving specific 'moments' beyond the act of acquisition. Following Warde (2005), I suggest that consumption also involves appropriation (use, personalisation and incorporation into people's everyday lives) and appreciation (involving personal and symbolic frameworks of judgement and evaluation). To each of these A's, I propose a counterpart D (Evans, 2019) such that consumption also involves devaluation (the loss of economic or use value, symbolic failure), divestment (the loss of personal meaning, the unravelling of attachments) and disposal (getting rid of things). These processes can involve goods, services and experiences which can either be accessed and disposed of through market exchanges or alternative channels. Consumers have 'some degree of discretion' in these processes, which are undertaken for 'utilitarian, expressive and contemplative' purposes (see Warde, 2005: 137). This definition is provisional and intended to frame engagement with each of the following three perspectives. ).

• Tölg summarises Evans’s 3As/3Ds and says divestment is where personal meanings and attachments are broken ( #Z4SQKT The (im)possibilities of circular consumption: Producing and performing circular clothing consumption in retail and household settings #8EVNK8 / The practice turn in the sociology of consumption #6W7W3E #Z4SQKT Importantly, Evans (2019) argues that consumption is not only about how things come into use but also involves how these things (or experiences and services) are eventually parted with. Thus, Evans (2019: 507) proposes that each of Warde's (2005, 2014) "As" has a counterpart "D", that is devaluation, divestment and disposal. In this framework, devaluation refers to how the derived pleasure from a consumption object diminishes, and divestment describes the process where the personal meanings and attachments are broken with the object (Evans, 2019). Lastly, disposal describes the different processes by which objects are parted with (Evans, 2019). Thus, the 3As and 3Ds framework describes consumption from the moment of goods being acquired, until how they are eventually disposed of. ).

• Bohlin is very useful for your argument that letting go can itself be caring: second-hand users practice “serial care” for things-in-motion ( #R3D4QX ‘It will Keep Circulating’: Loving and Letting Go of Things in Swedish Second-hand Markets #ZJUEY4 / 'It will Keep Circulating': Loving and Letting Go of Things in Swedish Second-hand Markets #SSAEUN #R3D4QX Using the case of Sweden, this article examines the growing sector of reuse and second-hand activities from the perspective of how people express and practice their relationships to objects that they acquire from second-hand markets. Drawing on anthropological fieldwork in flea markets, second-hand shops, homes and recycling depots, it explores how people relate to and handle goods which, instead of becoming waste, enter new life cycles through reuse. It suggests that buying, using and passing on certain kinds of second-hand things involves particular forms of affection and 'serial' care for the objects as things-in-motion. At the same time, part of the attraction of these objects is how they enable the practising of a particular kind of subjectivity: that of an informed, moral and caring consumer. Part of such reuse subjectivity is the capacity to form close bonds with, and care for objects, but also to untie these bonds in order to carefully and responsibly let go of them. The article suggests that paying attention to the affective orientation and disposition that form part of such consumer subjectivity may provide keys to understanding what drives second-hand consumption and the accelerated circulation of goods it may entail. Offering an opportunity to examine assumptions of reuse and circulation as inherently 'sustainable', it also provides perspectives on practices of care. ), and responsible reuse can mean loving things enough to let them circulate ( #R7ZTTM ‘It will Keep Circulating’: Loving and Letting Go of Things in Swedish Second-hand Markets #ZJUEY4 / Conclusion #2EMEH4 #R7ZTTM The discussion above has explored how people expressed and carried out their relationships to things acquired from second-hand markets, and how they tended to foreground strong positive feelings towards such belongings. Expressions of such feelings often focused on the sociality of the object, accessed through indexical signs and traces of its previous history, and narratives about its previous phases became a kind of social currency that people actively drew on, when embedding them in their own lives, as well as in moments of exchange. Yet, we also saw that there is not necessarily a contradiction between expressing strong affection for objects and donating them or selling them on second-hand markets. On the contrary, part of the 'self-as-reuser' subjectivity entails the capacity not just to enter into caring and affectionate relationships with pre-used things, but also to let go of them in an equally caring and responsible way, through reuse channels. Notions of circularity thus shaped the way that interlocutors perceived and handled the objects, from the acts of purchasing them, and keeping them for a while, to passing them on. The overriding commitment was often to the longevity and integrity of the objects, as things-in-motion, rather than to extending one's own ownership of them. , #KH4GUQ ‘It will Keep Circulating’: Loving and Letting Go of Things in Swedish Second-hand Markets #ZJUEY4 / Discussion: Caring Deeply But Serially #9JA8BQ #KH4GUQ The observations above are of people who, in different ways, interact with second-hand markets in the role of shoppers, sellers or donors. Even though examples are drawn from very different contexts and moments in people's lives, they point to the existence of certain norms and ideas that recur across these contexts. One emerging theme concerns the general belief in the goodness of keeping things in circulation. Regardless of whether acquiring or discarding objects, there is a widespread notion that passing things on, and extending their lives, is a good thing, while destroying them or throwing them away, is bad. For many people, active in these circles, the benefit of circulating things is a self-evident truth. When probed further, most would cite affordability and environmental aspects, such as saving resources, reducing waste, and bringing consumption levels down, or providing goods to those who need it. Second-hand shopping in other words perfectly combines what Miller has referred to as the morality of thrift and concern for the household with the ethics of caring for broader issues affecting humanity, two values that often clash (2012: 88; cf. Isenhour 2012). ).

This would strengthen the section from “people feel better donating” into a sharper argument: Brīvbode enables detachment without abandoning care.

Physical site, co-presence, storage, overflow

For #Z48STM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #Z48STM 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. , #YLHWNT Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #YLHWNT 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. , #HZZ52R Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #HZZ52R 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. , #EP6U2C Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #EP6U2C 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." , #AUZKM4 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #AUZKM4 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. :

• Tan & Yeoh say freecycling works better through embodied co-presence because people can handle and try things, but this depends on space and storage ( #DJGUE3 Freecycling Markets as Sustainable Materialist Movements? Closing Reuse Circularity Loops in Singapore #FHZZ6U / 6.1 MATERIAL-SPATIAL CONSTRAINTS #VV6MBD #DJGUE3 in the form of spatial arrangements and constraints, which explains why their efforts have been piece-meal. Space is at a premium in Singapore's high-rent, high-density living. A public rent-free space is arguably one of the most pertinent factors in determining whether free markets can happen in the first place (i.e. space for market transactions, storage). Relational-material exchanges play out better as an embodied co-presence with others/things (e.g. handling objects, trying things before deciding to adopt them). Theoretically, an object of a decent quality will eventually get 'adopted' in time. But this cannot happen if free markets have to clear out of a temporary location after a few hours, rendering the clearing up/out of unwanted leftovers a major problem. This is compounded by the lack of a permanent rent-free storage space for SRRFM and TnT, which inadvertently implies that waste (i.e. unclaimed items) is ironically created after an activity that is supposed to curtail waste production. ).

• They also show that without storage, freecycling markets create waste after the event because leftovers must be cleared ( #SP57EV Freecycling Markets as Sustainable Materialist Movements? Closing Reuse Circularity Loops in Singapore #FHZZ6U / 6.2 LEAKAGES IN MATERIAL LOOPS #JVMBCZ #SP57EV Unlike digital freecycling platforms, SRRFM and TnT will have to grapple with the troublesome materiality of unclaimed items when a market is over. Since SRRFM and TnT do not have a dedicated storage facility keeping leftovers, they will have to be cleared on the spot. As SRRFM operates on a larger scale than TnT, Woon reveals that 'a sizeable volume of disowned waste is generated post-market' (see Figure 3a and Figure 3b ). How these left-overs are dealt with at SRRFM sometimes depends on the available resources at hand (e.g. volunteers who can drive and deposit the remaining good quality items at thrift shops for resale). Most of the time, however, leftovers are thrown away by SRRFM's organisers and volunteers. On rare occasions, volunteers at SRRFM who are very invested in a zero-waste lifestyle may wind up rescuing selected unclaimed leftovers destined for the incinerator (See Figure 3c ). Sometimes Teo does this too by looking through the discard pile and 'saving useful things' and 'many things are useful to [her]'. Teo subscribes to the philosophy of 'save first, negotiate for [storage] space later' while recognising that 'we cannot save everything'. Alex tries his best to keep TnT's remaining stock but he only has space for two large luggage boxes which he brings home on his bicycle or by public transport. Anything more gets recycled or discarded, particularly poorer quality items. ).

• Their “material co-presence of givers, takers and reusable things” point is very close to Brīvbode’s density and speed ( #GKTRKH Freecycling Markets as Sustainable Materialist Movements? Closing Reuse Circularity Loops in Singapore #FHZZ6U / 5.1 SHORTENING AND SUSTAINING MATERIAL CIRCULARITY LOOPS #MQYJLV #GKTRKH Freeycling markets are sustainable materialist interventions in linear flows of material products from the retailer, consumer and to the incinerator. Such interventions involve shortening material circularity loops, accomplished via the rescue of things from the incinerator and the recirculation of reusable things among market attendees. Rescuers mentioned that they bring things they have salvaged but do not have a use for to SRRFM and/or TnT to 'pass them on'. In other instances, consumers may only require something temporarily. As such, things occasionally get taken only to be recirculated and returned to the mat weeks later. Overall, the material co-presence of a critical mass of givers, takers and reusable things allows for the efficient recirculation of material resources (instead of travelling to different places for different things). As a regular giver at SRRFM, Zing remarked that her 'things move slowly on Olio (freeycling application), there's a better chance that they might be taken at a free market, where everyone congregates' (see Figures 1a and b). ).

This makes Brīvbode’s permanence theoretically important, not just descriptive.

Moral economy: exchange, charity, resale, dumping

For #B3A7P8 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Meanings: the moral economy of exchange #QLVPVE #B3A7P8 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. , #AC8LX9 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Meanings: the moral economy of exchange #QLVPVE #AC8LX9 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. , #8Q8FJL Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Meanings: the moral economy of exchange #QLVPVE #8Q8FJL 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." , #MB7WW5 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Meanings: the moral economy of exchange #QLVPVE #MB7WW5 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. :

• Widlok’s give box analysis is perfect. Give boxes decouple giving and receiving, reduce the awkwardness of alms, and allow people to take without performing need ( #BXEAUH Anthropology and the Economy of Sharing #UX42KU / BOX 13 PUTTING UP A GIVE BOX #6J8925 #BXEAUH to do (e.g. not to leave any perishable items) and things were regularly put into order and some items removed to the nearby rubbish containers if they were broken or in such a bad shape that they were unlikely to be picked up. Participant observation also revealed that although this giving was structured by the motives of the givers rather than by the needs of the receivers, the give box successfully filled a gap in the repertoire of (re-)distribution in at least two respects. Firstly, most items were gone fairly quickly, mostly from one day to the next. This indicates that there was a demand, after all. Secondly, the box successfully decoupled the act of giving from the act of receiving. Receiving alms, and the begging that goes with it, often makes people feel uneasy in societies in which everyone is supposed to work for what they desire. Most visitors whom I encountered and spoke to at the give box highlighted that they liked the box because they could give things away that were “too good to throw away”, even though observation showed that these visitors were there to search for items to take rather than for the opportunity to place things. Hence, visiting the box and browsing in public was okay since it was not concomitant with being a recipient of alms. This way “giving through the box” reached many people who would otherwise not be recipients of public welfare either because they are too ashamed to register or because they were just above the officially recognized level of poverty but still in need of things. Another important point that was repeatedly made by visitors to the box concerns possible abuses of the box as a “dumping ground” but also attempts to (re)commercialize the contents. Such concerns are also echoed by online comments with regard to give boxes that have a presence on social media or local websites (see www.givebox.eu ). ).

• He also notes concerns about give boxes becoming dumping grounds or being used for resale ( #BXEAUH Anthropology and the Economy of Sharing #UX42KU / BOX 13 PUTTING UP A GIVE BOX #6J8925 #BXEAUH to do (e.g. not to leave any perishable items) and things were regularly put into order and some items removed to the nearby rubbish containers if they were broken or in such a bad shape that they were unlikely to be picked up. Participant observation also revealed that although this giving was structured by the motives of the givers rather than by the needs of the receivers, the give box successfully filled a gap in the repertoire of (re-)distribution in at least two respects. Firstly, most items were gone fairly quickly, mostly from one day to the next. This indicates that there was a demand, after all. Secondly, the box successfully decoupled the act of giving from the act of receiving. Receiving alms, and the begging that goes with it, often makes people feel uneasy in societies in which everyone is supposed to work for what they desire. Most visitors whom I encountered and spoke to at the give box highlighted that they liked the box because they could give things away that were “too good to throw away”, even though observation showed that these visitors were there to search for items to take rather than for the opportunity to place things. Hence, visiting the box and browsing in public was okay since it was not concomitant with being a recipient of alms. This way “giving through the box” reached many people who would otherwise not be recipients of public welfare either because they are too ashamed to register or because they were just above the officially recognized level of poverty but still in need of things. Another important point that was repeatedly made by visitors to the box concerns possible abuses of the box as a “dumping ground” but also attempts to (re)commercialize the contents. Such concerns are also echoed by online comments with regard to give boxes that have a presence on social media or local websites (see www.givebox.eu ). , #3JWRLY Anthropology and the Economy of Sharing #UX42KU / BOX 13 PUTTING UP A GIVE BOX #6J8925 #3JWRLY None of the “new” transfer modes that emerge with the “sharing economy” are isolated, they all get integrated into other transactions, most importantly into the framework of commercial market transactions. Thus, individuals who frequent the give box are not necessarily destitute or completely without money. Rather they seek ways of getting things for free which in turn frees money for other items or services for which there is no alternative but to pay for with money (e.g. energy bills, petrol, insurances etc.). This also holds for most of the transactions in the above-mentioned LETS exchange systems which carve out a domain for non-monetary exchange which allows the reserving of financial means for other domains. At the give boxes the integration into the wider economy of transactions is very visible in another way. At all give boxes that I have visited in situ or online, there were complaints about “hawks” who would patrol the give boxes for things that they then would sell at jumble sales or through other commercial platforms which continue to exist side-by-side with the new give boxes. In the context of give boxes such behaviour is usually scolded and complained about because it is said to be counteracting the purpose of the give boxes. This shows that for most people involved, give boxes are very much seen as being part of the register of giving of alms, giving to the poor and generosity. They are set apart from commercial exchange but also in practice from sharing which would leave more initiative with the receivers and which would highlight allowing access to goods and individual autonomy. In the view of most give-box initiators the establishment of ).

