Review of empirical chapters #3X7JKL 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 #3X7JKL The circulation of things and things that sustain it (ch. 4) and #F2943E Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / The Work of Circular Consumption #F2943E #F2943E The Work of Circular Consumption (ch. 5) against theoretical framework #W8HHQV Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Circulation, Practice, and Consumption Work: A Theoretical Framework #W8HHQV #W8HHQV Circulation, Practice, and Consumption Work: A Theoretical Framework .

CHAPTER 4 — structural issues:

• Competencies of Circulation cluster in 4.2.2 is half-prose, half-list and reads as drafting scaffolding: #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 (just heading), #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 – (broken), #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.” (raw fieldnote), then bullet-style paragraphs #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.” . Either turn into 2–3 prose paragraphs or move into 4.3 where competencies of “not acquiring wrongly” overlap with competencies of letting go.

• 4.3 has parallel “self-management work” subcluster ( #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 , #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. , #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) , #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. , #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. ) that duplicates the same theme. Consolidate.

• #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 a fragment that should join #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. .

• 4.5 restates Smith & Jehlička twice ( #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. and #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 #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. [..] , reduce #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. to transition. Note paragraphs in 4.5 still need drafting or cutting: #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. , #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. , #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. .

• Larsen on reversal of economic logic ( #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. ) is stranded; move into 4.2.1 alongside #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. .

CHAPTER 4 — theoretical connections to add:

• Welch et al. (2020) / Askholm (2024) on reflexive 2nd-gen practice theory (already set up in #6VBDKY Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Theories of Practice to Study Alternative Practices? #3DTHL8 #6VBDKY Recent work in second-generation practice theory has begun to reintroduce questions of ethics, culture, and reflexivity into analyses of consumption (Askholm, 2024; Welch et al., 2020). Earlier approaches tended to focus on routine and inconspicuous practices, often sidelining the role of evaluative judgement and cultural meaning. This study engages with this emerging direction by examining how practices of freecycling involve not only routine forms of circulation, but also moments of reflection, valuation, and ethical consideration. ): perfect for 4.5 quiet vs reflected sustainability.

• Nicolini (2017) on practice bundles/complexes ( #RDZMW6 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Theories of Practice #L2J4AM #RDZMW6 Delineating a practice and setting it apart from adjacent practices can be one of the challenges in practice theory, as there are no fixed procedural rules for determining exactly where one practice ends and another begins. Nicolini (2017: 26-27) notes that, while for analytical purposes, practices can be conceived and examined individually, empirically they are always encountered in arrays and multiplicities. Practices “hang together” in bundles and complexes (Shove et al. 2012), distinguished by the density and “stickiness” of their patterns. Practice bundles refer to the more loose-knit relations between practices, often gathered around the same site or time – practices that are related and shape each other but not strongly. Complexes refer to more integrated combinations that can also constitute new practice entities if the relations become significantly denser. In this thesis, I analyse freecycling in Brīvbode as a practice entity and as performed, while recognising the emerging state of freecycling as a practice in Latvia. ): use it explicitly when introducing the chapter — Brīvbode IS a bundle site.

• Gregson (2007) on divestment as ordering work: pull the richer version (chapter 2 #5M9UV4 Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #Q3A3ZZ #5M9UV4 “In their classical taxonomy for describing consumer disposition behavior, Jacoby et al. (1977) illustrated that disposal may involve keeping, donating, selling, recycling, or throwing away, and even within each category, multiple practices exist. Disposal is thus not inherently destructive or wasteful and cannot be reduced to simply ‘throwing something away’, but is an active social practice embedded in ethical, cultural, and material contexts (Hetherington, 2004). This perspective recognizes disposal as an active, meaning-making practice. As Gregson et al. (2007b) argue, divestment is not simply a negative or absent moment in consumer life, but a practice that enables other practices. To sustain certain routines and identities, other objects must be removed. In this sense, disposal is not the final step in a linear production-consumption-waste chain but a recursive moment that helps reorder consumption itself (Gregson et al., 2007a; Hetherington, 2004). Following Douglas (2002), disposal can be seen as part of the ‘ordering work’ of everyday life, where waste becomes threatening not by its material properties but by its symbolic disruptions of social and domestic order (Gregson et al., 2007a; Heidenstrøm & Hebrok, 2021).” ) forward to opening of 4.1.

