IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecanth/v7y2020i2p293-308.html

“Still good life”: On the value of reuse and distributive labor in “depleted” rural Maine

Author

Listed:
  • Cindy Isenhour
  • Brieanne Berry

Abstract

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Cindy Isenhour & Brieanne Berry, 2020. "“Still good life”: On the value of reuse and distributive labor in “depleted” rural Maine," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(2), pages 293-308, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecanth:v:7:y:2020:i:2:p:293-308
    DOI: 10.1002/sea2.12176
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/sea2.12176
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sea2.12176?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sarah Hitchner & John Schelhas & J. Peter Brosius, 2017. "“Even our Dairy Queen shut down”: Risk and resilience in bioenergy development in forest-dependent communities in the US South," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(2), pages 186-199, June.
    2. James M. Acheson & Ann W. Acheson, 2016. "Offshore wind power development in Maine: A rational choice perspective," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(1), pages 161-173, January.
    3. Harvey Johnstone & Doug Lionais, 2004. "Depleted communities and community business entrepreneurship: revaluing space through place," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 217-233, May.
    4. Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, 2015. "The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10581, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrew L. Ofstehage, 2018. "Financialization of work, value, and social organization among transnational soy farmers in the Brazilian Cerrado," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(2), pages 274-285, June.
    2. Jan van Duppen, 2021. "Book review: The Botanical City," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(8), pages 1746-1750, June.
    3. Eriksson, Axel, 2025. "A critical note on binaries in tourism," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    4. Donghun Kang & Moon Choi, 2025. "The development of Anthropocene Awareness Scale," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(2), pages 1-14, February.
    5. Katzenstein, Peter J., 2022. "Worldviews in World Politics," EconStor Open Access Book Chapters, in: Uncertainty and Its Discontents: Worldviews in World Politics, pages 1-69, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    6. Alexander Emile D'Aloia, 2024. "Circular Economies in an Unequal World: Waste, Renewal, and the Effects of Global Circularity," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 100(331), pages 583-585, December.
    7. Doug Lionais & Christina Murray & Chloe Donatelli, 2020. "Dependence on Interprovincial Migrant Labour in Atlantic Canadian Communities: The Role of the Alberta Economy," Societies, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-15, January.
    8. Osterhoudt, Sarah & Galvin, Shaila Seshia & Graef, Dana J. & Saxena, Alder Keleman & Dove, Michael R., 2020. "Chains of Meaning: Crops, commodities, and the ‘in-between’ spaces of trade," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    9. Devi Vijay & Héloïse Berkowitz & Benjamin Huybrechts & Luc Audebrand & Marcos Barros & Marianna Fotaki, 2025. "Another World is Possible, It's Already Here: A Review and Research Agenda on Alternative Organizing," Working paper serie RMT - Grenoble Ecole de Management hal-05132352, HAL.
    10. Meagher, Kate, 2019. "Working in chains: African informal workers and global value chains," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 91590, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Robin Stevens & Nathalie Moray & Johan Bruneel, 2015. "The Social and Economic Mission of Social Enterprises: Dimensions, Measurement, Validation, and Relation," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(5), pages 1051-1082, September.
    12. Huggins Robert & Thompson Piers, 2012. "Entrepreneurship and Community Culture: A Place-Based Study of Their Interdependency," Entrepreneurship Research Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-36, January.
    13. Hervé Charmettant & Yvan Renou, 2021. "Cooperative conversion and communalization: Closely observed interactions between the material and the mental," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 92(1), pages 55-77, March.
    14. repec:bcp:journl:v:5:y:2021:i:12:p:105-115 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Alterskye, Alex & Fuller, Ted & Caputo, Andrea, 2023. "Field dynamics as context – A multi-perspective combined analysis of the effects of context on entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    16. Gionata Gatto & John R. McCardle, 2019. "Multispecies Design and Ethnographic Practice: Following Other-Than-Humans as a Mode of Exploring Environmental Issues," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-18, September.
    17. Rachelle K. Gould & Austin Himes & Lea May Anderson & Paola Arias Arévalo & Mollie Chapman & Dominic Lenzi & Barbara Muraca & Marc Tadaki, 2024. "Building on Spash's critiques of monetary valuation to suggest ways forward for relational values research," Environmental Values, , vol. 33(2), pages 139-162, April.
    18. Madhuri Mahato & Julie Vardhan, 2022. "The spatial distribution of self-employment — evidence from Jharkhand," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 12(1), pages 291-304, December.
    19. Alistair R. Anderson & Johan Gaddefors, 2016. "Entrepreneurship as a community phenomenon; reconnecting meanings and place," International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 28(4), pages 504-518.
    20. Trent Brown, 2024. "Disrupted coping and skills for sustainability: A pluralist Heideggerian perspective," Environmental Values, , vol. 33(6), pages 585-605, December.
    21. Katherine Farley, 2022. "“We ain't never stolen a plant”: Livelihoods, property, and illegal ginseng harvesting in the Appalachian forest commons," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(2), pages 309-321, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ecanth:v:7:y:2020:i:2:p:293-308. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=2330-4847 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.