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Reverse stigma in the Freegan community

Hieu P. Nguyen, Steven Chen and Sayantani Mukherjee

Journal of Business Research, 2014, vol. 67, issue 9, 1877-1884

Abstract: Freegans are anti-consumers who sustain themselves through dumpster diving and the consumption of disposed goods. Mainstream consumers consider Freeganism dirty and tainted—a stigma. Through a qualitative investigation of Freeganism and its practitioners, this research contributes a multi-dimensional framework of reverse stigma. The framework explicates the mechanisms by which stigmatized individuals re-direct stigma onto normative culture. Specifically, these mechanisms are ideological reversal, practice reversal, and resource reversal. While past research emphasizes defensive, self-directed stigma management strategies, this research shows that some communities adopt offensive, others-directed strategies to reject their stigmatized status and redirect the stigma to normative others.

Keywords: Stigma; Anti-consumption; Sustainability; Freegans; Dumpster diving (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:67:y:2014:i:9:p:1877-1884

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.12.001

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