• The “no direct demand” aspect of give boxes also helps explain Brīvbode’s donor-driven supply ( #NBZHN8 Anthropology and the Economy of Sharing #UX42KU / BOX 13 PUTTING UP A GIVE BOX #6J8925 #NBZHN8 Those who place items in the box often drive up to the box, which is next to the road on a little square of green, get out of their car, just to drop things off and then move on. Others who sit on a bench next to the box or who stroll around it are usually potential recipients who check more or less regularly whether new things have arrived which they may find attractive. There is usually no interaction between givers and receivers although some individuals are both or claim to be both providers and occasional takers. Also, some items disappear from the box but reappear some days later, which suggests that they have been taken home but returned later. Some types of items seem to be in higher demand (office and school requisites such as paper notebooks for instance) while others stay for longer (many of the books, for instance). Unlike with classified ads which fall into "wanted" and "offered" categories, there is no way for the potential recipients to express their demands. The only act of demanding that I have experienced when visiting the give box was when someone who had observed my placing of things had spotted the camera which I used to document changes in the box and about which he asked whether I was planning to put it into the box as well. This was an exception since for most other intents and purposes "give boxes" are exactly what the name suggests, a way of giving things away that one no longer wants but for which giving away seems more appropriate than disposing of as waste. They also typically decouple giving from taking. ).

This strongly supports your exchange-not-charity discussion and the reseller ambiguity.

Acquisition meanings: class, stigma, creativity, distinction

For #QCTGLZ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #QCTGLZ 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. , #PAYAS2 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #PAYAS2 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. , #EJM4WU Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #EJM4WU 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." , #GN8UUK Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #GN8UUK Alongside the meanings of novelty, originality and access is the meaning of class related stigma, and its presence significantly affects the practice’s recruitability. 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 freecycling as normalized exchange practice for people of all walks of life. While actively and regularly using Brīvbode and also praising the things she has managed to acquire as high quality and aesthetically pleasing, nevertheless, 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. , #86CMYM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #86CMYM 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”. :

• Steward is useful for thrift as cultural capital: thrift stores produce different symbolic understandings, from bargains to creativity ( #AMBJZB What does that shirt mean to you? Thrift-store consumption as cultural capital #UBF5U3 / Corresponding author: #HTAZ9Q #AMBJZB This article examines the development of contrasting symbolic understandings of consumption by two groups of thrift-store shoppers Portland, Oregon, and the deployment of those understandings as cultural capital, signifying cultural value to others. Some shoppers, like Angela, value the search for bargains and the economy of this market. Others, like Rebecca, value the distance of the market from other retailers and see their consumption as an act of creativity. These different understandings hold value to these consumers; they are a form of cultural capital. This examination of thrift-store shopping contributes to understandings of cultural capital in three ways. First, it confirms the increasingly embodied nature of cultural capital. Second, it illustrates the potential for groups to draw from one another in the process of defining valuable cultural capital. Third, and most significantly, it shows how cultural capital is defined through the interactive process of consumption in the space of the thrift store. , #3L4W33 What does that shirt mean to you? Thrift-store consumption as cultural capital #UBF5U3 / Abstract #TXRFYZ #3L4W33 Recent work shows cultural capital taking increasingly vague and embodied forms. Attitudes and understandings of “creativity” and “authenticity,” for example, hold more symbolic value than any particular objects. How are these culturally valuable understandings defined and transmitted? This project examines thrift-store shopping to show how symbolic meanings are defined and employed as a form of embodied cultural capital. Ethnographic observation and interviews with shoppers at thrift stores in Portland, Oregon, reveal competing symbolic understandings among two groups of consumers. One group, the “thrift-seekers,” is motivated by a desire to find bargains. Members of this group describe their consumption as a game in which they are able to compete with other consumers. The other group, the “creativists,” comes from a more privileged background and is motivated by a rejection of conventional stores. They describe their consumption as an exercise of creativity through which they establish superiority over other consumers. Each group implicates the other as it constructs its narrative of consumption. Outside of the thrift store, the creativists employ their narratives of creativity as a form of cultural capital, giving them status in relation to similarly privileged peers. This project illustrates the embodied nature of contemporary cultural capital and shows how classes implicate one another in definitions of it. Furthermore, it demonstrates how thrift stores hold particular significance as sites in which embodied cultural capital is defined. ).

• Steward also notes thrift stores are accessible but still affected by stigma around used clothing (#3H7M5).

• Gurova gives a contrast case where second-hand is normalized among young people in Finland and “not a matter of shame” ( #5GY5XZ Practice theory approach to Gen Z's sustainable clothing consumption in Finland #86EHHS / Acquisition #ZUNLWX #5GY5XZ Thrifting extends the lifecycle of clothing ( Niinimäki, 2020 ). Used-goods consumption seems to be normalized among young people in Finland and is not a matter of shame or embarrassment. The meaning of "used goods" is not associated with poverty. Instead, the used goods are perceived as no different from the new ones (except for some groups of clothing, such as underwear or socks). However, income plays a role in thriftingness as thrift stores may be cheaper and more accessible for overall thrifty and not so well-off Gen Z consumers. Such change of meaning makes this practice a strong contributor to sustainable fashion. This conclusion is in line with other studies stating that buying secondhand is one of the main ways to participate in the circular economy among Finland's population ( Korsunova et al., 2023 ). Moreover, in Finland, there might be peer pressure to ). This supports your generational shift claim in #86CMYM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #86CMYM 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”. .

• Catherine Alexander is useful for the class ambiguity of thrift: the same practice can be eco-skill, habit, or shame depending on class context ( #LNKA7X The Simple Bare Necessities- Scales and Paradoxes of Thrift on a London Public Housing Estate #7RVN6J / DECENCY AND RESPECTABILITY #LNURD9 #LNKA7X The brief history of thrift just presented is a preliminary foray into its class dimensions over time. Here I will explore ethnographically the complications of managing on a limited budget to maintain at least a public face of decency. Institutional admonishments to have a planetary conscience, or indeed accounts of the rising popularity of secondhand circuits of exchange such as charity shops, car boot sales, or eBay (e.g., Tranberg Hansen and le Zotte 2019), typically eclipse the sharp class difference between conspicuous thriftiness as a fashionable trend and careful frugality as the only means of managing on a low income when poverty is a recent memory and painfully near to hand. To paraphrase Clifford Geertz's observation that the difference between a twitch and a blink hinges on the action's context (1973: 6), we might say that darning a sock can be read very differently if that sock was initially a good quality wool one able to bear several darnings or one that rapidly disintegrates. The same action can be a statement of skill or eco-commitment—"visible" darns have become an eco-fashion statement (Noguchi 2019) enacting an aesthetic of thrift irrespective of need—or a source of shame because it denotes poverty, or simply a habit. 13 ).

This helps avoid an overly celebratory account of freecycling as universally empowering.

Quiet sustainability

For #VQARCF Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #VQARCF 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. , #NVL4HP Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #NVL4HP 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. [..] , #3N5GKC Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #3N5GKC 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. :

• Smith & Jehlička define quiet sustainability as practices with beneficial environmental/social outcomes that are not represented by practitioners as sustainability goals ( #YJA4V6 Quiet sustainability: Fertile lessons from Europe’s productive gardeners #WVG7HV / 4. Quiet sustainability: quality, generosity and unintended environmental benefits #QMELYK #YJA4V6 It is for these reasons that our empirical research has led us to develop the concept of quiet sustainability. 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. Everyday practices that have low environmental impacts, but that have not been pursued for that reason, are also features of the concept. ).

• They also stress that such practices are common in post-socialist societies and may need recognition/protection ( #PTWXU3 Quiet sustainability: Fertile lessons from Europe’s productive gardeners #WVG7HV / 5. Conclusion: 'can you take a cutting?' #DR88SP #PTWXU3 Quiet sustainability is practised all over the planet in a range of everyday practices that are most frequently followed in both post-socialist societies and the global South. Importantly they contribute to making societies more resilient to unsettling ecological and social changes but require no state funding and little in the way of market exchanges. Some cultures of sharing, repairing, gifting and bartering that characterise quiet sustainability may, as with practices around food self-provisioning in Poland and Czechia, prove to be robust in the face of dramatic social and economic changes. Others, however, may be more delicate and require recognition, nurturing and a degree of protection. This nurturing and protection of quiet sustainability in such key fields such as transport, food or energy use will often imply local, national or regional state action, if not spending. This will take forms such as planning controls, and the diversion of investment from one form of land use or infrastructure to another (e.g. gardening spaces protected or introduced in place of or as part of, retail, office or housing developments; walking and cycling provision in place or as part of road developments). ).

• Mašek is useful if you want to loosen the “non-market” criterion, since he notes that the market-transaction aspect is not always crucial to quiet sustainability ( #V674Q3 Grey Greening: Quiet Sustainability #MRANHJ / 4. Quiet sustainability monetised #C4GGLP #V674Q3 Although Smith and Jehlička (2013), the authors of the quiet sustainability concept, orient this concept around practices that do not relate, either directly or indirectly, to market transactions, everything else in the concept applies to auto salvage yards. Nonetheless, Jehlička explained to me that the connection to the market transaction is not a crucial condition for quiet sustainability. The informal practices of breakers represent an unforced form of sustainability – which the practitioners do not link directly to environmental or sustainability goals – that results in beneficial environmental outcomes. Although some breakers' practices at the yard can be considered environmentally unfriendly, the friendly ones prevail over them. ).

Chapter 5: flow and possible reordering

Chapter 5 is already conceptually strong, but its headings could better mirror Wheeler & Glucksmann.

Suggested outline

1. Introduction: the bumblebee and the hidden work of circulation
   #AFFP4F Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / The Work of Circular Consumption #F2943E #AFFP4F In one conversation Brīvbode manager Rasa compared the operation of the swapshop to the flight of a bumblebee as it is often said to defy conventional laws of aerodynamics, yet somehow manages to fly in practice. The comparison foregrounds the felt fragility of the initiative, even though it has operated consistently for years now. The swaphsop is sustained collectively, by volunteer labour and curation work, by the participation of visitors and their acquisition and divestment work and the informal networks through which things move between households and the swapshop. The operation of Brīvbode depends on substantial labour that is unpaid, unevenly distributed and absorbed into existing practices of household management. and #DKNKM6 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / The Work of Circular Consumption #F2943E #DKNKM6 In this chapter I examine what this work consists of and how it is performed. The analytical framework for this is Wheeler and Glucksmann’s (2015) concept of consumption work – the activities, skills and labour that consumers engage in to acquire, use, manage and dispose of goods. Wheeler and Glucksmann’s framework distinguishes three dimensions: technical labour – the division of tasks and skills across different people; modal labour – the interdependencies of work across different socio-economic arrangements (paid and unpaid, formal and informal); and processual labour – the connections across the full span of production and consumption process (Wheeler & Gluckmann, 2015: 35-36). In circular economy contexts, becoming a circular consumer requires varied and unevenly distributed forms of consumption work whose nature and scope have been underplayed in circular economy debates, but which has significant implications for whether such initiatives can succeed (Hobson et al., 2021). As Mesiranta et al. (2025: 25) observe, even frontrunner consumers who have integrated circular practices into their lives perceive them as laborious and at times troublesome. are good. Keep them.

2. Volunteer time and sufficiency as a condition of circulation
   Keep #KWZ8DM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Volunteer labour and sufficiency lifestyle #KWZ8DM #KWZ8DM Volunteer labour and sufficiency lifestyle , but frame it as a precondition: Brīvbode “flies” because some people have flexible time, skills and low-consumption lifestyles.

3. Technical/valuation labour: sorting, judging, curating, self-regulating
   This should include #L5PE5X Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Valuation work without the context of price #L5PE5X #L5PE5X Valuation work without the context of price and probably some of the currently fragmentary “competencies” material from Chapter 4: #JXSMQW Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #JXSMQW Competencies of Circulation – #7AQN26 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #7AQN26 “on material literacy, meaning the skills and knowledge about different materials, how durable they are and with what treatment they last longest. This includes knowledge about appropriate washing, storing (Figures 2 and 3) and other care techniques like using a lint shaver or an iron.” . These read more like labour/valuation than Chapter 4 practice-elements.

4. Modal labour: market, non-market, formal, informal routes
   Keep #A43655 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Modal labour across socioeconomic modes #A43655 #A43655 Modal labour across socioeconomic modes . This is where online resale, textile containers, charity storage, Brīvbode, household work and volunteer work can be compared as different socioeconomic forms of the same circulation work.

5. Processual labour: networks, households, gender
   Keep #38335C Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Processual labour: exchange networks and gendered work #38335C #38335C Processual labour: exchange networks and gendered work . This is very strong and should probably be one of the key contributions of the thesis.

6. Conclusion
   Merge #8JXBYH Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #GGGPNV #8JXBYH This chapter has examined the labour that sustains freecycling in Brīvbode, finding it distributed across structural, ethical, and gendered dimensions that existing circular economy frameworks tend to overlook. Wheeler and Glucksmann's consumption work concept names the structure: tasks that paid institutions would perform in formal retail or waste management contexts are here absorbed by unpaid volunteers and participants, distributed across modal and processual dimensions that stretch well beyond the freeshop itself. Bankovska and Graeber name the motivation: much of this labour is not transferred from institutions onto reluctant consumers but self-imposed through ethical commitment and care – activities people perform because they cannot bring themselves not to. Miller names who bears it: consistently and disproportionately women, from household sorting and routing to managing others' generosity to transmitting these competencies to the next generation. and #T5LNZ9 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #GGGPNV #T5LNZ9 Circular consumption requires substantial labour, and that labour is unevenly distributed. Sustainability of initiatives like Brīvbode depends on a structural condition – the sufficiency-oriented, time-rich, predominantly female volunteer and participant base that circular economy policy rarely names or supports (Hobson et al., 2021). Some of this labour is unreflexive and habituated – Aiga's inner feeling that prevents easy disposal, Marija's building logistics naturalised into her social role. Some is deliberate and effortful – Kristīne's category-by-category method, Madara working on her impulse-acquiring. Both are labour, but they are differently visible, and the unreflexive forms are the hardest to see and the hardest for policy to reach. . Delete or integrate the duplicate conclusion fragments #WQCQ9A Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #GGGPNV #WQCQ9A CONCLUSION , #ENZMT5 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #GGGPNV #ENZMT5 Naming the forms and distribution of consumption work is the chapter's contribution. Circular consumption requires substantial labor; that labor is unevenly distributed; and the sustainability of initiatives like Brīvbode depends on a structural condition – the sufficiency-oriented, time-rich, mostly female volunteer and participant base. , #JJA5J6 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #GGGPNV #JJA5J6 Some of this work is unreflexive and habituated, some is deliberate and effortful (Madara working on her own impulse-acquiring, Kristīne's category-by-category method). Both are labor, but they are differently visible – and the unreflexive forms are the hardest to see and the hardest for policy to reach. .

