Saving time, saving money, saving the planet, 'one gift at a time': a practice-centred exploration of free online reuse exchange

Online reuse networks seek to reduce waste by connecting people who have something they no longer want with others who might have a use for it. The intention is that 'everyone wins': givers are saved the hassle of disposal, recipients save money and the ecological burden of consumption is eased. Existing research has tended to focus on individuals' motivations for involvement. As part of a wider study of how alternative consumption practices become embedded in everyday life, this paper follows a different line of enquiry, taking its orientation from how theories of practice conceptualise what people do and how this changes. The initial emphasis is on establishing 'what sort of practice' free online reuse is, what makes it different from other ways of acquiring and disposing, and on identifying its constituent materials, competences and meanings. The focus then shifts to how these elements are variably integrated in the performance of reuse. First, what are the implications for how people go about giving and receiving when small details are changed relative to other similar practices? Findings suggest that technologically mediated reuse 'communities' connect some people but exclude others. Eliminating money from the exchange process gives participants access to goods they would otherwise struggle to afford, but at the same time raises questions as to how goods are allocated, potentially privileging other unequally distributed material and cultural resources. Second, the meanings of reuse vary from context to context, in turn corresponding to different kinds of performance. Any given performance can, meanwhile, belong to a number of different practices at the same time

Reclaiming unwanted things: alternative consumption practices, social change and the everyday

This study looks at ways of acquiring, using and disposing of goods 'outside' the formal economy, focusing on three examples of reclamation practices: (1) giving and receiving goods free of charge via online reuse networks; (2) collecting and redistributing unwanted fruit from public and private spaces; and (3) reclaiming discarded food from supermarket bins. A central concern is with the relationship between everyday life and social change: how can engagement in these alternative yet mundane practices be conceptualised as a way to secure wider change? The research engages with and contributes to several intersecting debates, including: the relationship between 'alternative' and 'mainstream' economies; understandings of how new ways of doing things become adopted and spread; and interactions between values and practices. These issues are explored from a practice perspective. Analytical focus shifts from the attitudes and preferences of detached rational individuals to the social organisation of practices and the engagement of embodied social actors with those practices. Attention is paid to the lives of practices and their practitioners: how different social patterns of activity emerge and evolve; and how these become integrated into people's lives. In considering the lives of reclamation practices, analysis draws on participant observation, interviews and documentary sources. Moving on to the lives of practitioners, in-depth interview material takes centre stage, detailing how participants made sense of their engagement in these practices, how they became engaged, how engagement has been sustained and how it fits alongside other everyday practices. Findings can be summarised with respect to two analytical framings of reclamation practices, (1) as alternative consumption practices and (2) as a form of ordinary prefigurative politics. First, the research highlights the messy, overlapping nature of 'alternative' and 'mainstream' economic practices. On the one hand, aspects of capitalist social relations and market valuations continued to play a (problematic) role. On the other hand, concerns with saving money were not straightforwardly utility maximising and rarely existed in isolation from other-oriented social and environmental concerns. Second, the study adds to understandings of everyday practices as expressions of ordinary prefigurative politics, whereby prevailing social arrangements are subject to change by people acting differently. It sheds light on how people come to act differently, seldom a simple response to new information. Involvement in new practices was often a continuation and extension of existing activities. Introduction to new practices came about through interpersonal relationships and/or was prompted by changes in material circumstances. Both were important in practices becoming established in everyday life, as well as fitting alongside other ongoing commitments. Competing forms of value and values were negotiated in navigating between potential ways of acting. Conversely, ongoing engagement in practices helped shape the ways people valued things

Home : no less will do - homeless people's access to the private rented sector

The research on which this report is based was carried out by the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) at Sheffield Hallam University. It was commissioned by Crisis in response to concerns that single homeless people are finding it difficult to access the private rented sector, at a time when there is increased reliance on the sector to meet housing need. Changes introduced through the Localism Act 2011 in England, for example, allowed local authorities to discharge their homelessness duty into the private rented sector (PRS) and gave them greater power to determine who qualifies for social housing. The consequence is restricted access to social housing. In the meantime, however, the Government has introduced a raft of measures affecting the private rented sector, particularly at the low cost end of the market, focused mainly but not exclusively on changes to Housing Benefit (HB). The concern is that the combined effect of policy changes in the social and private housing markets - alongside wider tenure restructuring and market change - will leave many homeless people unable to resolve their housing problems. This study sought to unpick some of these issues, by exploring landlord views and lettings practices on the one hand, and prospective (homeless) tenants’ experiences of trying to access the sector on the other. It also explored views and experiences of private rented access schemes - schemes that seek to provide bette