Questions for this week: What ways of conceiving of the natural world allow us to treat materials or locations as waste? Why and how are spaces like rivers and landfills ‘sinks’ for waste, places that can unproblematically absorb a set amount of waste? In what ways have modern scientific practices both helped to prevent the worst aspects of this kind of pollution, while at the same time providing the grounds to enable it? Why has western political and economic theory considered ‘unimproved’ land to be waste, and what are the consequences of this for understanding core economic concepts like productivity and property?
Readings:
Liboiron, Max. “Land, Nature, Resource, Property.” In Pollution Is Colonialism. Durham: Duke University Press, 2021, 39-79.
Scanlan, John. “Garbage Metaphorics.” In On Garbage. London: Reaktion Books, 2005, 13–55.