The aim of this paper is to present preliminary findings of a study that is focused on divestment, its elements and the relationship with sociocultural context. Divestment is a concept that comprises those activities that include emotional and physical disposal of material possessions. This paper explores divestment within the context of sustainable consumption, as well as the potential for design disciplines to contribute to the creation of new solutions for the development of sustainable communities. The research was carried out within a cross-cultural framework acknowledging the relevance of contextual and cultural factors involved in the divestment processes: this was accomplished by comparing two countries; Mexico and United Kingdom. This work can contribute to design interventions to affect divestment decision-making process by identifying culturally dependent and independent elements that can impact the pre and post-consumption stages. The outcomes also enable ways of creating and promoting new commercialisation channels.
This paper presents findings of research focused on the divestment of material possessions. It argues that divestment can be better understood as a process instead of a moment in the lifespan of a product. The term divestment refers to the process through which owners separate physically or emotionally from their possessions. Using qualitative data obtained through the Photo-Elicitation Interview method, the study explores the experiences of people on three types of items: clothing, furniture and mobile phone aiming to understand how the separation between owners and possessions occurs. The results were systematised to build a taxonomy of divestment. This taxonomy analyses the divestment process as a negotiation between value-waste, capturing the moments in which the value of a product increases or decreases. The taxonomy consists of five different categories: physical divestment, virtual divestment, keeping/no use, irregular use and in use. The categorisation of these moments through the taxonomy allows to identify moments for interventions in the lifespan of products to promote more sustainable ways of divestment. It also becomes a useful tool for understanding the complexity of product's lifespan and possible interventions for promoting more sustainable ways of consumption.
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