Germain, Stuart2023-08-022023-08-02http://hdl.handle.net/10393/45219http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-29425This thesis studies a community fridge located in Ottawa, Canada, and explores the lived experiences of people who were regularly accessing it. It uses the theoretical framework for emancipatory social transformation developed by Erik Olin Wright to analyze and understand the potential that this novel initiative has for social transformation that moves away from capitalism. This research employed a qualitative case study approach that included interviews with eight regular fridge users, observations at the site of the fridge and at a community consultation for it, and document analysis to understand the background of the fridge better. The interview results included themes that explored motivation and experiences, community, crisis, consumption, the impact of the fridge, and social change. The results of this research when analyzed using Wright’s framework show that the community fridge introduced new potentialities for alternatives to capitalism, but on its own it did not inspire thoughts or actions outside of capitalism for the participants who were not already opposed to it before accessing it. This research concludes by presenting how the community fridge and other sharing initiatives like it could be integrated into and used in a broader strategy of emancipatory social transformation.enAnticapitalismCommunity FridgeSharingCommonsEmancipatory Social TransformationNon-capitalism