Concrete Chapter 5 citation anchors

Consumption work framework

For #DKNKM6 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / The Work of Circular Consumption #F2943E #DKNKM6 In this chapter I examine what this work consists of and how it is performed. The analytical framework for this is Wheeler and Glucksmann’s (2015) concept of consumption work – the activities, skills and labour that consumers engage in to acquire, use, manage and dispose of goods. Wheeler and Glucksmann’s framework distinguishes three dimensions: technical labour – the division of tasks and skills across different people; modal labour – the interdependencies of work across different socio-economic arrangements (paid and unpaid, formal and informal); and processual labour – the connections across the full span of production and consumption process (Wheeler & Gluckmann, 2015: 35-36). In circular economy contexts, becoming a circular consumer requires varied and unevenly distributed forms of consumption work whose nature and scope have been underplayed in circular economy debates, but which has significant implications for whether such initiatives can succeed (Hobson et al., 2021). As Mesiranta et al. (2025: 25) observe, even frontrunner consumers who have integrated circular practices into their lives perceive them as laborious and at times troublesome. :

• Wheeler & Glucksmann define technical, modal and processual labour very clearly ( #K4CB2W Household Recycling and Consumption Work #4LST57 / Socio-economic formations of labour: Divisions of labour, socio-economic modes of work, instituted economic process #S2CJEK #K4CB2W The approach towards consumption work builds on the multidimensional conception of the division of labour (Glucksmann, 2009, 2013) formulated to initiate renewal of this foundational concept. The complexity and diversity of contemporary forms and connections between labour of different kinds cannot readily be captured by a taken-for-granted understanding of this basic concept. To meet the analytical challenge, first principles need to be revisited. Fundamentally, every new specialisation of work (a process of differentiation) entails new interdependencies and coordination (a process of integration). At a first level, three dimensions of differentiation and interdependency can be identified. The first remains the traditional one of technical specialisation, both intra-organisational and sectoral. The second concerns historically and socially varied forms of work conducted in different economic modes and their interdependencies: market and non-market, paid and unpaid, formal and informal. The third concerns the shifting differentiation and interdependencies of work across the economic processes of production, distribution, exchange and post-exchange. Any work activity can be analysed in terms of technical, modal and economic processual differentiation and integration. A simple example here might be the baking of bread which can involve different specialisations of skills; can be produced by industrial or craft actors, in the private or public sector, or unpaid in the household; and can be fully produced by manufacturers, sold by retailers and sliced by consumers, or part-prepared by retailers in store to be finally baked by consumers. ).

• Evans/Jackson/Beswick-Parsons summarise the same framework and stress how it helps analyse shifting boundaries between domestic labour and consumption work ( #DP97U6 Reuse practices and household consumption work #V9QTJP / Literature review #ZZ3Y5X #DP97U6 Our analysis is informed by the concept of 'consumption work' (Wheeler & Glucksmann, 2015b) which builds on the 'total social organisation labour' approach developed by Glucksmann (1995, 2000, 2005). Wheeler and Glucksmann conceptualize consumption work as resting on a broader, multidimensional concept of 'socio-economic formations of labour' involving three dimensions of labour: technical – the division and allocation of labour in the form of tasks and skills to different kinds of people; modal – interdependencies of work across different socio-economic bases; and processual – connections of labour across the whole span of a process of production of goods or provision (Wheeler & Glucksmann, 2015b, pp. 35–36). The work consumers undertake conveys and depends on 'how goods and services are sold, how "complete" they are and on their potential uses' (Glucksmann, 2016, p. 881). It is important to note that not all work within the home constitutes consumption work, with some forms of 'domestic labour' being preoccupied with the reproduction of the home (Wheeler & Glucksmann, 2015b). The aim here is not to provide a categorical definition in separating the two – indeed, activities may be interpreted as both consumption work and domestic labour – but to highlight that the consumption work framework enables us to consider the division of labour and shifting boundaries of work undertaken across different socio-economic contexts. Examples of technological innovations that save labour in the retail sector, such as self-service shopping, automated checkouts, and hand-held scanners, also rely on additional labour from shoppers (Bulmer et al., 2018; Dujarier, 2016; Kjellberg et al., 2019), whilst the use of ready meals and other forms of convenience food are examples of ).

• The shorter article version defines consumption work as all work necessary for purchase, use, reuse and disposal ( #H28U22 Untitled thesis #VWPB2S / 'Consumption work' #VCLL9S #H28U22 This paper develops Glucksmann's (2009, 2013) concept of 'consumption work', defined as all work necessary for the purchase, use, re-use and disposal of consumption goods and services . The work of consumers has received minimal attention by scholars of either work or consumption as a distinctive form of labour. However, we contend that analysis of divisions of labour would be incomplete without their inclusion because the work they regularly perform is integral to the completion of a process of production or service provision. Incorporating consumers into the division of labour poses a challenge to this foundational and enduring concept, given its traditional focus on the technical division of tasks and skills within a labour process or sector of work relating to paid employment. Yet, insofar as completion of a circuit of production, distribution, exchange and consumption is predicated on consumers undertaking work in order to consume, analysis of the division of labour would be incomplete without their inclusion. If tasks are reallocated from producers or retailers to consumers, then the framework of analysis requires extension to comprehend the reconfiguration of the division of labour. Work does not simply disappear when it shifts across socio-economic boundaries. Similarly, it is important to develop concepts capable of capturing the range of tasks required of consumers before or after they consume on which consumption itself is predicated. At present this realm of activity features only marginally within the study of work and consumption. ).

Valuation work and sorting

For #ZU8ZS9 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Valuation work without the context of price #L5PE5X #ZU8ZS9 In retail, price is a formal evaluation that functions to slows acquisition and signals value. When price is removed a moral and more relational valuation comes to the fore. Valuation work is the ongoing effort of assessing what is worth taking and bringing, and what should be left or discarded. As Beswick-Parsons et al. (2025) note, those committed to reuse develop an ability to perceive value where others do not, and this evaluative skill is a key to circulation work. , #ZJG8XW Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Valuation work without the context of price #L5PE5X #ZJG8XW The gap between donor self-assessment and actual quality is a recurring burden for volunteers. Anna describes she has developed her intuition: "I really know it won't be good even before I've opened the bag. I ask them: 'Is everything really okay in there?' 'Yes, yes, only the best!' And you open it, and there are moth-eaten pillows, piss-soaked blankets." This competency has been developed over years of handling what arrives. The work of maintaining quality – assessing, sorting, deciding what goes out and what does not – is constant and largely invisible to visitors who mostly only the finished presentation. , #737NYX Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Valuation work without the context of price #L5PE5X #737NYX Curation extends valuation work beyond sorting into knowing and managing people's needs. Rasa describes it as having "a filter". She sometimes holds specific items for specific regular visitors based on accumulated knowledge about their life circumstances: a particular colour of top for a visually impaired visitor, a wedding gift set aside for a regular who recently moved from homelessness into social housing. This is care work and consumption work simultaneously – relational knowledge that cannot be systematised or delegated, and that makes Brīvbode function as something more than a drop-off point. :

• Larsen’s thrift-store work is very relevant: thrift-store valuation involves testing, cleaning, sorting, bundling, pricing and making donations usable ( #P26BPV Valuation in action: Ethnography of an American thrift store #SHZ6RT / Thrift in the thrift store #PUBDN9 #P26BPV The experience of working in the Community Thrift and being taught how to perform valuations showed how the dominant value that guides practices throughout the organisation is thrift. At every station along the trajectory, as well as in the larger structures of the organisation, being thrifty – i.e. using resources in a considered way and not being wasteful – is expressed through actions and words. From taking responsibility for the donations at the beginning of the trajectory to bundling office supplies or pricing bedding that accidentally enters the flow, the employees make the most of whatever they receive. Thrift is often at odds with pure economic rationality, since the investment of time involved in making objects valuable does not always transform into higher economic output. Being thrifty certainly means making the most of the donations, but not only in terms of economic gain. Making the best use of the donations includes bundling objects, reducing prices, looking things up, testing, cleaning and sorting. Thrift as a value in the organisation can perhaps be understood as what Graeber describes as an 'infravalue'. 26 Being thrifty is not an end in itself but a means to obtain other values. By being thrifty, the Community Thrift is able to create economic, social and emotional value. Thrift has mainly been treated as a feature of consumption and the household; 27 it is closely associated with saving and even, as Podkalicka and Potts point out, with 'conspicuous conservation'. 28 As Miller describes it, thrift is an attempt to stop resources flowing out of the household. In the context of the thrift store, however, thrift is mainly a way of moving things along. ).

• He argues that thrift in the store means moving things along, not saving them in place ( #W3LBHF Selling Thrift: Work Practices in an American Thrift Store #HJXUZN / The Practice of Thrifty Selling #WGJ6B7 #W3LBHF Thrift is performed every day, everywhere as part of other practices. Very few people are un-thrifty all the time. So, as part of consumption practices, thrift is one value among other values. The surprising effects of thrift as a principle guiding work practices are that it is a way of getting rid of resources, not saving them. Although thrift can be described as a practical way of managing resources, to imbue a sense of control over the flow of goods that carries moral value and a consideration for the future, the consequences are very different in the household and in the thrift store. While the thrift store works to “move things along,” the aim is to generate resources in the form of profit for the charities they support. There is a clear economic aim, but the aim is pursued through being thrifty. Practicing thrift in the thrift store means making sure that objects move along, that they do not get stuck or left on a shelf. Thrift thus takes on a whole new meaning in the context of a thrift store and reveals a dynamic relationship between the ethical dimension and the practical application of thrift. The perspectives I present here underline the value of pursuing thrift as an analytical concept to reveal the different dimensions of business in practice. ).

• “We just want the stuff to sell/move” is a useful parallel to Brīvbode’s “keep it flowing” logic ( #4UDNLK Selling Thrift: Work Practices in an American Thrift Store #HJXUZN / Detecting thrift #U6KN7W #4UDNLK from each individual objects, but by making sure that as many of the donated objects “move” as possible. The principle acts as a way of using up the donated things, but also as a way of making sure that they do not end up on a shelf somewhere. Making things “move” is a jargon also applied in conventional retail encouraging sale staff to sell more and applying attractive pricing, to ensure a good flow of goods that ultimately result in higher economic profit. In the thrift store, making things move also ensured an economic flow. At the same time, it makes room for the constant supply of donations that arrive daily at the back door. , #UPS8VP Valuation in action: Ethnography of an American thrift store #SHZ6RT / Valuation in action #T28US8 #UPS8VP Even ordinary items like mugs, T-shirts and paperbacks need individual inspection and consideration to ensure their condition is up to standard. With most objects the condition has to be perfect. At the same time, because the organisation has a strong commitment to generating as much profit for the charities as possible, the inspection and consideration of each object is taken very seriously. Everything that is donated is valued. One day when I was working at the back door with Scott pricing objects, I came across some office supplies that were left at the bottom of a box: some pins, a roll of tape, some post-its, pens, etc. I asked Scott if he ever priced stuff at less than fifty cents, because I had just priced a number of items slightly bigger and more attractive than these at fifty cents. He told me they did not and said I should 'bundle them together'. Bundling means finding a way to ensure the items stay together, either by securing them with tape or using one of the various sized bags they keep for the same reason. I made bundles of ten pens and an eraser for two dollars, or three post-it blocks, or three packets of staples + five pens. I then taped up the bags, priced them and put them in 'office supplies' in the homeware section of the store. As an expression of the thrifty approach adopted in the Community Thrift, investing some time ensures the leftover objects become marketable. Over the six months I worked in the warehouse I heard again and again the statement that 'we just want the stuff to sell'. No one prices objects in the expectation that the items will hang around until the right buyer (maybe) turns up: the objects must 'move' . This is an underlying principle, just like the principle that the organisation will try to raise as much money as possible from the donations they receive. ).

• Larsen also describes valuation as categorisation that temporarily fixes value so objects can re-enter second-hand economies ( #7EJUMJ Valuation in action: Ethnography of an American thrift store #SHZ6RT / KEYWORDS #NJEST3 #7EJUMJ This article documents the workings of a contemporary second-hand thrift store in California. It offers descriptions of the actions, considerations and circumstances of performing valuations in the context of a thrift store. The ethnographic notes were collected during six months of fieldwork and subsequent returns, and present accounts of the practices, values and people involved in turning the remainders of consumption into cultural commodities. In the process stories are used to elucidate the interwoven relations between the things, the people and the community. The primary objective of this article is to give a detailed view of the everyday activities of a thrift store. As such it offers a view of contemporary practices to supplement historical accounts. Therefore the ethnographic details are only contextualised towards the end of the article to initiate an analytical understanding of valuation practices. Taking Mary Douglas' statement on dirt as a point of departure, 3 the article shows how values are temporarily fixed in the objects in order to allow them to re-enter the second-hand economies. The process of categorisation of the objects constitutes sense-making practices that allow cultural value to be attached to the objects. The process of transforming discards creates a nexus between gift and market exchange and the valuations manifest a number of values that collectively bring second-hand objects to market. These involve economic factors and knowledge of the market as well as social value for the community and emotional value attached to the process of donating. Identifying categorisation as pivotal in bringing second-hand objects to market, the article shows how valuation practices are constantly adapted to the realities of disorder and how things, no matter how rigorous the practice, continue to fall through the gaps. ).

This would help make #ZU8ZS9 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Valuation work without the context of price #L5PE5X #ZU8ZS9 In retail, price is a formal evaluation that functions to slows acquisition and signals value. When price is removed a moral and more relational valuation comes to the fore. Valuation work is the ongoing effort of assessing what is worth taking and bringing, and what should be left or discarded. As Beswick-Parsons et al. (2025) note, those committed to reuse develop an ability to perceive value where others do not, and this evaluative skill is a key to circulation work. more grounded: in Brīvbode, price disappears, but valuation does not.

