Trade of second-hand products, as a means of social emergence in the European Union and Hungary

Ernő Kovács, Zsuzsanna Lőke and Ibolya Bokor
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Ernő Kovács: University of Pannonia, Keszthely
Zsuzsanna Lőke: University of Pannonia, Keszthely
Ibolya Bokor: University of Pannonia, Keszthely

Acta Universitatis Bohemiae Meridionalis, 2007, vol. 10, issue 1, 37-42

Abstract: The seasonal changes of fashion makes it possible for the consumers to modify their attachment to social groups, and change their group identities by purchasing newly emerging products as social "symbols". This consumer orientation motivates the social life of Western European societies, too. As fashion changes, these social groups change not only their old cars, but all their commodities from cutlery to laptop. The outdated, old-fashioned "junk" of the Western consumer society has become a serious trade in Hungary, similarly to the second-hand shops having been spread throughout the country in the nineties. Many Hungarian citizens of the small villages of Transdanubia find not only their livelihood, but the road to prosperity in these junk dumping occasions. The main area of our research is a selected group of microregions in West-Transdanubia (microregion of Zalaszentgrót, Nagykanizsa, Tapolca, etc.), and villages and towns in Austria (Graz), and Serbia (Subotica), which are either the source or the end of the junk picker routes.

Keywords: junking; social emergence; enterprise; forced economy; symbolic goods; international trade (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:boh:actaub:v:10:y:2007:i:1:p:37-42

DOI: 10.32725/acta.2007.007

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