Second-hand consumption among middle-class mothers in the UK: thrift, distinction and risk

Abstract

key words second-hand consumption • mother • parenting • material culture • thriftWith the arrival of a new baby comes the need for a lot of extra 'stuff ', namely clothes, toys and equipment. Traditionally, baby goods have been prime for the second-hand market as children grow out of things quickly while the objects themselves still hold a use value. According to market research agency Mintel (2012), one in five British parents have utilised second-hand channels to procure baby items since the onset of the 2009 financial crisis, no doubt due to the fact that second-hand goods are cheaper than their new counterparts. Juxtaposed with this advantage, however, is the oft-perceived disadvantage of a second-hand item being inferior quality, unclean or tainted by a previous owner (Gregson and Crewe, 2003). It seems reasonable to assume therefore that a parent must weigh up a number of factors before choosing to engage in second-hand consumption practices, not least because they are consuming on behalf of a small and vulnerable being who relies on a parent or carer to nurture and protect them (Furedi, 2001).The second-hand consumer has been rarely studied to date, leaving room for further investigation. Common second-hand retail channels include charity shops, car boot sales, online auction sites, classified advertisements, commercial second-hand shops and specialised pop-up sales. Pivotal studies have been completed by Clarke (

Breastmilk as Agentic Matter and the Distributed Agencies of Infant Feeding

“…It also builds on the growing body of scholarship on the spatial, affective and material practices involved in the formation of parental and maternal identities (Aitken 2000;Boyer Dowling 2000;Holloway 1998;Luzia 2010;Madge and O'Connor 2005;Pain et al 2001;Rose 2004), and the concept of breastfeeding as an assemblage composed of human and non-human components (Newell 2013). It also extends work on how parenting practice is shaped in and through engagements with the non-human, such as second-hand baby things (Waight 2014;Waight and Boyer 2018), 'family' cars (Waitt and Harada 2016); and prams and built form (Boyer and Spinney 2016).…”

The role of the non-human in relations of care: baby things

“…Although most mothers in our study said they bought second-hand as a way to be "thrifty" and make household budgets stretch further, these were not by and large "excluded" 46 consumers forced to buy second-hand for financial reasons. Instead, buying "pre-loved" things served as a way to get "second sets" of clothing to keep at a grandparents' or childminder's house, while for some it was also an ethical choice linked to trying to take a lower-consumption approach to parenting 47 . Class matters to parental consumption practice 48 and it is safe to say that the interviewees assessed for this study were a middle-class group.…”

“…As these excerpts suggest, engaging in second-hand consumption involves different kinds of boundary-maintenance practices on the part of potential buyers in terms of making determinations about what will be allowed into the home. Regarding the purchase of secondhand baby things, cleansing practices and making determinations about what will and will not be allowed to touch the (pure) body of the baby can be understood as part of a suite of strategies to reduce perceived risk 53 . Although parents at the second-hand sales we studied were largely open to buying baby clothes, as the above passages suggest some buyers viewed certain kinds of matter as too absorbent, "too open" to the world and therefore open to contamination.…”

“…Instead, buying 'pre-loved' things served as a way to get 'second sets' of clothing to keep at a grandparents' or childminder's house, while for some it was also an ethical choice linked to trying to take a lower consumption approach to parenting. 47 Class matters to parental consumption practice 48 and it is safe to say that the interviewees assessed for this study were a middle-class group.…”

“…We take this insight on board and take this line of inquiry forward by exploring the role of matter as both a means and a metric of care within parenting assemblages. 21 Within the parenting literature, matter is typically considered in terms of the role it plays in the establishment of parental identity. For example, the purchase of prams has been analysed in the context of the process by which women transition to mothers over the course of pregnancy and new parenthood 22 .…”