“Now It Got a New Life”: On Reuse as a Technology of Transformation

Ann-Helen Sund

doi:10.2478/jef-2026-0004

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“Now It Got a New Life”: On Reuse as a Technology of Transformation

Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics

Volume 20 (2026): Issue 1 (June 2026)

By: Ann-Helen Sund

Open Access

|Jun 2026

Abstract

This article sets out to explore how reuse is enacted in a Swedish-language Face-book group called Reuse More. In this forum, people are encouraged to post photos and descriptions of what they have reused and how, share with and inspire others to be creative, and act sustainably. By viewing reuse as a technology of transformation that involves valuation, moves and movements, assembly and disassembly, I will, through empirical examples from the forum, discuss how people relate to, work and negotiate with, things and materials in their homes that are in the process of disposal, redirecting them to a ‘new life’.

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