What is the Reseller Immersion?
Reselling Futures is an academic research initiative that investigates how algorithmic ecosystems are entwined with labor practices in online reselling. We are guided by theories in feminist economics and the future of work to promote more equitable and sustainable marketplaces. Algorithmic ecosystems in secondhand economies don’t exist in a vacuum: their effects are entwined with cultural practices, intersectional experiences and larger social systems. That’s why our methods follow a participatory and creative process to study how technologies like AI/ML and platforms influence the labor and lives of resellers. Our goal is to foster communal capacity building.Our research is built on principles drawn from feminist economics and the future of work. Feminist economics provides a critical framework that interrogates traditional economic analyses and labor valuations, emphasizing the importance of recognizing all forms of labor, including those traditionally marginalized or unpaid. In conjunction with future of work principles, our research explores the transformational potential of collective study of technology to understand and change the ways it is shaping labor in secondhand economies.
Organizers Behind this Study
Sara Milkes Espinosa is a pHD Candidate at Georgia Tech studying secondhand economies from heterodox economics perspectives. She has participated in secondhand economies as a buyer and a seller, initially drawn to it by her obsession with old dolls and toys.
Irawo Ajasin is a Masters student at New York University interested in using creative and participatory research approaches to explore cyberculture, speculative futures, and how to design software that centers curiosity and play.
Carl DiSalvo is an associate professor at Georgia Tech advising students in this project. His recent book Design as Democratic Inquiry explores how: "Through practices of collaborative imagination and making, or "doing design otherwise,” design experiments can contribute to keeping local democracies vibrant."
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