Repair, Do-It-Yourself, Use for a Longer Period of Time: Circular economies as an alternative to resource-intensive, linear mass consumption?

Repair, do-it-yourself, long-term use and circular economies are often interpreted as forward-looking alternatives to the production and consumption methods of today’s throwaway societies. The contributions in this volume are thematically situated against this background. The aforementioned practices of repair, do-it-yourself, and extended use are interpreted as phenomena of bottom-up initiatives that are primarily based in the public sphere and benefit from civil society engagement. Their current comparatively marginal importance is historically conditioned by the enforcement of Fordist production regimes and the associated resource-wasting modes of consumption. Current circular economy initiatives, on the contrary, represent top-down strategies in which actors, especially from politics and business, promote the sustainable use of resources with the help of commodification strategies. The extent to which the aforementioned bottom-up and top-down processes can be well linked and the extent to which the aforementioned practices as well as the circular economy strategies can be effective alternatives to the regimes of mass production and consumption cannot yet be conclusively assessed.