Circular consumption as care and work

For #VFVNL8 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / The Work of Circular Consumption #F2943E #VFVNL8 Work and care are close and overlapping concepts in this account. As Bankovska (2020: 13) observes, drawing on Graeber (2018: 156), care is not always a joyful or pleasant act – it involves unanticipated effort, obligation, hesitation, and sometimes disgust. In this sense care resembles work: activities performed because they need to be done rather than because they are intrinsically rewarding. The chapter uses consumption work as its organising framework while recognising that the boundaries between consumption work, volunteer labour, and care work are difficult to maintain in practice, and that this difficulty is itself analytically significant. , #737NYX Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Valuation work without the context of price #L5PE5X #737NYX Curation extends valuation work beyond sorting into knowing and managing people's needs. Rasa describes it as having "a filter". She sometimes holds specific items for specific regular visitors based on accumulated knowledge about their life circumstances: a particular colour of top for a visually impaired visitor, a wedding gift set aside for a regular who recently moved from homelessness into social housing. This is care work and consumption work simultaneously – relational knowledge that cannot be systematised or delegated, and that makes Brīvbode function as something more than a drop-off point. , #4PNKDC Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Modal labour across socioeconomic modes #A43655 #4PNKDC Brīvbode brings together different forms of work – unpaid volunteering, household management, neighbourly help, care work, and informal exchange – in ways that blur distinctions between market and non-market activity and make the labour difficult to recognise as work at all, even though the system depends on it. As Mesiranta et al. (2025) describe, community-based circular consumption initiatives perform care work that more marketised arrangements cannot. Sequential reuse, as Hobson (2020) argues, depends not on material availability alone but on the social circularities – the relational labour – that keep things moving between people. , #DGLFX7 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Processual labour: exchange networks and gendered work #38335C #DGLFX7 Madara does divestment work for her aunt whose belief that worn objects carry the energy of previous owners prevents her from donating. In order to get to Brīvbode, the objects must pass through Madara first. "I know that most likely they would simply be thrown away or burned." The most laborious divestment case came from Aiga, who spent months coordinating the recirculation of her relatives' possessions after a relocation, making thirty trips to Brīvbode. A single call to a clearance firm would have resolved everything in one visit, Aiga says, but she chose the harder route because she could not allow things to be discarded: "Sometimes you really do want to just throw it out, but that inner feeling simply won't let me." This is consumption work as self-imposed ethical burden of activities that need to be done out of obligation. :

• Tölg/Fuentes argue that circular clothing consumption involves care, but care requires resources and can fail when resources are missing ( #VP8FU5 The (im)possibilities of circular consumption: Producing and performing circular clothing consumption in retail and household settings #8EVNK8 / Title: Care and circularity: how the enactment of care enables and shapes the circular consumption of clothing #86QEGH #VP8FU5 We contribute to sociological circular consumption research that previously showed the ethical and consumption work involved with circular consumption (Hobson et al., 2021; Lehtokunnas et al., 2022; Närvänen et al., 2023; Sutcliffe, 2022), as well as the challenges of performing circular consumption (Åberg and Greene, 2024; Wethal and Hoff, 2024). In our study, we add to this research stream in several ways. We first show how care practices are intertwined with circular consumption, by illustrating how the work involved with circular consumption can be perceived as more meaningful through care, and how the challenges of circular consumption can, at least partly, be understood as problems in enacting the care practices. Second, with our findings, we add to the somewhat ignored social and relational aspects of performing circular consumption (see also Meißner, 2021; Morrow and Davies, 2022), by showing how participants cared for known or unknown others through performing circular clothing consumption. Lastly, with the findings on the problems and failures of enacting care practices, we show that it is not enough for consumers to be concerned and take responsibility for others. For care enactments, and hence for the performance of circular consumption, resources must be present. These resources were often lacking in the wider market arrangements. ).

• Their paper says circular consumption is socially and materially embedded and requires consumption work ( #B6BCMX Care and circularity: how the enactment of care enables and shapes the circular consumption of clothing #AVNZLE / Introduction #QR437R #B6BCMX In pursuing a practice approach to care and circular consumption, we align ourselves with the small but dynamic body of work exploring the social, cultural and economic practices and processes involved in the performance of circular consumption (Hobson et al, 2021; Rabiú and Jaeger-Erben, 2022; Greene et al, 2024). Among other things, this research has shown that circular consumption is deeply embedded in contemporary consumer culture and that the recirculation of goods is not necessarily driven by environmental values and can conversely lead to the normalisation of surplus (Gregson et al, 2013). Research in this vein has also emphasised the need to draw attention to the materialities involved in circular consumption and take into account how diverse circular consumption practices are both ‘socially and materially embedded in the choreographies of everyday life’ (Holmes, 2018: 146). Finally, sociological research has also drawn attention to the consumption work required of households to develop and maintain everyday circular consumption practices (Hobson et al, 2021; ).

• Tan & Yeoh cite Hobson’s “social circularities”: sequential reuse is not automatic; it depends on relational labour ( #WTJQJQ Freecycling Markets as Sustainable Materialist Movements? Closing Reuse Circularity Loops in Singapore #FHZZ6U / 5.1 SHORTENING AND SUSTAINING MATERIAL CIRCULARITY LOOPS #MQYJLV #WTJQJQ which is in line with sustainable materialism's privileging of a collective rather than an individualist politics (see Schlosberg and Coles 2019 ). This also resonates with Campbell-Johnston et al.'s (2020) argument that an item's sequential (re)use is not a given. Rather, (re)use is underpinned by relational labour bound up in what Hobson (2020) calls social circularities. For Teo, the 'meaningful relationships' that a non-monetary material exchange can foster among individuals are paramount, with the "free" in SRRFM denoting not just the free circulation of things but also skills and knowledge', especially those related to material resource conservation (e.g. location of repair clinics). ).

This is extremely close to your argument that things do not circulate by themselves; people make them circulate.

Modal/processual labour and invisibility

For #HM3BWV Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Valuation work without the context of price #L5PE5X #HM3BWV The labour of divestment also varies by route. Selling online is preferred when an item retains monetary value, and it requires photographing, writing descriptions, communicating with buyers, arranging delivery or meetings. As one participant noted, for items that might still have some value, "you have to pull yourself together, photograph it and put it somewhere." Brīvbode lowers this work considerably: it is a known, walkable destination where divestment requires neither finding a buyer nor judging a recipient. In Wheeler and Glucksmann's terms, Brīvbode redistributes consumption work – absorbing some of it through volunteer labour while releasing participants from other forms of it. , #A43655 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Modal labour across socioeconomic modes #A43655 #A43655 Modal labour across socioeconomic modes , #SP2V6Q Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Modal labour across socioeconomic modes #A43655 #SP2V6Q Some participants choose Brīvbode precisely because they do not want to perform labour for formal waste management institutions – they prefer the more relational, informal route. This is a modal choice: the same divestment work takes a different socioeconomic form depending on the route chosen, and Brīvbode's modal distinctiveness is part of what recruits and retains its participants. :

• Evans/Jackson/Beswick-Parsons show that reuse work is often invisible because it is coordinated with ordinary domestic labour ( #Q6BLWD Reuse practices and household consumption work #V9QTJP / Conclusion #9KXLER #Q6BLWD Second, whilst existing accounts of package-free shopping have focused principally on the retail-consumption interface, we have explored a range of other domestic practices associated with reuse. In doing so, we join recent geographical debates surrounding household sustainability, everyday consumption, and the material culture of the home to enhance our understanding of the household consumption practices that are involved in enacting the circular economy. These practices are often invisible both to those who carry them out and to environmental policymakers – precisely because they may not be considered as 'reuse' in the formal, narrow, sense of shopping at refill stores using 'reusable' containers. We also draw attention to the additional domestic labour ( stock management ) associated with shopping at refill stores, which reflects more commonly observed limitations in negotiating the rhythm of shopping and household consumption routines. While practices, such as refilling, are more-or-less specific to dedicated systems of reuse (e.g. refill in store), we highlight those practices of decanting , stock management , and recirculating can also be observed in relation to conventional supermarket-based consumption and related domestic labour routines. It follows that such practices, commonly observed within the private domain of the home, serve as an integral part of the successful functioning of macro-economic systems (Hobson et al., 2021). The association between reuse practices and broader domestic labour activities suggests that concerns amongst policy makers and commentators about the 'slow uptake' of reusable packaging may be overstated and premised on the potential underestimation of existing behaviours essential to advancing a circular economy. Accepting that not all informal labour is 'exploitative' (Hobson et al., 2021), we suggest that opportunities for transitioning to a more circular economy might be found within existing configurations of consumption and economy as well as in the reconfiguration of shopping practices (cf. Fuentes et al., 2019). ).

• They argue that processual labour in reuse extends beyond the home and raises the question of who — state, market, household — is required to do what work ( #G26N4U Reuse practices and household consumption work #V9QTJP / Conclusion #9KXLER #G26N4U Finally, conceptualizing these activities and tasks as 'consumption work' helps to understand the work that consumers are required to engage in as part of the transition to more circular forms of consumption. For example, the requirement on consumers to bring their own containers to reuse-refill stores results in several processual forms of labour, primarily that of decanting and recirculating . Whilst these activities may be interpreted as domestic labour due to them being household-based, we argue that they play a key role in the wider circuits of the reuse economy, extending well beyond the home. Allied to this, our sensitivity to how labour is distributed along the supply chain (Hobson et al., 2021) allows us to offer a rejoinder to the dominant framing of the role of 'consumers' in the circular economy. In contrast to the prevailing idea that the onus is on consumers to take up and 'accept' new business models and products, our work suggests that more emphasis should be placed on the retail sector to adapt to consumers' existing practices. Differentiating between reuse-refill and reuse-return methods of provisioning (EMF, 2019), raises questions about the nature and amount of consumption work and domestic labour involved in these different systems (Wheeler & Glucksmann, 2015b). Future studies could usefully turn their attention to this complexity and nuance. Our approach also raises questions about who (state, market, or household) is required to do what work to ensure the success of reuse systems. As things stand, most of the work falls to individuals who are required to source, prepare, and maintain objects ( recirculate ) in refill systems, integrating these practices into their existing domestic routines. With a growing interest in transitioning towards a shared packaging economy (reuse-return), it is imperative to think about how best to recognize and formalize the work carried out by households whilst also questioning how responsibility and care should be reconfigured and formalized across the wider supply-chain. ).

This supports your point that Brīvbode redistributes work rather than eliminating it.

Gendered labour

For #8QVYKY Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Processual labour: exchange networks and gendered work #38335C #8QVYKY Miller's (1998) research on shopping demonstrates that consumption is often organised around care for others rather than individual satisfaction, and that women frequently function as moral agents in household consumption as they are the ones acquiring, managing, and disposing of goods in relation to the needs of children, partners, and wider social networks. Wheeler and Glucksmann (2015) find the same gendered pattern in recycling: women typically take responsibility for sorting while men handle transport. The fieldwork conducted for this thesis reflects this consistently. Anna states it directly: "It's on me. I'm the one who supplies everyone with clothes and shoes." Silvija organises all divestment decisions in her household and says her husband "would just throw it in the bin." Men's role, where it appears, is typically transport and carrying the bags that women have sorted, selected, and prepared. , #JY7V8V Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Processual labour: exchange networks and gendered work #38335C #JY7V8V The reach of Brīvbode extends considerably beyond those who physically visit it. Several of the most embedded participants perform substantial divestment work not only for themselves but for neighbours, colleagues, and family members, functioning as logistics nodes through which others' surplus flows to the freeshop. Marija's neighbours give her things to take to Brīvbode as she is a frequent visitor and the role has naturalised into her social identity in the building. Māra coordinates pickups from at least five neighbours, takes requests for specific items, and is the only one of her immediate network who actually visits – the rest route their divestment through her. Anna's work colleagues prepare parcels for her to deliver: "They use me. They prepare the bags I need to bring to Brīvbode. And then they say: 'Can you look for something for my teenage daughter?'" , #DGLFX7 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Processual labour: exchange networks and gendered work #38335C #DGLFX7 Madara does divestment work for her aunt whose belief that worn objects carry the energy of previous owners prevents her from donating. In order to get to Brīvbode, the objects must pass through Madara first. "I know that most likely they would simply be thrown away or burned." The most laborious divestment case came from Aiga, who spent months coordinating the recirculation of her relatives' possessions after a relocation, making thirty trips to Brīvbode. A single call to a clearance firm would have resolved everything in one visit, Aiga says, but she chose the harder route because she could not allow things to be discarded: "Sometimes you really do want to just throw it out, but that inner feeling simply won't let me." This is consumption work as self-imposed ethical burden of activities that need to be done out of obligation. , #LQTPNH Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Processual labour: exchange networks and gendered work #38335C #LQTPNH Consumption work is both currently gendered and being transmitted along gendered lines. Kristīne takes her daughters to Brīvbode and uses the visits as occasions for explicit moral education: discussing why they are giving things away, what makes a good divestment decision, what is too worn to donate. She sometimes goes without them to avoid the tears when they want things back; other times the difficulty is the point. "It's also an opportunity to talk about things." The children are learning material quality, the ethics of giving, and the difference between good enough to donate and good enough only to discard. :

• Wheeler & Glucksmann find recycling work is gendered: women tend to sort, men tend to transport ( #AYEXHQ Household Recycling and Consumption Work #4LST57 / Gender and the three stages of recycling consumption work #C9T857 #AYEXHQ As highlighted in the case studies with English consumers, consumption work tasks appear to be differentiated by gender, with women typically taking responsibility for sorting materials and men usually taking responsibility for their distribution to the kerbside/recycling centre. Likewise in Sweden, 'it is mainly the men... who are responsible for taking the waste fractions to the recycling stations by car' (Skill, 2008: 183). Existing research that has explored the relationship between gender and recycling has found that women tend to be more likely to recycle (Oates and MacDonald, 2006; Pettifor, 2012). However, drawing on insights from research in both countries, we argue that recycling consumption work is divided according to the stage at which it falls, with women more likely to be involved in the supply of recyclable materials and men more likely to distribute the materials to the kerbside or recycling centre. So it is not the case that 'men or women perform more or less environmentally friendly activities, but that the responsibility , #KCKDVU Household Recycling and Consumption Work #4LST57 / Conclusion #BRWHQV #KCKDVU This chapter has offered useful insights into the difficulties that some consumers face when sorting their waste for recycling, with uncertainties about what can be recycled and how it ought to be distributed relating back to the wider system in which these decisions are shaped. Different household members can have quite different understandings and levels of competence when it comes to sorting their waste. Thus, we have identified some key practical barriers to recycling at home which may be of interest to those with responsibility for promoting recycling within society. Our research further shows that recycling consumption work tasks are differentiated by gender within the household, with women typically taking responsibility for sorting materials and men usually taking responsibility for their distribution to the kerbside/recycling centre. This finding challenges existing research which has claimed that women tend to carry the burden of sustainability policies within the household – although women are likely to spend more total time sorting and storing waste, with men's contribution related to the less regular task of distribution. ).

