Abstract：As a part of the cross-platform consumption, disposing of 'useless' things in the digitalized secondhand market has blurred the boundaries between public (recommerce platform) and private domains (WeChat groups and the neighbourhood-based/same-city exchanges organised by individuals) of consumption and between online and offline experiences. In this context, this article focuses on how people practice the 'virtue of thrift' by selling their 'useless' things via secondhand trading platforms and social media and the social and environmental impacts of reselling used items at various online and offline sites, drawing on a mixed methods approach. It argues that convenient online platforms and platform-mediated reselling practices have created new connections between online and offline spaces for secondhand sales, generating new digital and online cultures. The findings illustrated that through formal and informal practices of selling things, these platforms have been transformed into virtual spaces that promote a trustworthy way of consumption. In addition, these secondhand shopping experiences are intimately intertwined with the gamification systems of platforms that aim to cultivate ordinary consumers' practices of caring for the environment and distant others. To elaborate, the key findings of this research demonstrate that: 1) the digitalisation of second-hand culture has generated a feminised and youthified online community and a self-/QR codedependent offline recycle community; 2) the digitalisation of second hand culture has created localised digital culture and economy life via the fixed pattern of posts, online/offline communication styles and datafied geolocation; 3) second hand exchange cannot be automatically linked to greener consumption that benefits the environment and vulnerable people at distance.
刘晨. 闲置物品的数字化与处置：二手消费文化的线上/线下空间营造[J]. 人文地理, 2025, 40(5): 43-51,100.
LIU Chen. (RE)SELLING 'USELESS' THINGS: THE DIGITALISATION OF SECONDHAND CULTURES AND ITS REPRODUCTION OF ONLINE/OFFLINE SPACES. HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, 2025, 40(5): 43-51,100.
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