This article aims to confront Foucault’s (2001) concept of heterotopia (2001) – the physical location of an utopia – with a "new, "informal and non-institutionalized retail space for gleaning second hand items : the sidewalk during the time of bulky item collection. A qualitative survey...

The aim of this research is to show that though French public policy advocates sustainable development, it unwittingly deters non-institutionalized sustainable practices. To illustrate this paradox, this research focuses on bulky item collection and the urban gleaning to which it gives rise. A...

While a significant proportion of French people (38%) reports having recovered objects thrown away or deposited on the sidewalk, the objective of this article is to provide a better understanding of how certain practices of gleaning bulky objects (freely decided rather than dictated by...