Questions for this week: In what ways should aspects of our economy try to mimic the processes of nature? What would be required to implement such systems? Which social problems discussed in this class would these proposals fail to address, or even make worse? How could the circular economy, one of the major emerging economic […]
Questions for this week: What political functions do waste infrastructures serve? How does ‘distancing’ function? Do we accept this general argument? What actually happens with ‘recycling?’ Can recycling ever deliver on its promises? How have policies enacted by China in the last few years affected the global waste/recycling trade? Readings:
Distancing and recycling 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:
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
Colonialism, pollution, productivity Read More »
Questions for this week: How did ‘sanitary landfills’ develop? What are landfills primarily composed of? Why don’t things biodegrade much in landfills? What environmental risks do they pose? What waste challenges did Boston and other similar cities face in the early industrial era? How has waste (literally) shaped Boston? Readings:
‘Sanitary’ landfills, wastewater, and city structure Read More »
Questions for this week: Who does the dirty work of waste removal in major cities in the Global North? What are their experiences like? What forms do their organizations take? How can waste work be used as a form of resistance to dominant economic structures? What strategies can waste workers use to challenge the stigma
Questions for this week: Why is there so much waste in the contemporary world? How did people behave in this same area just a few hundred years ago? How is this tied in with concepts of economic development and inequality? What’s preventing us from taking care of objects in a similar way today? What does
Care, repair, responsibility Read More »
Questions for this week: What does a focus on food tell us about social structure and our links with nature? How does fast food, junk food, and food waste modify our conceptions of the self and relations with each other? Why is there so much food waste? Is reclaiming free food waste in this way
Food, Food Waste, Freegans, Dumpster Diving Read More »
Questions this week: What’s more ‘natural’ than expelling shit, our body’s waste? Has this substance always been seen as waste? What can examining the political histories of our shit removal infrastructures tell us about common assumptions around cleanliness, poverty and wealth, and race? Is our disgust around shit, and the speed we try to get
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
Cleaning and Hoarding Read More »