The empire of scrounge
Apr. 19th, 2006 03:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyjadwigaI'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
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Date: 2006-04-19 11:58 pm (UTC)We've gotten some furniture and such from trashpicking, but never from actually opening the Dumpsters -- in apartment complexes it's pretty common to leave pieces of furniture next to the dumpster and we got a great dresser that way. Needed to be stripped and refinished but it's now our sideboard in the dining room. Then there's the original-to-the-house doors WITH hardware (circa 1880) that our attached neighbors leave out front. They're probably replacing them with hollow core doors, knowing them...
But complaining about libraries? That's just wrong. How many writers wouldn't be writers if there weren't libraries?