• The article version makes the same point very directly ( #GR39TD Untitled thesis #VWPB2S / Recycling consumption work and societal divisions of labour #3PUVKE #GR39TD Returning to each dimension of the SEFL framework; we have illustrated how consumers perform three distinct recycling tasks (dimension 1) – of supply, warehouse and distribution – which can have a knock-on effect for the processes of labour that precede/follow it. This technical division of recycling consumption work reveals a historically distinctive and specific division of labour which contrasts with arrangements in many countries, especially in the global south, where consumers do not sort their waste but rather this is done by waste pickers on vast waste dumps (Beecheno, 2013). Our research further shows that within the household, recycling consumption work tasks are differentiated by gender, with women typically taking responsibility for sorting materials and men usually taking responsibility for their distribution to the kerbside/recycling centre. This finding challenges existing research which has claimed that women carry the burden of sustainability policies within the household – although, women are likely to spend more total time sorting and storing waste, with men's contribution related to the less regular task of distribution. ).

• Evans/Jackson/Beswick-Parsons also connect sustainability labour to existing gendered household dynamics ( #8EF7DD Reuse practices and household consumption work #V9QTJP / Literature review #ZZ3Y5X #8EF7DD Within the context of household waste management practices, economies of consumer recycling remain a predominant focus in household work. Through a variety of recycling tasks and activities including cleaning, squashing, disassembling, sorting, storing, and transporting items, Wheeler and Glucksmann (2015a) highlight the interdependencies of such work within the home, with work tasks conducted by other waste management actors/technologies (see also Chappells & Shove, 1999; Middha & Horne, 2024). Seldom recognized as 'work', but rather portrayed as 'a conscious green act' (Oates & McDonald, 2006, p. 421), recycling activities are often enacted through a moral economy of resource stewardship and environmental citizenship. They are also, however, embedded within relations of familial care, conventions of household order in keeping one's house tidy, norms of cleanliness and hygiene, and conveniences more generally (Pedersen & Manhece, 2020; Wheeler & Glucksmann, 2015b). Contributions such as Lindsay and colleagues on consumption work in low waste households, not only emphasize debates about sustainability and transition to a circular economy failing to recognize the amount of additional labour often required, but also the gender disparity in enacting this (Lindsay et al., 2024). They draw to attention the inclusion of 'sustainability labour' as part of existing household dynamics and gendered practices (see also Wheeler & Glucksmann, 2015a), in attempts to reduce plastic consumption involving new and additional modes of shopping and relying on other domestic activities, such as meal planning. These ideas build on earlier work by Organo, Head and Waitt, who found that women spent more time on sustainable practices than men and did so more often (Organo et al., 2013). Referring to waste management in apartment living, Horne et al. (2022) refer to the temporalities and rhythms of plastic waste being intensified due to space requirements, or lack thereof, with practices of sorting, recycling, and disposing of plastic waste important in maintaining household hygiene, convenience, and emotions of living in apartment spaces. ).

This is a very solid citation base for your gendered Brīvbode argument.

Specific paragraphs/sections to move or revise

I tagged the obvious fragments as fragment: #QPZXSP Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #QPZXSP In absence of a specific receiver, , #JXSMQW Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #JXSMQW Competencies of Circulation , #YNMVCK Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #YNMVCK The competencies associated with freecycling are not skills in the most traditional sense – freecycling does not require years of training. They are largely social and evaluatiove: knowing how to read quality, when to come – , #8R7Q44 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #8R7Q44 While alternative, these meanings simultaneously overlap with some of the meanings present in capitalist consumption – , #T9XJDZ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #T9XJDZ Quiet sustainability – sustainable practices without added sustainability meaning. , #B3S7DW Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #B3S7DW 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. , #WQCQ9A Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #GGGPNV #WQCQ9A CONCLUSION , #MC4GH7 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #GGGPNV #MC4GH7 Visitors perhaps do not witness the complete material streams, but they see – .

Most important edits:

1. Merge #QPZXSP Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #QPZXSP In absence of a specific receiver, into #LHMEDR Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #LHMEDR 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.
   #QPZXSP Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #QPZXSP In absence of a specific receiver, is just a dangling clause.

2. Move or integrate the competencies list #JXSMQW Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #JXSMQW Competencies of Circulation – #7AQN26 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #7AQN26 “on material literacy, meaning the skills and knowledge about different materials, how durable they are and with what treatment they last longest. This includes knowledge about appropriate washing, storing (Figures 2 and 3) and other care techniques like using a lint shaver or an iron.”
   Best home: Chapter 5.2, “Valuation work without price.” These are really about evaluative labour, material literacy, acquisition discipline and sorting work.

3. Finish #8R7Q44 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #8R7Q44 While alternative, these meanings simultaneously overlap with some of the meanings present in capitalist consumption –
   Suggested completion:
   “While alternative, these meanings simultaneously overlap with some meanings present in capitalist consumption: novelty, self-expression, distinction and the pleasure of the search. Brīvbode does not stand outside consumer culture so much as recombine some of its meanings within a non-monetary arrangement.”

4. Tighten #6535KC Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #6535KC Quiet or reflected sustainability?
   Keep #FNDALQ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #FNDALQ 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. , #NDV326 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #NDV326 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. , #VQARCF Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #VQARCF 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. , #XHSHXZ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #XHSHXZ 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. , #XNL7TE Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #XNL7TE 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. , #NVL4HP Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #NVL4HP 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. [..] , #3N5GKC Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #3N5GKC 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. , #EWC4HE Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #EWC4HE 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. /#B4P2SJ/#X9XV4X if needed. Remove or integrate #T9XJDZ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #T9XJDZ Quiet sustainability – sustainable practices without added sustainability meaning. and #B3S7DW Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #B3S7DW 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. .

5. Clean Chapter 5 conclusion
   Keep #8JXBYH Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #GGGPNV #8JXBYH This chapter has examined the labour that sustains freecycling in Brīvbode, finding it distributed across structural, ethical, and gendered dimensions that existing circular economy frameworks tend to overlook. Wheeler and Glucksmann's consumption work concept names the structure: tasks that paid institutions would perform in formal retail or waste management contexts are here absorbed by unpaid volunteers and participants, distributed across modal and processual dimensions that stretch well beyond the freeshop itself. Bankovska and Graeber name the motivation: much of this labour is not transferred from institutions onto reluctant consumers but self-imposed through ethical commitment and care – activities people perform because they cannot bring themselves not to. Miller names who bears it: consistently and disproportionately women, from household sorting and routing to managing others' generosity to transmitting these competencies to the next generation. and #T5LNZ9 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #GGGPNV #T5LNZ9 Circular consumption requires substantial labour, and that labour is unevenly distributed. Sustainability of initiatives like Brīvbode depends on a structural condition – the sufficiency-oriented, time-rich, predominantly female volunteer and participant base that circular economy policy rarely names or supports (Hobson et al., 2021). Some of this labour is unreflexive and habituated – Aiga's inner feeling that prevents easy disposal, Marija's building logistics naturalised into her social role. Some is deliberate and effortful – Kristīne's category-by-category method, Madara working on her impulse-acquiring. Both are labour, but they are differently visible, and the unreflexive forms are the hardest to see and the hardest for policy to reach. as the real conclusion. Fold useful phrasing from #ENZMT5 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #GGGPNV #ENZMT5 Naming the forms and distribution of consumption work is the chapter's contribution. Circular consumption requires substantial labor; that labor is unevenly distributed; and the sustainability of initiatives like Brīvbode depends on a structural condition – the sufficiency-oriented, time-rich, mostly female volunteer and participant base. and #JJA5J6 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #GGGPNV #JJA5J6 Some of this work is unreflexive and habituated, some is deliberate and effortful (Madara working on her own impulse-acquiring, Kristīne's category-by-category method). Both are labor, but they are differently visible – and the unreflexive forms are the hardest to see and the hardest for policy to reach. into them; delete #WQCQ9A Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #GGGPNV #WQCQ9A CONCLUSION .

6. Consider moving #YNFMZ5 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #GGGPNV #YNFMZ5 An example of acquisition functioning as a concerted social practice is found in Daniel Miller’s study of flea markets and antiques. For the participants, visiting these markets is a "highly regular commitment"–often a weekly ritual–focused on the constant circulation, exchange, and re-acquisition of objects. In this context, the routine of trading and collecting is more important than the individual objects themselves. This suggests that for some, the practice is not "using" the thing, but the rhythm of the search and the acquisition itself. to Chapter 4 acquisition meanings
   The Miller/flea-market point fits the rhythm and pleasure of acquisition better than the Chapter 5 conclusion.

7. #ANCRJA Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #GGGPNV #ANCRJA Transactions of consumption work: “Rasa saka, ka darbs Brīvbodē dažreiz ļauj viņai nejusties vainīgai par to, ka viņa nesašķiro atkritumus.” is interesting but needs a home
   Rasa feeling less guilty about not sorting waste because she works at Brīvbode could become a sharp small paragraph on “transactions of responsibility” in Chapter 5.3 modal labour.

The big argument emerging

A concise version of the combined Chapters 4–5 argument could be:

Brīvbode sustains circularity not simply by making things available, but by assembling a practice of circulation: a physical site, moral meanings of exchange and responsibility, competencies of valuation and restraint, and repeated performances by givers, takers and volunteers. Yet this circulation is not frictionless. It depends on unpaid, gendered, often invisible consumption work: sorting, cleaning, transporting, judging, curating, remembering others’ needs, and managing one’s own attachments. Brīvbode therefore appears both as an alternative moral infrastructure and as a pressure valve for overconsumption.

That argument is already present in #GJ3YQT Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #QS26PQ #GJ3YQT This does not resolve the tension running through the chapter of Brīvbode functioning simultaneously as a moral circularity infrastructure embodying an alternative value regime of exchange and responsible material life – and as a low threshold overflow channel that absorbs the surplus generated by the consumption patterns it aspires to counter. This tension just reflects the observed dynamic of how sustainable practices are embedded in contemporary life. and #T5LNZ9 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #GGGPNV #T5LNZ9 Circular consumption requires substantial labour, and that labour is unevenly distributed. Sustainability of initiatives like Brīvbode depends on a structural condition – the sufficiency-oriented, time-rich, predominantly female volunteer and participant base that circular economy policy rarely names or supports (Hobson et al., 2021). Some of this labour is unreflexive and habituated – Aiga's inner feeling that prevents easy disposal, Marija's building logistics naturalised into her social role. Some is deliberate and effortful – Kristīne's category-by-category method, Madara working on her impulse-acquiring. Both are labour, but they are differently visible, and the unreflexive forms are the hardest to see and the hardest for policy to reach. ; the revision task is mostly to make every section clearly serve it.

I saved a durable revision note with the citation map and structure suggestions: #BFHK52.

Yes — this is exactly the kind of “chapter spine” that should make the redrafting less like wrestling an octopus in Word. Below is a proposed reorganized Chapter 4 using mostly existing paragraph blocks, with suggested new headings and brief notes about what each paragraph does. I also mark where I think you need new connective tissue or where a paragraph should be merged / shortened / moved to Chapter 5.

Proposed Chapter 4 spine

Chapter 4: Keeping Things Moving: Brīvbode as a Practice of Circulation

Alternative title if you want to stay closer to the current one:
The Circulation of Things and the Practice That Sustains It

Core argument of the chapter:

Brīvbode sustains circulation not simply by making free things available, but by assembling a practice: household divestment routes, a physical site, norms of exchange, competencies of valuation and restraint, and plural meanings that recruit different practitioners. The chapter follows things from home, into the shop, through moral/evaluative negotiations, and out again into new use.

4.0 Introduction: following things through the practice

#E3QN63 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / The circulation of things and things that sustain it #3X7JKL #E3QN63 This chapter examines freecycling practice and how it is constituted by its physical venue and the materials flowing through it, the meanings that recruit and retain participants and the competencies that order the exchange processes in Brīvbode. Throughout the chapter I move between analysis of freecycling as practice-entity and the level of individual performances of freecycling as performed, especially attending to moments of friction and tension where the two pull against each other.

Keep. This is already a strong opening: it names the chapter as an analysis of freecycling as practice-entity and performance. It gives you your theoretical frame: physical venue, materials, meanings, competencies, friction.

#QZ8Q4K Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / The circulation of things and things that sustain it #3X7JKL #QZ8Q4K The chapter follows the trajectory of things moving through Brīvbode. It begins with the incoming flow: how and in what cases people divest from their households, how meanings shape what arrives, and how Brīvbode is positioned among other possible divestment routes. It turns to the site itself and the material and infrastructural elements that sustain the practice, and how overflow is managed, including competencies of handling norms on the site. From there it turns to the plurality of meanings sustaining acquisition: how participants experience Brīvbode as useful for acquisition and how the non-monetary context shapes the giving and taking. The chapter closes with a consideration of participant orientation towards freecycling as a sustainability practice.

Keep but revise to match the new outline. Currently it says the chapter follows the trajectory of things, which is exactly right. It just needs to preview the reorganized sections more cleanly.

Possible revised gist:
“This chapter follows things from households into Brīvbode, through the sorting table and shop floor, and into new attachments. In doing so, it shows how circulation depends on material infrastructures, moral meanings, evaluative competencies, and sustainability orientations that do not always align.”

4.1 Divestment begins at home: household rhythms and moral removal

This section should establish that Brīvbode does not begin at the shop. It begins with household overflow, sorting, moving, guilt, attachment, and the need for a socially acceptable route out.

#GXDTQG Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #GXDTQG The material outcome of one practice present in Brīvbode (domestic divestment: things arrive) is a direct resource for another (sequential acquisition: things are taken), sustaining the circularity between different households and the freeshop. Instead of starting at the “shop”, freecycling in Brīvbode can be viewed as starting with the outward flow of things no longer needed or wanted in the household and the question of what to do with them. The practice of managing this flow (what Počinkova et al. (2023) call voluntary disposal) is what brings most givers to Brīvbode. The swapshop offers them an opportunity for circulating materials as well as a way of managing attachment and detachment from things. Brīvbode is one node in the available infrastructure of divestment, and is distinguished from others by what it means to route things through it.

