Date of Award
Spring 5-16-2014
Degree Type
Capstone Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Studies (BA)
Department
Cultural Studies
First Advisor
Carmelo Esterrich
Second Advisor
Robert Watkins
Third Advisor
Steven Corey
Abstract
Freeganism is a counter-culture practice, lifestyle, and philosophy that resists the waste and exploitation inherent to capitalism. By examining freegan practices and philosophies, specifically dumpster diving, this project reveals how these actions help make apparent and shift dominant ideologies about waste and consumption by re-injecting value into wasted items. The project argues that the waste that freegans live on has the semiotic power to shift dominant attitudes about waste and gives freegans the means to survive with limited participation in the economy, but this waste is a byproduct of capitalist production, not a cause of it. Freegans are conceptually paving the way for a post-capitalist way of living by eroding hegemonic notions of waste and profit, but they fail to target the root of capitalist production.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Corliss, Jamie, "Reused Refuse: Freeganism and the Shifting Hegemonies of Consumption and Waste" (2014). Cultural Studies Capstone Papers. 9.
https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cultural_studies/9