Materiality, Agency, and the Reciprocal Dynamic of Reflexive Consumption: A College Student Thrifting Case

Thrift shopping, or “thrifting,” has gained widespread popularity over the past 15+ years. Sociological inquiry into thrifting has linked the phenomenon to a wide-ranging blend of conditions and factors that principally include economic necessity, resistance to economic, environmental, and labor injustices, and hedonism. Yet, how thrift shoppers come to engage thrifting as an agentic, identity-forming process remains relatively neglected in the relevant literatures. This article introduces a new theoretical perspective to this body of research that centers on a reciprocal dynamic between human and material agency that spurs and sustains thrifting as a form of reflexive consumption and identity work. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 37 undergraduate student thrift shoppers at an American public research university. I articulate three core elements that characterize thrifting as a form of reflexive consumption and identity work: (1) initial thrifting experiences, (2) reflexivity and self-formation, and (3) agentic reciprocation. The study empirically shows how thrifting can be an agentic act underpinned by a reciprocal dynamic that turns on materiality, reflexivity, and ongoing identity work.