Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Economic Anthropology
Publication Date
2020
First Page
1
Last Page
16
Abstract/ Summary
This article explores the production of wealth through distributive labor in Maine's secondhand economy. While reuse is often associated with economic disadvantage, our research complicates that perspective. The labor required to reclaim, repair, redistribute, and reuse secondhand goods provides much more than a means of living in places left behind by international capitalism, but the value generated by this work is persistently discounted by dominant economic logics. On the basis of semistructured interviews, participant observation, and statewide surveys with reuse market participants in Maine, we find that the relational value of reuse, produced through caring, flexible, distributive labor, is especially significant. We argue that paying attention to the practices, politics, and value of distribution is critical for understanding wealth in communities perceived to have been left behind by global capitalist systems, particularly as wage labor opportunities and natural resources grow increasingly scarce.
Repository Citation
Isenhour, Cindy and Berry, Brieanne, "“Still good life”: On the value of reuse and distributive labor in “depleted” rural Maine" (2020). Anthropology Student Scholarship. 5.
https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/ant_studentpub/5
DOI
10.1002/sea2.12176
Version
publisher's version of the published document
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.