Subverting Consumerism
Subtitle: Reuse in an Accelerated World
By: Robert Crocker
Contributors: Chiveralls, Keri
Edition: First edition.
Series: Antinomies; Antinomies
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2017
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 272
ISBN-13: 9781315641812
Subjects: Consumption (Economics); Social aspects; Environmentalism; Sustainable urban development; Environnementalisme; Urbanisme durable; SOCIAL SCIENCE; Sociology; General
Description: "The dominant understanding of reuse for sustainability is a technical one, which assumes reuse's benefits are limited to the new material, energy and emissions avoided by repurposing, but reuse is much more than that. Reuse and repurposing have always been part of human engagement with objects and spaces. Thus reuse and remaking are important topics in sustainable design, architecture, cultural studies, anthropology, and the sociology, economics and politics of consumption. Given our current environmental crises and the unsustainable expansion of global consumerism in an age of social and technological acceleration, the social and cultural impact of reuse or repurposing upon consumption practices in everyday life is particularly important. In design, reuse has more than a symbolic, social or cultural value. Reuse protests against and subverts the dominance of a 'waste-ready' accelerated newness in contemporary consumerism. Reuse establishes more durable and culturally specific relationships with objects and spaces, and more stable identities at a time of continuous and rapid change. Subverting Consumerism: Reuse in an Accelerated World is the first book to explore the three major facets of reuse: its meaning and aesthetics, the affects and effects of design for reuse, and reuse as a changing social practice. Drawing on examples from Africa, Europe, North America, Asia and Australia, it engages with ideas and theories informing current reuse practices in our accelerated world and sets the scene for understanding how we are mining the past to reshape the future."--Provided by publisher.
Table of contents: title: Part, Part 1 Culture, meaning, and value --; title: chapter Introduction  -- ROBERT CROCKER KERI CHIVERALLS; title: chapter 1 Acceleration, consumerism and reuse: a changing paradigm  -- ROBERT CROCKER; title: chapter 2 Using art to research diverse economies: social experiments in re-valuing waste  -- MAX LIBOIRON; title: chapter 3 Repurposing cultural heritage collections: the aesthetics and meaning of reuse  -- SALLY BUTLER; title: chapter 4 The devil's horns are made from toilet rolls: creating costumes and communities from 'junk' objects  -- CLAIRE LANGSFORD; title: part, Part 2 Strategies and landscapes of reuse --; title: chapter 5 Renew(ing) Newcastle and complicating capitalism: contributory economies, artisanal production, and the DIY occupation of disused commercial space  -- CATHY SMITH; title: chapter 6 Rapid urbanization and Wang Shu's architecture: the use of spolia and vernacular traditions in China  -- HING-WAH CHAU; title: chapter 7 Public space for changing times: reuse strategies in transforming the 'wastelands' of cities  -- GINI LEE; title: part, Part 3 Reviving practices of repair and reuse --; title: chapter 8 Fix it: barriers to repair and opportunities for change  -- TIM COOPER GIUSEPPE SALVIA; title: chapter 9 ReDress: maximizing component reuse for fashion  -- KIM FRASER; title: chapter 10 Composting as everyday alchemy: producing compost from food scraps in twenty-first century urban environments  -- VIVIENNE WALLER LINDA BLACKALL PETER NEWTON; title: chapter 11 Reuse in earthship construction: reclaiming the past to shape the future -- KERI CHIVERALLS.