The Dirty Creative Work of the Secondhand Economy

There has been widespread interest in the labour that goes into fostering sustainability and circularity in the creative and cultural industries (CCI). This interest, however, often overlooks the scruffy secondhand sector, such as vintage, thrift and charity shops, scrap stores, pop-ups, swops, and flea markets, as well as online reselling, even as our research shows interlocking connections between the secondhand economy and stage, screen and music industries. Many working in theatre and performance, film and television, and music, for example, as well as the fashion industry, already use and reuse second-hand garments, objects and materials in their work; many secondhand resellers curate and organise spaces and events, and create content to build community and their reselling businesses.

These workers have vital experiences to share about what we call the dirty creative work of the secondhand economy: the hazards, precarity and potential of transforming waste into value, trash into treasure, or at least, into ephemeral utility. The surging popularity of secondhand digital reselling platforms mean these markets have not only been valued in the billions, but are experiencing an unprecedented pace of change. Drawing on interviews with secondhand creatives, participant observation in second-hand spaces both online and off, and analysis of second-hand creative work in television and film, this paper examines the dirty creative work of the secondhand economy as a labour of transfiguration. We argue that dirty creative work can open up new ways to re-imagine and re-work how we might live with things and each other, such as by reusing waste, while also reproducing pollution, extraction, and harm.