We present a qualitative study of reacquisition-the acquisition of previously possessed goods-involving in-depth interviews with 18 reacquirers within or nearby Pittsburgh, PA, USA. Based on critiques of sustainable consumption and our findings, we reframe technology consumption as acquisition, possession, dispossession and reacquisition. We present four reacquisition orientations describing our participants' motivations and practices: casual, necessary, critical, and experiential. We then present a range of findings including issues with work, time and effort involved in reacquisition, and values and practices of care and patience associated with invested reacquirers. We conclude with implications for designing technologies to support current reacquisition practices, as well as broader opportunities for HCI and interaction design to incorporate non-mainstream reacquisition practices and values into more mainstream technologies.

1. Findings
Patience, Openness & Faith in Things
Laura, 30-something, artist & filmaker

2. “I really have faith that things will just
turn up when you need them...”

3. “I just carry this list around in my mind
of things we are looking for… it’s like a
sort of mental list... My experience has
been that when I need something, if I
know I need them, I’ll find it.”

4. Findings
Patience, Openness & Faith in things | Living without and making lists
“If I need something, I don’t just go out and buy it. I just think about
how to live without it for a while and then it comes, it finds a way to
materialize.” (Kristy, 20s, community organizer)
“I’m patient. … You keep your eyes out. You have your list in the back of
your mind as to what you want or what you need.”
(Bob, 70’s, retired toolmaker)
“I don’t mind being patient and waiting for something to come around. It
usually does. ... I have lists of things [to acquire]” (John, 30’s, sound engineer)

5. {Departures from Firsthand Acquisition}
Care of Things, Self & Others

6. Findings
Findings
Care for things
Care for things
Tanya, 30-something, skilled amateur interior designer and remodeler
“This is the chair I was talking about that I
might not be able to save. … [The “damage”]
may be too significant to—I might not be
able to save it.”

7. Findings
Findings
Care for things
Care for things
Michael, 30-something, amateur flea market seller

8. Findings
Care for things
“I hate to throw away something I think
has a use. I mean if it definitely has a good
use or function still, I don’t want to throw
it away. ... I wanna get it in the hands of
someone who could use ‘em”

9. Implications
Designing from communities of reacquisition

10. Implications: Designing from communities of re-acquisition
Recoding
Image source (left): http://www.ieeff.org/dadanyduchreadymadewheel13.jpg
Image source (right): http://imagerepository.net/images/m/a/22/marcel-duchamp-

11. Implications: Designing from communities of re-acquisition
Recoding the reacquired & Reacquiring
Recoding trash...

12. Implications: Designing from communities of re-acquisition
Recoding the reacquired & Reacquiring

13. Implications: Designing from communities of re-acquisition
Making space for reacquisition at the center

14. Implications: Designing from communities of re-acquisition
Making space for reacquisition at the center
Virtual spaces may already be doing this...

15. Implications: Designing from communities of re-acquisition
Making space for reacquisition at the center
Bicycle Coop Electronics Coop
?
http://sf.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09_03/Bicycle_Works_Grand_Opening.jpg

16. Implications: Designing from communities of re-acquisition
Making space for reacquisition at the center
Hackerspaces Mobile Phone Repair
http://www.instructables.com/files/deriv/F7L/396J/FSSIKZTQ/F7L396JFSSIKZTQ.MEDIUM.jpg
http://turtlethink.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/hackerspace.jpg

17. Implications: Designing from communities of re-acquisition
Making space for reacquisition at the center
Electronics Coop
?

18. Implications: Designing from communities of re-acquisition
Recirculation & Shared use
Usership, rather than ownership
Reacquisition
Dispossession Possession

19. Implications: Designing from communities of re-acquisition
Recirculation & Shared use

20. Implications: Designing from communities of re-acquisition
Understanding and learning from practices and values at the margins
Immediacy & Disposability
Patient acquisition
Care for things