Keep as the conceptual opening of the empirical chapter proper. It nicely says that one practice’s output — domestic divestment — becomes another practice’s resource — acquisition. This is the hinge between household and shop.

Connective function: establishes Brīvbode as a node in wider domestic circulation.

#S5FWGM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #S5FWGM 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.

Keep, but possibly shorten. It connects to Shove/Gregson and the migration of thrift from repair into divestment. Useful theory anchor for “responsible disposal” as identity work.

#BGYXVM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #BGYXVM 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.

Keep. Strong analytical paragraph: giving and taking do not necessarily recruit the same carriers or meanings. Very important for the chapter’s structure because it justifies why you treat divestment and acquisition separately.

#FN9Y53 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #FN9Y53 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.

Keep. This gives the ordinary rhythm: things accumulate until a bag is full. Good transition from abstract divestment to practical household temporality.

#FPHE4J Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #FPHE4J 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.

Keep. Expands from ordinary accumulation to larger pulses: moving, renovation, death, downsizing. This gives scale and shows why supply is uneven.

#AZ2L4J Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #AZ2L4J 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.

Keep. Very good material-practice paragraph: the size of the home shapes divestment pressure. Connects domestic infrastructure to circulation.

#LGE48Z Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #LGE48Z 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."

Keep, maybe slightly shorten. This gives texture to decluttering as cultural script and embodied relief. Viesturs’s quote is good because it also links decluttering culture to Brīvbode’s supply quality.

NEW connective paragraph after #LGE48Z Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #LGE48Z 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."

You need a short bridge from domestic divestment to moral divestment:

These household rhythms do not only produce surplus materially; they also produce a question of responsibility. Once an item is no longer wanted but still usable, participants must decide not only how to remove it, but how to remove it well.

#9XUQEC Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #9XUQEC 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.

Keep. This is key. It names the moral work that Brīvbode does: relieving guilt, maintaining responsible consumer identity, transferring responsibility.

#WWSZA8 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #WWSZA8 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.

Keep. Excellent paragraph. It explains visibility as affective closure: people like seeing things being taken. This is an important distinction from textile containers.

4.2 Imagined receivers and contested usability

This subsection should develop the idea that, because giver and receiver are often decoupled, givers imagine a receiver — and that imagined receiver shapes what counts as “good enough.”

#QPZXSP Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #QPZXSP In absence of a specific receiver, + #LHMEDR Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #LHMEDR 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.

Merge. #QPZXSP Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #QPZXSP In absence of a specific receiver, is currently a dangling clause. Fold it into #LHMEDR Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #LHMEDR 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. .

Rewritten opening idea:
“In the absence of a specific receiver, givers construct a figure of a possible receiver, and this imagined recipient shapes what they consider appropriate to bring.”

Then keep Aiga’s imagined homeless/needy receiver example.

#R6NNGM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #R6NNGM 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.

Keep. This is a very strong paragraph because it shows how imagined receivers collapse into real social negotiation. Aiga’s uncertainty and avoidance after being criticised gives the section emotional force.

#R7549E Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #R7549E 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.

Keep, but maybe use as a transition. It summarizes that supply is shaped by contested meanings, evaluative competencies, and domestic rhythms.

NEW connective paragraph after #R7549E Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #R7549E 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.

Bridge from imagined receiver to unruly materiality:

Because these judgements are made before the object meets either volunteers or takers, Brīvbode receives not only clearly reusable goods but also ambiguous materials whose status remains unresolved until they enter the shop.

#PUVY95 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #PUVY95 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.

Keep. Strong evidence that Brīvbode becomes a route for ambiguous things: repair projects, fragments, incomplete puzzles, personal hesitation about whether to take things out of your own backpack.

#GGRHDF Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #GGRHDF 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.

Keep. Very good ethnographic paragraph. It shows multiple scales of “usable”: sugar packets, expired covid tests, plastic containers, wire offcuts. The “imagined right-owner who may not exist” is a brilliant concept; foreground it.

#QDFKGX Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #QDFKGX 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”.

Keep. This balances the previous paragraph: unpredictable supply produces both burden and magic. Nice transition toward acquisition meanings later.

#YEPTVU Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #YEPTVU 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.

Keep. Important structural critique: Brīvbode as pressure valve for fast fashion and retailer surplus.

#QT3B9B Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #QT3B9B 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.

Keep as the mini-conclusion of this subsection. Strong: Brīvbode as both alternative caring system and low-threshold overflow channel. This could almost be the chapter’s central tension.

4.3 The site as infrastructure: making circulation visible and possible

This section should move from households into Brīvbode as a material site. I would combine the current “Managing the flow on site” and “Material elements” sections.

#ALYNWW Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Managing the flow on site #WY6KPH #ALYNWW 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."

Move here as an opening scene. Good sensory/temporal start: queue, opening time, “It begins.”

#Z48STM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #Z48STM 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.

Move after #ALYNWW Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Managing the flow on site #WY6KPH #ALYNWW 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." . This gives the theoretical point: physical co-presence matters because things can be handled, tried on, assessed.

#YLHWNT Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #YLHWNT 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.

Keep. This is crucial: permanence and storage distinguish Brīvbode from temporary freecycling markets. Strong Tan & Yeoh connection.

#PU3CKA Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #PU3CKA 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.

Keep here. Shows that the physical format also produces social rhythm: regular visitors, Thursday/Friday, known volunteers, structure to the week.

#T7BS4V Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #T7BS4V 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.

Move after #PU3CKA Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #PU3CKA 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. or before it. This paragraph is about the shop’s visual/material arrangement and contested meanings of presentation. It is important because it shows that “materials” are not just objects but also shelves, spacing, hangers, aesthetics.

Possible order note:
I slightly prefer #T7BS4V Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #T7BS4V 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. before #PU3CKA Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #PU3CKA 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. if you want to discuss the room first, then sociality. But #PU3CKA Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #PU3CKA 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. after #YLHWNT Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #YLHWNT 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. also flows well because permanence enables repeat visits.

#2YWFSM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Managing the flow on site #WY6KPH #2YWFSM 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.

Move here, after the site has been established. This introduces ownership transfer: once things enter the shop, they become Brīvbode’s to manage.

#TVPES3 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Managing the flow on site #WY6KPH #TVPES3 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.

Keep after #2YWFSM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Managing the flow on site #WY6KPH #2YWFSM 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. . It explains the speed of sorting and “moving things along.” Good Larsen anchor.

#HZZ52R Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #HZZ52R 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.

Keep. Important infrastructural paragraph: Brīvbode depends on textile containers, storage collaborations, charity organizations. This complicates any image of a closed circular loop.

#EP6U2C Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #EP6U2C 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."

Keep. Very strong fieldwork: overflow as embodied volunteer experience. Rasa’s “relief that these clothes are dirty” is great and darkly funny in the correct academic way.

#AUZKM4 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #AUZKM4 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.

Keep. Excellent ethnographic illustration: the shop swallows its own offerings. Could follow #EP6U2C Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #EP6U2C 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." as a concrete scene of overflow.

#DZ72UL Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #DZ72UL 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.

Keep. Very interesting: even after the site closes, the flow continues. This shows the practice has recruited carriers beyond the immediate infrastructure.

#BW6UMW Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #BW6UMW The things are made visible by being put in the shop. It makes the material overflow more visible – there is no “away” to throw your things.

Keep, but expand or merge. As it stands it is fragment-like but conceptually strong: putting things in the shop makes overflow visible; there is no “away.”

Possible revised version:
“By making things visible in the shop, Brīvbode also makes material overflow visible. Unlike textile containers or household bins, the shop does not allow things to disappear into an imagined ‘away’; volunteers and visitors encounter the volume, quality and ambiguity of surplus directly.”

4.4 Gendered stock, evaluative norms and situational boundaries

This section can retain some of the current “Circulation norms and competencies,” but I would not keep the long competencies list here in full. Chapter 4 needs enough about competencies to show how the practice is performed; Chapter 5 can take over the fuller “work” analysis.

#C6YRCL Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #C6YRCL 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.

Keep. This is a good bridge from material stock to gender: women’s and children’s clothing dominate, reflecting gendered household consumption management.

#WVZQRH Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #WVZQRH 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.

Keep but maybe shorten or move partly to Chapter 5. In Chapter 4, its function is to show that sorting competency is not self-evident. In Chapter 5, it could become labour. If kept here, emphasize “competency” rather than “work.”

#LXRLTL Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #LXRLTL 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.

Keep. Strong example of different thresholds for men’s clothing. Shows that evaluation norms are gendered and situational.

#QY9B8B Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #QY9B8B 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.

Keep. This is the clean introduction to norms: rules are relational rather than categorical.

#9X74TE Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #9X74TE 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.

Keep. This connects norms to tension between maintaining quality and maintaining relationships.

#WUN97C Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #WUN97C 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.

Keep. Food items provide a useful mini-case of trust, familiarity and informal judgement.

#US7AXR Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #US7AXR 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.

Keep. Medicine provides a stronger boundary case. This paragraph is good because it shows norms being enforced indirectly, without open confrontation.

NEW connective paragraph after #US7AXR Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #US7AXR 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.

Bridge from acceptability norms to learning freeness:

These situational boundaries are not only enforced by volunteers; they are also learned by participants. To participate well in Brīvbode means learning how to interpret freeness, restraint, reciprocity and care in a setting where price no longer performs the work of evaluation.

#ZC2Z2F Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #ZC2Z2F "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." 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 vēlme, ka viss ir bez maksas, tagad ņemam, ņemam, ņemam. Man tas nospēlē kaut kā tieši otrādāk." "Es to uztveru kā apmaiņu. To vārdu 'brīvu' kaut kā izslēdzu... Sākumā tas tā bišķiņ mulsināja, ka esmu kā apzagusies." This is competency acquisition: Madara is learning how to understand and inhabit the value regime of Brīvbode, and she narrates the process explicitly.

Keep here or move to the next section. I would keep it here as the key “competency acquisition” example. Madara learns to replace “free” with “exchange.” This shows moral economy from the participant side.

#JXSMQW Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #JXSMQW Competencies of Circulation , #YNMVCK Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #YNMVCK The competencies associated with freecycling are not skills in the most traditional sense – freecycling does not require years of training. They are largely social and evaluatiove: knowing how to read quality, when to come – , #D33QL7 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #D33QL7 No studentes lauka darba: “Rasa ir visuztrenētākā acs uz mantu kvalitāti; arī izvēloties mantas – visbiežāk apģērbu – ir konkrēti kritēriji, kam sekot, piemēram materiāla biezums vai veids (vilna, kašmirs u.c.). Īsāk sakot – kas ir dabai draudzīgāks, ekoloģiskāks un ilgmūžīgāks.” , #B66BK3 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #B66BK3 On the acquisition side, competency is equally real: knowing when to come, how to navigate the space, how to read what is new. Agate has mapped the visitor typology and times her arrivals strategically. Finding things in Brīvbode rewards the person who comes regularly, builds familiarity with the stock, and returns when something new has arrived. Repeated visiting. Marta describes starting from the first room and returning when there is already something new. , #VG295X Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #VG295X Cleaning and preparing: things brought to Brīvbode are expected to be clean and in reasonable condition. This means washing, checking for stains, sometimes minor repair. Sometimes people don’t wash – e.g. Marija expects the recipient to do it. Anna mentions she never divests anything that has been repaired. , #9LRKLZ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #9LRKLZ Sorting and evaluating: deciding what to bring requires going through possessions, assessing condition, quality, suitability. , #GWTLZ, #JH9JK9 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #JH9JK9 Skill evaluation things – Laura describes herself as a talented secondhand user who checks everything carefully – but she also has taken things in Brīvbode that have turned out broken later. , #UBWP9G Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #UBWP9G Knowing what you need and what you already have. Zane's phone list of things she is looking for, her stylist consultations as an investment in knowing her own preferences – this is the work of self-knowledge in service of not acquiring wrongly. Without it, acquisition becomes impulsive and the divestment work follows. , #Q2A66G Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #Q2A66G Matching to existing possessions. Agate explicitly asks herself whether she could combine this with her other clothes, whether she will actually wear it. This is cognitive work – holding a mental model of your wardrobe and household while browsing. , #7AQN26 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #7AQN26 “on material literacy, meaning the skills and knowledge about different materials, how durable they are and with what treatment they last longest. This includes knowledge about appropriate washing, storing (Figures 2 and 3) and other care techniques like using a lint shaver or an iron.”

Do not keep all of these as separate paragraphs in Chapter 4. They currently read like notes toward a section. I would either:

Option A: Compress into one new synthetic paragraph in Chapter 4

Use them to write one paragraph like:

The competencies of circulation in Brīvbode are largely social and evaluative rather than technical in a narrow sense. Participants learn how to read quality, when to come, how to navigate new stock, how to prepare items for giving, and how to judge whether something will actually fit into their existing wardrobe or household. These competencies include material literacy — recognizing fabrics, durability, stains and repairability — but also self-knowledge: knowing what one needs, what one already owns, and when not to take.

This would draw from #YNMVCK Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #YNMVCK The competencies associated with freecycling are not skills in the most traditional sense – freecycling does not require years of training. They are largely social and evaluatiove: knowing how to read quality, when to come – , #B66BK3 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #B66BK3 On the acquisition side, competency is equally real: knowing when to come, how to navigate the space, how to read what is new. Agate has mapped the visitor typology and times her arrivals strategically. Finding things in Brīvbode rewards the person who comes regularly, builds familiarity with the stock, and returns when something new has arrived. Repeated visiting. Marta describes starting from the first room and returning when there is already something new. , #VG295X Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #VG295X Cleaning and preparing: things brought to Brīvbode are expected to be clean and in reasonable condition. This means washing, checking for stains, sometimes minor repair. Sometimes people don’t wash – e.g. Marija expects the recipient to do it. Anna mentions she never divests anything that has been repaired. , #9LRKLZ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #9LRKLZ Sorting and evaluating: deciding what to bring requires going through possessions, assessing condition, quality, suitability. , #GWTLZ, #UBWP9G Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #UBWP9G Knowing what you need and what you already have. Zane's phone list of things she is looking for, her stylist consultations as an investment in knowing her own preferences – this is the work of self-knowledge in service of not acquiring wrongly. Without it, acquisition becomes impulsive and the divestment work follows. , #Q2A66G Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #Q2A66G Matching to existing possessions. Agate explicitly asks herself whether she could combine this with her other clothes, whether she will actually wear it. This is cognitive work – holding a mental model of your wardrobe and household while browsing. , #7AQN26 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #7AQN26 “on material literacy, meaning the skills and knowledge about different materials, how durable they are and with what treatment they last longest. This includes knowledge about appropriate washing, storing (Figures 2 and 3) and other care techniques like using a lint shaver or an iron.” .

