Sabaté Muriel, Irene2024-02-062024-02-0620090873-6561https://hdl.handle.net/2445/207190This paper is based on an ethnography of ‘alternative’ consumption practices in the inner city of the former East Berlin. Non-monetary exchange networks (Tauschringe) and ‘free shops’ (Umsonstläden) have been examined. In Umsonstläden, the contemporary ideology of the ‘pure’ gift (Parry 1986; Carrier 1995) is at play: objects are freely given and totally alienated from their owners. In turn, Tauschringe sometimes induce gift-giving practices entailing mutual obligation, as a result of frequent exchanges which bring participants socially closer. The ethnographic material I present challenges the suitability of a conceptual gift / commodity divide to examine these experiences, provided that different modalities of gift-giving are articulated with commoditisation trends. Considering this complexity, I propose a re-examination of the role of the gift in ‘alternative’ consumption practices promoted by social movements in Berlin.26 p.application/pdfengcc-by-nc (c) Centro em Rede de Investigação em Antropologia, 2009http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/Antropologia econòmicaEconomia col·laborativaConsum (Economia)Berlín (Alemanya)Economic anthropologySharing economyConsumption (Economics)Berlin (Germany)info:eu-repo/semantics/article5580732024-02-06info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess