Unpicking contemporary thrift

Getting on and getting by in everyday life

Bibliographic Data

ID3387366
AuthorsHelen Holmes (0000-0002-4918-2007, University of Manchester, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume67
Issue1
Pages126-142
Publication date2019-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0261 • E-ISSN: 1467-954X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0038026118797837
OpenAlexW2888707673
LanguageEN
Citations received19
References cited25

This article explores contemporary thrift. To date scholarly attempts to define thrift are always focused on consumption, centring upon household finances and how thrift revolves around the peaks and troughs of spending and saving. In this article the author argues that this financial focus ignores the myriad of thrifty practices which occur beyond the point of purchase but which are no less central to thrift. Instead, the author suggests that contemporary thrift occurs within a continuum of motivations which extend far beyond the practice of shopping, and overspill the categories of consumption and production: the extreme points of which are financial necessity, conscience and enjoyment. Three particular empirical moments of household activity - shopping, cooking and repair and making - are used to illustrate how these motivations to be thrifty overlap, compete and interweave. In doing so, the author contends that thrift is about value and how value is perceived, produced and released through different contexts, motivations and activities. This article adds to the growing body of scholarly work on the sociology of everyday life, illustrating how thrift encompasses a broad range of activities which are part of the intricacies and intimacies of getting by and getting on in everyday life

Aesthetics · Consumption (sociology) · Economics · Everyday life · Point (geometry) · Political science · Positive economics · Social science · Sociology · Value (mathematics) · Crafts, Textile, and Design · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · Law