Title
Reverse Stigma in the Freegan Community
Document Type
Article
Department or Administrative Unit
Management
Publication Date
9-2014
Abstract
Freegans are anti-consumers who sustain themselves through dumpster diving and the consumption of disposed goods. Mainstream consumers consider Freeganism dirty and tainted—a stigma. Through a qualitative investigation of Freeganism and its practitioners, this research contributes a multi-dimensional framework of reverse stigma. The framework explicates the mechanisms by which stigmatized individuals re-direct stigma onto normative culture. Specifically, these mechanisms are ideological reversal, practice reversal, and resource reversal. While past research emphasizes defensive, self-directed stigma management strategies, this research shows that some communities adopt offensive, others-directed strategies to reject their stigmatized status and redirect the stigma to normative others.
Recommended Citation
Nguyen, H.P., Chen, S. & Mukherjee, S. (2014). Reverse stigma in the Freegan community. Journal of Business Research 67(9), 1877-1884. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2013.12.001
Journal
Journal of Business Research
Rights
Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Comments
This article was originally published in Journal of Business Research. The full-text article from the publisher can be found here.
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