bunnyjadwiga (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bunnyjadwiga) wrote2006-04-19 03:40 pm
bunnyjadwiga) wrote2006-04-19 03:40 pm
The empire of scrounge
I'm interested in Jeff Ferrell, an anthropologist who generally who used an 8-month job hiatus to investigate dumpster-diving as a way of life.
The Chronicle of Higher Education had an article on him:
http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i29/29a01001.htm
He wrote a book basked on his experiences: Empire of Scrounge: Inside the Urban Underground of Dumpster Diving, Trash Picking, and Street Scavenging, published by NYU press in 2006.
What I find particularly interesting about such work is how it touches on the first- and second-hand economies. I'm no Freegan, and their behaviors appall me, but every time I read some writer complaining that buying books secondhand or reading them at the library is stealing from them**, I realize that in a great many ways I'm not as entrenched in the consumer cycle as I thought I was, because of my participation in the second-hand, hand-me-down, and donation economies.
** EDIT: The last time I heard this was an article by Anthony Doerr. Oddly enough, it's currently down off the sponsor's website, but here's an article that reference's Doerr's argument:
http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/letters/readers/not_getting_all_deweyeyed.php
The Chronicle of Higher Education had an article on him:
http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i29/29a01001.htm
He wrote a book basked on his experiences: Empire of Scrounge: Inside the Urban Underground of Dumpster Diving, Trash Picking, and Street Scavenging, published by NYU press in 2006.
What I find particularly interesting about such work is how it touches on the first- and second-hand economies. I'm no Freegan, and their behaviors appall me, but every time I read some writer complaining that buying books secondhand or reading them at the library is stealing from them**, I realize that in a great many ways I'm not as entrenched in the consumer cycle as I thought I was, because of my participation in the second-hand, hand-me-down, and donation economies.
** EDIT: The last time I heard this was an article by Anthony Doerr. Oddly enough, it's currently down off the sponsor's website, but here's an article that reference's Doerr's argument:
http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/letters/readers/not_getting_all_deweyeyed.php
no subject
I'm more of a trashpicker, but you may see me by the side of the road picking up a piece of steel or lumber that fell off a truck, as well.
I have gotten a cherry side table, my first dremel tool, a moped, car parts, shelving, exercise equipment, lumber ( my entire deck is built of dumpstered lumber from someone's addition ), fencing, all kinds of interesting and needed stuff.
My ethics wont allow me to take what would be survival to another, so I do not take clothing which has obviously been laid out for the homeless, or anything like that. Just because it is free doesnt mean it is for me.
I do what I can to keep the costs down, within reasonable limits. I prefer to be part of the re-use economy. This allows us the budget for those items which are best bought new.