Downshifting Consumer = Upshifting Citizen? An Examination of a Local Freecycle Community

Abstract

141Critics suggest that contemporary consumer culture creates overworked and overshopped consumers who no longer engage in civic life. The authors challenge this conventional criticism against consumption within an individualistic lifestyle and argue instead that consumers who are "downshifting" do engage in civic life. In particular, this research examines downshifting attitudes among members of freecycle.org, a grassroots "gift economy" community. Results of an online survey show that downshifting consumers are indeed less materialistic and brand-conscious. They also tend to practice political consumption (e.g., boycotts, buycotts). Most important, they tend to engage in a digital form, but not a traditional form, of civic and political participation. The authors contend that alternative forms of consumption might be a new form of civic engagement.

The consumption and disposition behaviour of voluntary simplifiers

“…com (an online classifieds listing service), and freecycle communities; supporting the idea that these communities are fertile grounds for voluntary simplifiers (Nelson et al, 2007). The act of buying second-hand, as opposed to new, was also considered a way of suppressing marketplace signals, as Nicole suggested:…”

“…The avoidance of clutter and reduced consumption are synonymous with voluntary simplicity, and the adoption of the lifestyle implies the disposition of material possessions (Nelson et al, 2007). In one of the earliest papers on disposition, Jacoby et al (1977) argue that a consumer has three choices with regard to disposition behaviour: keeping an item (i.e.…”

“…In the early stages of adopting the voluntary simplicity lifestyle, the disposition of material possessions is an implicit requirement (Nelson et al, 2007). Annie was representative of the participants interviewed in this study when she listed what she had done in order to adopt the lifestyle:…”

“…While voluntary simplicity necessitates a reduction in consumption (Shaw and Newholm, 2002), within the context of reducing consumption, disposition activities also occur. When adopting the lifestyle, voluntary simplifiers enter a concentrated period of de-cluttering where they must be able to dispose of goods, and decouple notions of identity from these goods (Nelson et al, 2007). Then, once fully immersed in the lifestyle, voluntary simplifiers exhibit changes in consumption due to their lessened focus on material wealth (Craig-Lees and Hill, 2002), where disposition inevitably plays an ongoing role.…”

Moving up the waste hierarchy: Car boot sales, reuse exchange and the challenges of consumer culture to waste prevention

“…2005), so too are FRNs, nearly new shops, the classifieds, and the plethora of second-hand sales of baby goods and clothes which characterise what Alison Clarke calls the moral economies of mothers (Clarke, 1998(Clarke, , 2000Gregson and Crewe, 2003). 10 To these we might add online sites such as freecycle and Gumtree which also rely on the donation of unwanted, surplus goods (Nelson et al 2007). …”