Option B: Move most of this material to Chapter 5.2

This is my preference. These fragments fit very naturally under valuation work without price in Chapter 5.

For Chapter 4, keep only a compressed version that supports “competency” as practice element.

4.5 Exchange, charity and the moral economy of circulation

This section should now move from informal norms to the larger moral framing: Brīvbode is not supposed to be charity, not supposed to be resale, but must tolerate ambiguity because circulation matters.

#VJU6JZ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Meanings: the moral economy of exchange #QLVPVE #VJU6JZ 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.

Keep as opening. It names normative meanings and exchange-not-charity. Strong conceptual paragraph.

#ETSGMU Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Meanings: the moral economy of exchange #QLVPVE #ETSGMU 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.””

Keep. Rasa quote is important and vivid. It shows the equality/reciprocity aspiration.

#B3A7P8 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Meanings: the moral economy of exchange #QLVPVE #B3A7P8 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.

Keep. Widlok/give box frame fits beautifully here.

#AC8LX9 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Meanings: the moral economy of exchange #QLVPVE #AC8LX9 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.

Keep. Applies Widlok to Brīvbode: taking without performing need, but not straightforward sharing.

#8Q8FJL Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Meanings: the moral economy of exchange #QLVPVE #8Q8FJL 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."

Keep. Strong empirical/theoretical tension: resellers violate formal rules but may still move things along.

#MB7WW5 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Meanings: the moral economy of exchange #QLVPVE #MB7WW5 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.

Keep. This is a key analytical paragraph. It names the hierarchy of meanings: circulation can trump non-monetary purity.

#VZMVZA Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Meanings: the moral economy of exchange #QLVPVE #VZMVZA 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.

Keep. Viesturs’s “forest sanitarians” is excellent. It turns morally suspect actors into functional elements of flow. Also shows tactical curatorial competency.

NEW mini-conclusion for section

You need a short paragraph to close this section and prepare the transition to attachment/freeness:

The moral economy of Brīvbode is therefore not a fixed code but a practical hierarchy negotiated in relation to material pressure. Exchange, equality and non-commerciality matter, but they are repeatedly adjusted to the deeper imperative that things must keep moving.

4.6 Freeness, attachment and competencies of letting go

This section should be about what the non-monetary regime does to attachment, commitment, experimentation and restraint. It can stay in Chapter 4 because it directly concerns meanings and competencies of the practice. But some parts could later feed Chapter 5.

#G5UMDM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #G5UMDM 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.

Keep. Strong theoretical opening: Evans, attachment, appropriation/appreciation, monetary investment.

#4ALAE2 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #4ALAE2 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.

Keep. Rasa quote is central. It shows price as a binding force and Brīvbode as loosening commitment.

#HXZYR8 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #HXZYR8 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.

Keep. Good lively fieldwork showing low-stakes circulation and immediate swapping. Adds embodied texture after the theoretical opening.

#UZH6RE Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #UZH6RE 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."

Keep. Trial and return: acquisition does not equal permanent keeping. Very important for how non-monetary circulation alters attachment.

#5YYBKM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #5YYBKM 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.

Keep. Necessary complication: low commitment can also encourage frequent acquisition. This keeps the argument from becoming too celebratory.

#H28B2Q Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #H28B2Q 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.

Keep. Elīna’s responsibility quote is excellent. It balances loosened attachment with increased ethical burden.

#UM6BJY Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #UM6BJY (Sometimes the relation to the shop is a source for jokes: “We have special mega discounts, 100 % – only today and tomorrow!”)

Probably move to footnote or cut. It is charming, but unless you use it to show joking as part of the value regime, it interrupts the analytical flow.

#MPQ4JQ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #MPQ4JQ The self-management work

Cut as heading fragment.

#FJ79YF Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #FJ79YF 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.

Keep either here or move to Chapter 5. I would keep a shortened version here because it fits the “competency of restraint” idea: participants must supply the brake that price would usually provide.

#8ZPRYC Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #8ZPRYC (moral economies of access and restraint)

Cut or integrate. It is a note.

#UYL6TZ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #UYL6TZ "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." 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.” 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.

Keep. Madara’s “not becoming the auntie with three bags” is great. It shows deliberate practice modification and sufficiency without environmental discourse.

#VBVVXQ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #VBVVXQ 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.”

Keep if you want a concrete “enough” example. It shows sufficiency emerging from wardrobe capacity and pleasure in wearing things out.

#5JJ4KK Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #5JJ4KK "Es esmu krājēja. Jā, es esmu krājēja." 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." 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.

Keep, but maybe shorten. Aiga’s hoarding/scarcity/travel story gives biography and post-socialist material insecurity. It may be slightly long, but it is useful.

#KWQ7AQ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #KWQ7AQ "Es labāk šobrīd lēnā garā atbrīvojos... man nav vienkārši žēl paņemt somu un aizbraukt." 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.

Keep if you want the Latvian geopolitical context to surface here. It gives a different, very situated reason for divestment: being able to leave quickly.

#U575JS Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #U575JS "Pieķeršanās jautājums tiek risināts. Viņš ir procesā." "Brīvbode palīdz, tā teikt, šim procesam attīstīties." "Šobrīd jau ir uz robežas, tāpēc es saku, ka ir jāatvadās jau no tā, kas jau ir atrasts." 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.

Keep. Māra explicitly names attachment as a process being worked on. This is one of the strongest “competency of letting go” paragraphs.

#Z22MHT Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #Z22MHT Brīvbode as material infrastructure enabling the practice of letting go. The freeshop does not just receive things; it creates conditions that make divestment possible for people who otherwise could not do it. This is the role of material arrangement in sustaining practice.

Merge with #U575JS Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #U575JS "Pieķeršanās jautājums tiek risināts. Viņš ir procesā." "Brīvbode palīdz, tā teikt, šim procesam attīstīties." "Šobrīd jau ir uz robežas, tāpēc es saku, ka ir jāatvadās jau no tā, kas jau ir atrasts." 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. or use as analysis after it. It is currently more note-like but conceptually important: Brīvbode as infrastructure enabling letting go.

#JV33M5 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #JV33M5 the practice of divestment requires competencies that include emotional regulation and the capacity to detach from objects. Māra is developing these competencies deliberately.

Merge with #Z22MHT Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #Z22MHT Brīvbode as material infrastructure enabling the practice of letting go. The freeshop does not just receive things; it creates conditions that make divestment possible for people who otherwise could not do it. This is the role of material arrangement in sustaining practice. . Good concept but fragment-like.

Possible merged paragraph from #U575JS Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #U575JS "Pieķeršanās jautājums tiek risināts. Viņš ir procesā." "Brīvbode palīdz, tā teikt, šim procesam attīstīties." "Šobrīd jau ir uz robežas, tāpēc es saku, ka ir jāatvadās jau no tā, kas jau ir atrasts." 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. / #Z22MHT Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #Z22MHT Brīvbode as material infrastructure enabling the practice of letting go. The freeshop does not just receive things; it creates conditions that make divestment possible for people who otherwise could not do it. This is the role of material arrangement in sustaining practice. / #JV33M5 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #JV33M5 the practice of divestment requires competencies that include emotional regulation and the capacity to detach from objects. Māra is developing these competencies deliberately. :

Māra’s account makes explicit what is often implicit elsewhere: detachment is not simply an event but a competency developed over time. Brīvbode functions as material infrastructure for this process. It does not only receive things after people have let go; it helps make letting go possible.

4.7 Plural meanings of acquisition: why people keep coming

This section is already strong. It should show that Brīvbode recruits participants through heterogeneous meanings: dignity, access, experimentation, originality, craft, stigma, generational change. This section should come after freeness/attachment because now the reader understands what the non-monetary regime does.

#X6VKPZ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #X6VKPZ 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 the practice to recruit across a wide and socially diverse public. The following section examines the main meaning clusters and what each reveals about how the practice recruits and retains its carriers – what do people experience as useful and rewarding when they opt to take things in Brīvbode.

Keep as section opening. It clearly states the argument: heterogeneous meanings allow broad recruitment.

#QCTGLZ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #QCTGLZ 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.

Keep. Marija: access, dignity, self-presentation, secret source. Very strong.

#PAYAS2 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #PAYAS2 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.

Keep. Anna: aesthetic autonomy, uniqueness, sewing competency, everyday festivity.

#EJM4WU Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #EJM4WU 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."

Keep. Style experimentation and low financial risk. The cross-dressing example is particularly strong because it shows Brīvbode enabling identity/style experimentation.

#8N5CQ8 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #8N5CQ8 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.

Keep. Madara’s craftsperson gaze is excellent. Shows value recognition as competency and waste becoming resource.

#MXY2NM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #MXY2NM 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.

Keep. Important negative counterpart: extracting buttons/zippers damages shared value. This prevents romanticizing craft reuse.

#8R7Q44 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #8R7Q44 While alternative, these meanings simultaneously overlap with some of the meanings present in capitalist consumption –

Finish and keep as bridge from positive meanings to consumer-culture overlap.

Suggested completion:

While alternative, these meanings simultaneously overlap with some of the meanings present in capitalist consumption: novelty, self-expression, distinction and the pleasure of the search. Brīvbode does not stand outside consumer culture so much as recombine some of its meanings within a non-monetary arrangement.

#GN8UUK Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #GN8UUK Alongside the meanings of novelty, originality and access is the meaning of class related stigma, and its presence significantly affects the practice’s recruitability. 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 freecycling as normalized exchange practice for people of all walks of life. While actively and regularly using Brīvbode and also praising the things she has managed to acquire as high quality and aesthetically pleasing, nevertheless, 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.

Keep. Very important corrective: stigma and shame. Marija refusing TV is powerful.

#KBYYFJ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #KBYYFJ 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.”

Keep. Extends stigma to strategic concealment, especially gifts.

#A99SUN Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #A99SUN 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.

Keep. Previous-owner energy / purgatory for things. Very anthropological, and it connects beautifully to object biographies and moral transformation.

#86CMYM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #86CMYM 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”.

Keep as section ending. Generational shift and normalization. Luīze gives a forward-looking contrast to Marija’s shame.

4.8 Sustainability as outcome, meaning and tension

This should be the final analytical section. It should not feel like “and now sustainability.” It should answer: after all this, what kind of sustainability is Brīvbode doing?

#FNDALQ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #FNDALQ 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.

Keep as opening. Viesturs frames Brīvbode as planetary rather than charitable, but also wants fun/joy foregrounded. Good entry into sustainability as one meaning among others.

#NDV326 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #NDV326 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.

Keep. Very good quiet-sustainability example: for Viesturs, the practice has become “a thing I do.”

#VQARCF Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #VQARCF 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.

Keep. Rasa says sustainability is secondary in the intensity of practice. This pairs well with #NDV326 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #NDV326 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. .

#XHSHXZ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #XHSHXZ 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.

Keep. Luīze as explicit sustainability contrast.

#XNL7TE Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #XNL7TE 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.

Keep. Līva shows tension between environmental meaning and actual consumption. Important because it prevents a simple “values cause sustainable behaviour” account.

#NVL4HP Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #NVL4HP 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. [..]

Keep, but maybe shorten because it repeats quiet sustainability definition. This is the main theoretical paragraph.

#3N5GKC Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #3N5GKC 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.

Keep. This is a good clarification: some participants are explicit, some quiet; practice theory can hold both.

#UXQTEY Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #UXQTEY (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.

Do not keep as a full paragraph in Chapter 4 unless rewritten. It reads like pasted literature note. Use the Kropfeld point in a sentence if useful: sufficiency motives can be self-related rather than altruistic/environmental.

#T9XJDZ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #T9XJDZ Quiet sustainability – sustainable practices without added sustainability meaning.

Cut. Fragment.

#B3S7DW Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #B3S7DW 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.

Cut or move to notes/future discussion. Interesting but undeveloped.

#EWC4HE Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #EWC4HE 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.

Keep or merge with #NVL4HP Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #NVL4HP 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. [..] . Useful post-socialist/generational scarcity point.

#B4P2SJ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #B4P2SJ 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.

Keep or merge with #NVL4HP Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #NVL4HP 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. [..] / #3N5GKC Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #3N5GKC 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. . It restates that many come for practical reasons, not activism.

#X9XV4X Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #X9XV4X 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.

Keep as final paragraph of the section, but maybe shorten. It nicely holds quiet/articulated sustainability together and gestures to future research.

#CQFFRY Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #CQFFRY 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."

Use only if expanded. Māra’s quote could support post-Soviet scarcity/reuse, but currently it floats. Either integrate into #EWC4HE Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #EWC4HE 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. or cut.

4.9 Conclusion: Brīvbode as moral infrastructure and overflow channel

The existing conclusion is strong. I would keep all three paragraphs, maybe with slight tightening.

#54DUKD Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #QS26PQ #54DUKD Freecycling in Brīvbode is sustained by a plurality of meanings that are compatible enough to coexist within the same space. Givers come to resolve the moral weight of unwanted things, the site’s permanence and visibility offer a trusted route for it. Takers come for dignity, experimentation, craft materials, social contact or simple convenience. The moral economy of exchange holds these heterogenous orientations together, as it is actively maintained against the pressure of resellers, heavy takers and people looking for charity, yet flexible enough to accommodate them when the alternative is overflow.

Keep. Good summary of plural meanings and moral economy.

#7VVSEQ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #QS26PQ #7VVSEQ 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.

Keep. Clear sustainability conclusion: sustainable outcome without required conscious sustainability orientation.

#GJ3YQT Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #QS26PQ #GJ3YQT This does not resolve the tension running through the chapter of Brīvbode functioning simultaneously as a moral circularity infrastructure embodying an alternative value regime of exchange and responsible material life – and as a low threshold overflow channel that absorbs the surplus generated by the consumption patterns it aspires to counter. This tension just reflects the observed dynamic of how sustainable practices are embedded in contemporary life.

Keep as final paragraph. This is the strongest ending: Brīvbode is both alternative moral circularity infrastructure and overflow channel for surplus.

Possible final sentence tweak:
Instead of “This tension just reflects…” maybe write:

This tension is not a failure of the practice but part of what the ethnography reveals: sustainable alternatives are assembled within, and remain dependent on, the very conditions of surplus they seek to interrupt.

Short “move / compress / cut” list

Definitely fix or merge

• #QPZXSP Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #QPZXSP In absence of a specific receiver, → merge into #LHMEDR Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #LHMEDR 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. .

