Questions for this week: If waste is at least somewhat akin to dirt, what can we learn about the practices that seek to remove it? How much of the study of cleaning practices is transferable to waste, or are there aspects of waste that don’t neatly fit into cleaning practices? If cleaning and removing are components of waste, is the opposite ‘hoarding?’ What are different ways to approach understanding ‘hoarding?’ Why has ‘hoarding’ of particular things been seen as a mental disorder? Is ‘hoarding’ an anti-waste perspective, or is something else happening in these situations?
Readings:
- Martens, Lydia. “The Visible and the Invisible: (De)Regulation in Contemporary Cleaning Practices.” In Dirt: New Geographies of Cleanliness and Contamination, edited by Ben Campkin and Rosie Cox. London: I.B. Tauris, 2007, 34–48.
- Cox, Rosie. “Dishing the Dirt: Dirt in the Home.” In Dirt: The Filthy Reality of Everyday Life, edited by Nadine Monem. London: Profile Books in association with Wellcome Collection, 2011, 37–74.
- American Psychiatric Association. 2013. “Hoarding Disorder.” DSM-V. Washington, DC.
- Herring, Scott. “Collyer Curiosa.” In The Hoarders: Material Deviance in Modern American Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014, 19–50.
Readings from first week:
- Brekhus, Wayne. 1998. A Sociology of the Unmarked: Redirecting Our Focus. Sociological Theory 16(1): 34-51.
- Douglas, Mary. “Secular Defilement.” In Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1966, 30-41.