Love as a second-hand emotion: What does Marx have to do with pre-loved?

TY - JOUR

T1 - Love as a second-hand emotion

T2 - What does Marx have to do with pre-loved?

AU - Schreven, Stephanie

AU - Auxtova, Kristina

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

PY - 2025/11/13

Y1 - 2025/11/13

N2 - From a Marxist perspective, transforming ownership is key to revolutionising production. We propose it potentially revolutionises capitalist relations of consumption too – as possessive and exclusive – as key to a more circular economy. Specifically, we explore second-hand clothes donations to charities as pre-loved, to be re-loved, and desired again, positioning love as a ‘second-hand’ emotion. We conceptualise that, by not letting everything that is disposed of translate into waste, the labour of love and desire performed by consumers and charity workers, respectively, produces reuse value across various ownership cycles during clothing’s lifetime. These cycles comprise the (ex)change of ownership between consumers via charity shops constituting communal ownership hubs, our proposed ‘consumption commons’. ‘To return to where things were’ describes a circle and a revolution. This, from our Marxist perspective, means clothes being owned, desired, and loved anew as the valuecreating engine of critical circularity that transforms ownership and consumption through reuse.

AB - From a Marxist perspective, transforming ownership is key to revolutionising production. We propose it potentially revolutionises capitalist relations of consumption too – as possessive and exclusive – as key to a more circular economy. Specifically, we explore second-hand clothes donations to charities as pre-loved, to be re-loved, and desired again, positioning love as a ‘second-hand’ emotion. We conceptualise that, by not letting everything that is disposed of translate into waste, the labour of love and desire performed by consumers and charity workers, respectively, produces reuse value across various ownership cycles during clothing’s lifetime. These cycles comprise the (ex)change of ownership between consumers via charity shops constituting communal ownership hubs, our proposed ‘consumption commons’. ‘To return to where things were’ describes a circle and a revolution. This, from our Marxist perspective, means clothes being owned, desired, and loved anew as the valuecreating engine of critical circularity that transforms ownership and consumption through reuse.

KW - Marx

KW - reuse

KW - disposability

KW - pre-loved

KW - desire

KW - commons

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105021852265

U2 - 10.1080/10253866.2025.2584260

DO - 10.1080/10253866.2025.2584260

M3 - Article

SN - 1025-3866

JO - Consumption, Markets and Culture (CMC)

JF - Consumption, Markets and Culture (CMC)

ER -