The Boundaries of Waste, Want, and Reuse: a Qualitative Analysis of Thrift Store Shopping and Dumpster Diving in Washington St
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THE BOUNDARIES OF WASTE, WANT, AND REUSE: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THRIFT STORE SHOPPING AND DUMPSTER DIVING IN WASHINGTON STATE By DARCY ROSE HAUSLIK A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY Department of Sociology JULY 2019 © Copyright by DARCY ROSE HAUSLIK, 2019 All Rights Reserved © Copyright by DARCY ROSE HAUSLIK, 2019 All Rights Reserved To the Faculty of Washington State University: The members of the Committee appointed to examine the dissertation of DARCY ROSE HAUSLIK find it satisfactory and recommend that it be accepted. Emily Huddart Kennedy, Ph.D., Co-Chair Jennifer Schwartz, Ph.D., Co-Chair Jennifer Sherman, Ph.D. Christine Horne, Ph.D. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENT I am grateful to my committee: Dr. Emily Huddart Kennedy, Dr. Jennifer Schwartz, Dr. Jennifer Sherman, and Dr. Christine Horne. Thank you all for sharing your experience and wisdom. I would specifically like to acknowledge my chairs, Dr. Huddart Kennedy for many West-Wing- style walk-and-talk meetings that kept me focused and fit, and Dr. Schwartz for stepping in again after I lost yet another advisor to the Great White North. I would also like to thank my professors for their guidance, my fellow graduate students for their friendship, and especially Donna Jackson, Laurie Byers-Brown, Allison Miller, and Megan Konkel for helping me wage what has often felt like an unending war on bureaucracy. Thank you to my family and friends for all your support throughout this academic adventure. To my Mom and Dad, Dale, and Dianna – thanks for your encouragement and for supporting my often-questionable grad school decisions. I’d like to thank all the generations of the Hausliks and the Hunts for forgiving my 6-year absence from family functions – your love and support means a great deal to me. Thank you to Jarred and Ecko for providing the distractions that kept all this in perspective. Emily, Mary, Anthony, and Bethe kept me sane … mostly. Finally, I must thank Dr. Katherine Bittinger who has gone well beyond the norms of ordinary friendship in supporting me during this project. Very simply, this project would not have been possible without her. iii THE BOUNDARIES OF WASTE, WANT, AND REUSE: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THRIFT STORE SHOPPING AND DUMPSTER DIVING IN WASHINGTON STATE Abstract by Darcy Rose Hauslik, M.A. Washington State University July 2019 Co-Chairs: Emily Huddart Kennedy and Jennifer Schwartz Being a consumer in the contemporary United States is a complicated endeavor. As consumption choices have been linked with issues from declining stocks of natural resources to grievous harm to workers and resource-based communities, an increasing proportion of Americans seek to make “ethical” consumer choices. These ethical consumers buy or avoid specific products to promote social or environmental goals, and perceive these choices as reflecting morality. Yet many ethical consumption choices (e.g., solar panels, organic food) are financially out-of-reach for many, particularly working-class households. How do lower-status people use consumer choices to navigate the complex terrain that maligns mainstream consumption and values socially and environmentally reflective consumption? This dissertation examines thrift store shopping and dumpster diving as two cases of consumption that are both environmentally significant and stigmatized. These cases are theoretically significant because they widen the gaze of studies of consumption to consider the intersection of consumption and iv waste, allowing me to shed light on how identity and social-inequality are processes related as much to waste as to consumption. Further, because these practices reach beyond the realm of elite ethical consumption (i.e., buying organic produce), I am able to discuss how the process of creating distinction is related more to discourse and practice than to any particular item. Specifically, using the case of thrift shopping, I demonstrate how people in different social strata convey distinction within a marginalized consumption space. In the case of dumpster diving, I discuss the process of meaning-making undertaken by a marginalized group. First, I show how economically-constrained dumpster divers, despite adopting a politicized worldview, are hesitant to adopt a political explanation for their consumption habits. From this observation I argue that mainstream political imaginaries rooted in a neo-liberal logic might not resonate with marginalized groups. Next, I show how the stigma of dumpster diving is mitigated not by making appeals to dominant moral frameworks, but by rejecting familiar cultural narratives of what is decent or acceptable behavior. I advance the concept of “active defiance” to capture this pattern. This dissertation has important implications for understanding identity, distinction, and the political imaginaries of marginalized groups. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENT................................................................................................................ iii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................................... x LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 1 Study Sites ................................................................................................................................... 6 Chapter Outline ......................................................................................................................... 12 References ................................................................................................................................. 18 CHAPTER TWO: “IT FEELS SANER:” THE CULTURAL CONTEXT OF THRIFT STORE CONSUMPTION .......................................................................................................................... 21 Thrift Stores: A Social History and Current Patterns Along Social Class ................................ 23 A Brief History of Second-Hand Shopping ........................................................................... 24 Theoretical Overview ................................................................................................................ 31 Dual-Process Framework ...................................................................................................... 32 Social Practice Theories ........................................................................................................ 35 Repertoire Theories: Orders of Worth ................................................................................... 38 Methods ..................................................................................................................................... 41 Findings: Second-hand Distinction ........................................................................................... 46 vi A Place for the Poor............................................................................................................... 47 Search for Authenticity .......................................................................................................... 53 Morality ................................................................................................................................. 56 Discussion ................................................................................................................................. 62 Limitations and Future Research ........................................................................................... 66 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 67 References ................................................................................................................................. 69 CHAPTER THREE: “AN F-YOU TO CAPITALISM”: THE (A)POLITICAL NATURE OF DUMPSTER DIVING .................................................................................................................. 75 Dumpster Diving in the Sociological Literature ....................................................................... 78 Dual-Process Models................................................................................................................. 81 A Dual-Process Model of Dumpster Diving ......................................................................... 85 Methods ..................................................................................................................................... 86 Field Site, Positionality, and Sample ..................................................................................... 87 Interviews .............................................................................................................................. 92 Ethnography........................................................................................................................... 92 Analysis ..................................................................................................................................... 93 Findings: Capitalism: Hungry,