027 // Limbo Space and Coping with Material Excess

Featured speaker: Pamela Donovan

People all over the world have stuff they can’t or won’t keep with them, but storage units remain a uniquely American thing. 90% of the world’s units are in the United States. How do people use them? What kinds of problems can they solve or facilitate? And what kinds of things do we put in them — and why?

At the same time, self-help literature about decluttering and getting rid of your stuff is everywhere – such as the practical KonMari method popularized by Marie Kondo in her #1 New York Times bestseller The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. And like every self-help movement, it has generated a backlash. Yes, decluttering turns out to be controversial.

In this salon, Pam will present her recent work on this topic, discuss the storage industry and the odd politics of decluttering, and share some early interview material that illustrates the ornate and complex lives of our stuff that contrasts with the flat grey blankness of the storage unit itself.

Pamela Donovan is an author and researcher in the fields of sociology and criminology. After receiving her doctorate in sociology from the City University of New York Graduate Center, she taught sociology and criminology at the university level from 1993 to 2013, most recently as Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.