• #Z22MHT Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #Z22MHT Brīvbode as material infrastructure enabling the practice of letting go. The freeshop does not just receive things; it creates conditions that make divestment possible for people who otherwise could not do it. This is the role of material arrangement in sustaining practice. and #JV33M5 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #JV33M5 the practice of divestment requires competencies that include emotional regulation and the capacity to detach from objects. Māra is developing these competencies deliberately. → merge into analysis after #U575JS Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #U575JS "Pieķeršanās jautājums tiek risināts. Viņš ir procesā." "Brīvbode palīdz, tā teikt, šim procesam attīstīties." "Šobrīd jau ir uz robežas, tāpēc es saku, ka ir jāatvadās jau no tā, kas jau ir atrasts." 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. .

• #8R7Q44 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #8R7Q44 While alternative, these meanings simultaneously overlap with some of the meanings present in capitalist consumption – → finish as bridge paragraph.

Probably move to Chapter 5 or compress into one paragraph

• #JXSMQW Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #JXSMQW Competencies of Circulation

• #YNMVCK Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #YNMVCK The competencies associated with freecycling are not skills in the most traditional sense – freecycling does not require years of training. They are largely social and evaluatiove: knowing how to read quality, when to come –

• #D33QL7 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #D33QL7 No studentes lauka darba: “Rasa ir visuztrenētākā acs uz mantu kvalitāti; arī izvēloties mantas – visbiežāk apģērbu – ir konkrēti kritēriji, kam sekot, piemēram materiāla biezums vai veids (vilna, kašmirs u.c.). Īsāk sakot – kas ir dabai draudzīgāks, ekoloģiskāks un ilgmūžīgāks.”

• #B66BK3 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #B66BK3 On the acquisition side, competency is equally real: knowing when to come, how to navigate the space, how to read what is new. Agate has mapped the visitor typology and times her arrivals strategically. Finding things in Brīvbode rewards the person who comes regularly, builds familiarity with the stock, and returns when something new has arrived. Repeated visiting. Marta describes starting from the first room and returning when there is already something new.

• #VG295X Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #VG295X Cleaning and preparing: things brought to Brīvbode are expected to be clean and in reasonable condition. This means washing, checking for stains, sometimes minor repair. Sometimes people don’t wash – e.g. Marija expects the recipient to do it. Anna mentions she never divests anything that has been repaired.

• #9LRKLZ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #9LRKLZ Sorting and evaluating: deciding what to bring requires going through possessions, assessing condition, quality, suitability.

• #GWTLZ7 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #GWTLZ7 Material literacy – knowing what wool or silk feels like (often with composition labels missing), recognizing a well-made garment, spotting a hidden stain.

• #JH9JK9 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #JH9JK9 Skill evaluation things – Laura describes herself as a talented secondhand user who checks everything carefully – but she also has taken things in Brīvbode that have turned out broken later.

• #UBWP9G Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #UBWP9G Knowing what you need and what you already have. Zane's phone list of things she is looking for, her stylist consultations as an investment in knowing her own preferences – this is the work of self-knowledge in service of not acquiring wrongly. Without it, acquisition becomes impulsive and the divestment work follows.

• #Q2A66G Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #Q2A66G Matching to existing possessions. Agate explicitly asks herself whether she could combine this with her other clothes, whether she will actually wear it. This is cognitive work – holding a mental model of your wardrobe and household while browsing.

• #7AQN26 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #7AQN26 “on material literacy, meaning the skills and knowledge about different materials, how durable they are and with what treatment they last longest. This includes knowledge about appropriate washing, storing (Figures 2 and 3) and other care techniques like using a lint shaver or an iron.”

These are good but belong more to valuation work / consumption work unless compressed as “competencies of circulation” in Chapter 4.

Probably cut or footnote

• #UM6BJY Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #UM6BJY (Sometimes the relation to the shop is a source for jokes: “We have special mega discounts, 100 % – only today and tomorrow!”) — funny, but optional.

• #MPQ4JQ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #MPQ4JQ The self-management work — heading fragment.

• #8ZPRYC Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #8ZPRYC (moral economies of access and restraint) — note fragment.

• #T9XJDZ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #T9XJDZ Quiet sustainability – sustainable practices without added sustainability meaning. — fragment.

• #B3S7DW Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #B3S7DW 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. — interesting but undeveloped.

• #WQCQ9A Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #GGGPNV #WQCQ9A CONCLUSION — Chapter 5 duplicate heading, not Chapter 4.

• #MC4GH7 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #GGGPNV #MC4GH7 Visitors perhaps do not witness the complete material streams, but they see – — Chapter 5 fragment.

One possible final ToC

Chapter 4. Keeping Things Moving: Brīvbode as a Practice of Circulation

4.0 Introduction: following things through the practice
#E3QN63 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / The circulation of things and things that sustain it #3X7JKL #E3QN63 This chapter examines freecycling practice and how it is constituted by its physical venue and the materials flowing through it, the meanings that recruit and retain participants and the competencies that order the exchange processes in Brīvbode. Throughout the chapter I move between analysis of freecycling as practice-entity and the level of individual performances of freecycling as performed, especially attending to moments of friction and tension where the two pull against each other. , #QZ8Q4K Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / The circulation of things and things that sustain it #3X7JKL #QZ8Q4K The chapter follows the trajectory of things moving through Brīvbode. It begins with the incoming flow: how and in what cases people divest from their households, how meanings shape what arrives, and how Brīvbode is positioned among other possible divestment routes. It turns to the site itself and the material and infrastructural elements that sustain the practice, and how overflow is managed, including competencies of handling norms on the site. From there it turns to the plurality of meanings sustaining acquisition: how participants experience Brīvbode as useful for acquisition and how the non-monetary context shapes the giving and taking. The chapter closes with a consideration of participant orientation towards freecycling as a sustainability practice.

4.1 Divestment begins at home: household rhythms and moral removal
#GXDTQG Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #GXDTQG The material outcome of one practice present in Brīvbode (domestic divestment: things arrive) is a direct resource for another (sequential acquisition: things are taken), sustaining the circularity between different households and the freeshop. Instead of starting at the “shop”, freecycling in Brīvbode can be viewed as starting with the outward flow of things no longer needed or wanted in the household and the question of what to do with them. The practice of managing this flow (what Počinkova et al. (2023) call voluntary disposal) is what brings most givers to Brīvbode. The swapshop offers them an opportunity for circulating materials as well as a way of managing attachment and detachment from things. Brīvbode is one node in the available infrastructure of divestment, and is distinguished from others by what it means to route things through it. , #S5FWGM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #S5FWGM 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. , #BGYXVM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #BGYXVM 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. , #FN9Y53 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #FN9Y53 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. , #FPHE4J Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #FPHE4J 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. , #AZ2L4J Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #AZ2L4J 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. , #LGE48Z Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #LGE48Z 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." , #9XUQEC Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #9XUQEC 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. , #WWSZA8 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #WWSZA8 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.

4.2 Imagined receivers and contested usability
#QPZXSP Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #QPZXSP In absence of a specific receiver, + #LHMEDR Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #LHMEDR 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. , #R6NNGM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #R6NNGM 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. , #R7549E Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #R7549E 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. , #PUVY95 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #PUVY95 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. , #GGRHDF Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #GGRHDF 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. , #QDFKGX Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #QDFKGX 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”. , #YEPTVU Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #YEPTVU 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. , #QT3B9B Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Incoming Flow: Divestment From Home #M45HLW #QT3B9B 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.

4.3 The site as infrastructure: making circulation visible and possible
#ALYNWW Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Managing the flow on site #WY6KPH #ALYNWW 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." , #Z48STM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #Z48STM 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. , #YLHWNT Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #YLHWNT 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. , #T7BS4V Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #T7BS4V 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. , #PU3CKA Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #PU3CKA 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. , #2YWFSM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Managing the flow on site #WY6KPH #2YWFSM 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. , #TVPES3 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Managing the flow on site #WY6KPH #TVPES3 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. , #HZZ52R Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #HZZ52R 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. , #EP6U2C Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #EP6U2C 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." , #AUZKM4 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #AUZKM4 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. , #DZ72UL Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #DZ72UL 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. , #BW6UMW Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Material elements in Brīvbode: the physical site and infrastructure #C2AQ4D #BW6UMW The things are made visible by being put in the shop. It makes the material overflow more visible – there is no “away” to throw your things.

4.4 Gendered stock, evaluative norms and situational boundaries
#C6YRCL Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #C6YRCL 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. , #WVZQRH Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #WVZQRH 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. , #LXRLTL Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #LXRLTL 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. , #QY9B8B Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #QY9B8B 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. , #9X74TE Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #9X74TE 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. , #WUN97C Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #WUN97C 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. , #US7AXR Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #US7AXR 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. , #ZC2Z2F Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #ZC2Z2F "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." 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 vēlme, ka viss ir bez maksas, tagad ņemam, ņemam, ņemam. Man tas nospēlē kaut kā tieši otrādāk." "Es to uztveru kā apmaiņu. To vārdu 'brīvu' kaut kā izslēdzu... Sākumā tas tā bišķiņ mulsināja, ka esmu kā apzagusies." This is competency acquisition: Madara is learning how to understand and inhabit the value regime of Brīvbode, and she narrates the process explicitly. , compressed competencies paragraph from #JXSMQW Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #JXSMQW Competencies of Circulation – #7AQN26 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation norms and competencies #FUQJQ5 #7AQN26 “on material literacy, meaning the skills and knowledge about different materials, how durable they are and with what treatment they last longest. This includes knowledge about appropriate washing, storing (Figures 2 and 3) and other care techniques like using a lint shaver or an iron.”

4.5 Exchange, charity and the moral economy of circulation
#VJU6JZ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Meanings: the moral economy of exchange #QLVPVE #VJU6JZ 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. , #ETSGMU Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Meanings: the moral economy of exchange #QLVPVE #ETSGMU 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.”” , #B3A7P8 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Meanings: the moral economy of exchange #QLVPVE #B3A7P8 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. , #AC8LX9 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Meanings: the moral economy of exchange #QLVPVE #AC8LX9 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. , #8Q8FJL Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Meanings: the moral economy of exchange #QLVPVE #8Q8FJL 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." , #MB7WW5 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Meanings: the moral economy of exchange #QLVPVE #MB7WW5 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. , #VZMVZA Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Meanings: the moral economy of exchange #QLVPVE #VZMVZA 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.

4.6 Freeness, attachment and competencies of letting go
#G5UMDM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #G5UMDM 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. , #4ALAE2 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #4ALAE2 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. , #HXZYR8 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #HXZYR8 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. , #UZH6RE Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #UZH6RE 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." , #5YYBKM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #5YYBKM 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. , #H28B2Q Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #H28B2Q 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. , #FJ79YF Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #FJ79YF 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. , #UYL6TZ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #UYL6TZ "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." 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.” 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. , #VBVVXQ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #VBVVXQ 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.” , #5JJ4KK Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #5JJ4KK "Es esmu krājēja. Jā, es esmu krājēja." 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." 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. , #KWQ7AQ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #KWQ7AQ "Es labāk šobrīd lēnā garā atbrīvojos... man nav vienkārši žēl paņemt somu un aizbraukt." 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. , #U575JS Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #U575JS "Pieķeršanās jautājums tiek risināts. Viņš ir procesā." "Brīvbode palīdz, tā teikt, šim procesam attīstīties." "Šobrīd jau ir uz robežas, tāpēc es saku, ka ir jāatvadās jau no tā, kas jau ir atrasts." 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. , merged #Z22MHT Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Non-monetary exchange and attachment: competencies of letting go #V753D5 #Z22MHT Brīvbode as material infrastructure enabling the practice of letting go. The freeshop does not just receive things; it creates conditions that make divestment possible for people who otherwise could not do it. This is the role of material arrangement in sustaining practice. /#JV33M5

4.7 Plural meanings of acquisition: why people keep coming
#X6VKPZ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #X6VKPZ 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 the practice to recruit across a wide and socially diverse public. The following section examines the main meaning clusters and what each reveals about how the practice recruits and retains its carriers – what do people experience as useful and rewarding when they opt to take things in Brīvbode. , #QCTGLZ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #QCTGLZ 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. , #PAYAS2 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #PAYAS2 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. , #EJM4WU Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #EJM4WU 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." , #8N5CQ8 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #8N5CQ8 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. , #MXY2NM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #MXY2NM 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. , #8R7Q44 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #8R7Q44 While alternative, these meanings simultaneously overlap with some of the meanings present in capitalist consumption – , #GN8UUK Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #GN8UUK Alongside the meanings of novelty, originality and access is the meaning of class related stigma, and its presence significantly affects the practice’s recruitability. 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 freecycling as normalized exchange practice for people of all walks of life. While actively and regularly using Brīvbode and also praising the things she has managed to acquire as high quality and aesthetically pleasing, nevertheless, 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. , #KBYYFJ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #KBYYFJ 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.” , #A99SUN Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #A99SUN 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. , #86CMYM Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Plural meanings of acquisition that sustain participation in Brīvbode #Z7Y86N #86CMYM 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”.

4.8 Sustainability as outcome, meaning and tension
#FNDALQ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #FNDALQ 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. , #NDV326 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #NDV326 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. , #VQARCF Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #VQARCF 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. , #XHSHXZ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #XHSHXZ 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. , #XNL7TE Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #XNL7TE 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. , #NVL4HP Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #NVL4HP 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. [..] , #3N5GKC Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #3N5GKC 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. , #EWC4HE Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #EWC4HE 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. , #B4P2SJ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #B4P2SJ 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. , #X9XV4X Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Quiet or reflected sustainability? #6535KC #X9XV4X 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.

4.9 Conclusion: moral infrastructure and overflow channel
#54DUKD Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #QS26PQ #54DUKD Freecycling in Brīvbode is sustained by a plurality of meanings that are compatible enough to coexist within the same space. Givers come to resolve the moral weight of unwanted things, the site’s permanence and visibility offer a trusted route for it. Takers come for dignity, experimentation, craft materials, social contact or simple convenience. The moral economy of exchange holds these heterogenous orientations together, as it is actively maintained against the pressure of resellers, heavy takers and people looking for charity, yet flexible enough to accommodate them when the alternative is overflow. , #7VVSEQ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #QS26PQ #7VVSEQ 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. , #GJ3YQT Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #QS26PQ #GJ3YQT This does not resolve the tension running through the chapter of Brīvbode functioning simultaneously as a moral circularity infrastructure embodying an alternative value regime of exchange and responsible material life – and as a low threshold overflow channel that absorbs the surplus generated by the consumption patterns it aspires to counter. This tension just reflects the observed dynamic of how sustainable practices are embedded in contemporary life.