CHAPTER 5 — structural issues:

• Wheeler & Glucksmann’s three-dimension framework is announced ( #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. ) but only Modal (5.3) and Processual (5.4) get section headings. Section 5.2 “Valuation work without the context of price” IS the technical labour section in disguise — rename it to make the framework visible.

• 5.1 (sufficiency lifestyle) sits outside the three-dimension scheme. Either explicitly frame as structural precondition, or integrate into modal labour.

• Conclusion is a mess: #GGGPNV Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #GGGPNV #GGGPNV Conclusion nested wrongly under 5.4 with good paragraphs #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. . Below them duplicate conclusions #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. say the same thing. Orphan notes #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.” , #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. , #H77SJA Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #GGGPNV #H77SJA Līva L.: "Tā drēbju stanga... man liekas, viņa vēl kādam varētu noderēt. Un es neesmu to vēl tā kā izrisinājusi." A clothes rail that no longer has a place in her apartment but which she cannot yet bring herself to take anywhere – the sense that something is still good, someone could use it, but the act of routing it somewhere requires a decision and work to execute it (and appropriate divestment infrastructure). , #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 – , #QJNPTQ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #GGGPNV #QJNPTQ [No Singapūras pētījuma] 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. , #GDAK2E Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #GGGPNV #GDAK2E “As suggested by these researchers, joint efforts involving various types of actors, such as non-profit organisations and local communities, can help balance marketised care. Examples of this within circular consumption include repair cafés, clothes-swapping events, and community fridges for sharing leftover food in the neighbourhood. Community-based aspects of circular consumption have recently been highlighted (for a review, see Luukkonen et al., 2024), and the role of local communities in adopting and appropriating circular consumption and care should be further examined. Frontrunner consumers may have a significant role to play in establishing these communities and crafting policies that are built from the bottom-up and aligned with their everyday lives.” (Mesiranta et al. 2025: 26) need integrating into body or cutting. Promote #GGGPNV Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Conclusion #GGGPNV #GGGPNV Conclusion to top-level 5.5; delete duplicates.

• Aiga “thirty trips” passage in #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. should open the logistics-node discussion, not close it.

CHAPTER 5 — theoretical connections to add:

• Reno (2016) on women as moral agents (set up in chapter 2 #U9VL8L Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Consumption Work #LMKLTZ #U9VL8L The thesis also attends to the gendered distribution of this work. Ethnographic research has demonstrated that consumption is often organised around care for others, and that women often function as moral agents in household consumption, regulating what goes in and out of households (Miller, 1998, Reno, 2016). Shopping and consumption practices can be seen as acts of care, where people choose items with loved ones in mind, reflecting their role in family and social networks. ) — connects to Aiga’s “inner feeling” that won’t let her throw out.

• Lindsay et al. (2024) and Organo et al. (2013) on sustainability labour absorbed into gendered domestic work ( #9NPNTZ Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Consumption Work #LMKLTZ #9NPNTZ [Second hand source that I should check] (Lindsay et al. 2024) Lindsay et al. (2024) and Organo et al. (2013) find that women consistently spend more time on sustainable household practices than men, and that “sustainability labour” tends to be more absorbed into existing patterns of gendered domestic work rather than redistributed.] , flagged as needing checking) — for #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. (Kristīne and daughters) 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. .

• Beswick-Parsons et al. (2025) decanting/stock management/recirculating vocabulary — name in 5.2.

CROSS-CHAPTER:

• Madara “brīv → exchange” passage doubled at #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. (ch.4) and #MSGHYR Practices of Divestment, Acquisition and Circulation of Things in a Swapshop in Riga, Latvia #FYG32U / Valuation work without the context of price #L5PE5X #MSGHYR On the taking side, valuation work means learning what the absence of price actually requires. As a novice to freecycling practice, Madara was able to recall how disorienting the freeness was on her first visit: "At first it felt a bit like I was stealing." She resolved this by reframing the transaction: "I see it as exchange. I somehow switch off the word 'free'." For her, freeness activates restraint rather than acquisition: "Someone maybe sees 'free' and thinks – everything is free, let's take, take, take. For me it works the opposite way." The absence of price shifts valuation work onto participants, requiring them to develop frameworks of evaluation that the market would otherwise supply automatically. (ch.5). Make one primary, the other a brief callback.