During the readings on disposability, I was surprised to notice a stark contrast between the article written in the plastics journal in the 1950/60s, and the ones more recently. “The future of plastics is in the trash” is indisputably a sentence we can look back on and only sense irony, but why was it said […]
Reflection on Disposability as human and scientific progress Read More »
For this week’s waste tracking, I took a picture of my trashcan at my mom’s house once again. The image shows various paper items and a big ginger ale bottle. A key point to highlight for this week is the fact that my mom and grandma were both sick during this weekend, and it is
Disposability was heavily promoted in the early stages of industrialization, especially as capitalist ideologies took hold. The economic benefits of a throwaway culture were prioritized over long-term environmental consequences. What began as an innovative concept quickly became a matter of convenience, with disposability now deeply ingrained in daily life. While disposable products contribute to pollution,
Flaws of Disposability Read More »
When I first think about the term ‘disposability’, what comes to mind is usually single-use items such as plastic utensils, paper cups, or packaging that’s used once and then thrown away. But as I’ve learned in class, disposability goes beyond objects. It’s a mindset shaped by our political and economic systems, where both things and
Personal Reflection on Disposability. Read More »
In many countries, businesses have used the idea of a “family business” for many reasons, though not all good. Though sometimes family businesses can be a good idea, especially in local businesses and name for actual family-owned businesses, many manipulate this label as familial in other ways. Many people and customers especially like the idea
Family Business is not always as it seems Read More »
In many global manufacturing settings, especially those involving low-wage labor, managers often frame their relationships with workers using familial metaphors. Our most recent reading talked about how these managers called themselves the “father” of the factory and referring to female workers as “daughters”. On the surface, this may just seem like an attempt to establish
Paternalism Behind corporate control Read More »
After our readings this week, I have come to realize that the social construction of disposability is a subtle yet strong force that shapes our perspectives on value and worth. In particular, it works by creating a hierarchy of things, where certain objects, and, as we discussed in class, certain people, are considered expendable or
Personal Reflection on Disposability Read More »
Questions for this week: What is disposability, and how did the concept emerge? What makes an object disposable? In what ways do our political and economic systems treat people as waste? How can we better study political and economic power from the perspective of the waste of the political economy? Readings:
I thought a lot about the quote included in Pollution is Colonialism from activist-geographer Laura Pulido stating that “Land is thoroughly saturated with racism. There are at least two primary land processes to consider: appropriation and access”. The more I reflected on this, the more it rang true, and the more historical examples came to
As we read in many of our readings last week we explored a new perspective of waste– as in items without typical value to us rather than just trash. One primary category we considered was wasteland, and how unused land or unoccupied land has been seen as waste in the past, or as wasteland. During
Wasteland isn’t so wasteful Read More »