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Power and politics in plastics research : A critique of ‘Whither plastics? petrochemicals, plastics and sustainability in a garbage-riddled world’

van Veelen, Bregje and Hasselbalch, Jacob LU orcid (2020) In Energy Research and Social Science 61.
Abstract

The article ‘Whither Plastics?—Petrochemicals, plastics and sustainability in a garbage-riddled world’ discusses a number of recent issues around plastics, including plastics’ dependence on fossil fuels, its contribution to ocean waste, and its possible impact on human health [M. Jefferson, “Whither plastics?—Petrochemicals, plastics and sustainability in a garbage-riddled world,” Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 56 (2019)]. Despite these multiple ways in which plastics are framed as (potentially) problematic, the author is clear in his recommendations: the most important form of action is behavioural change. While we strongly welcome social science research into plastics, we have several issues with the study in question which we deem significant... (More)

The article ‘Whither Plastics?—Petrochemicals, plastics and sustainability in a garbage-riddled world’ discusses a number of recent issues around plastics, including plastics’ dependence on fossil fuels, its contribution to ocean waste, and its possible impact on human health [M. Jefferson, “Whither plastics?—Petrochemicals, plastics and sustainability in a garbage-riddled world,” Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 56 (2019)]. Despite these multiple ways in which plastics are framed as (potentially) problematic, the author is clear in his recommendations: the most important form of action is behavioural change. While we strongly welcome social science research into plastics, we have several issues with the study in question which we deem significant enough for us to write this response. At the heart of our concern is the paper's handling of extant research. There are three aspects to our critique: (1) conflations and misrepresentations of the data presented; (2) disregard of academic social science research on plastics; and (3) the resultant promotion of over-simplistic solutions to a complex set of problems.

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author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Behaviour change, Knowledge politics, Methods, Plastics, Social theory, Waste
in
Energy Research and Social Science
volume
61
article number
101445
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85078726286
ISSN
2214-6296
DOI
10.1016/j.erss.2020.101445
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
10424dfd-3283-4ce1-bdc6-ff7bee1fb091
date added to LUP
2020-02-11 12:43:15
date last changed
2022-04-18 20:36:49
@article{10424dfd-3283-4ce1-bdc6-ff7bee1fb091,
  abstract     = {{<p>The article ‘Whither Plastics?—Petrochemicals, plastics and sustainability in a garbage-riddled world’ discusses a number of recent issues around plastics, including plastics’ dependence on fossil fuels, its contribution to ocean waste, and its possible impact on human health [M. Jefferson, “Whither plastics?—Petrochemicals, plastics and sustainability in a garbage-riddled world,” Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 56 (2019)]. Despite these multiple ways in which plastics are framed as (potentially) problematic, the author is clear in his recommendations: the most important form of action is behavioural change. While we strongly welcome social science research into plastics, we have several issues with the study in question which we deem significant enough for us to write this response. At the heart of our concern is the paper's handling of extant research. There are three aspects to our critique: (1) conflations and misrepresentations of the data presented; (2) disregard of academic social science research on plastics; and (3) the resultant promotion of over-simplistic solutions to a complex set of problems.</p>}},
  author       = {{van Veelen, Bregje and Hasselbalch, Jacob}},
  issn         = {{2214-6296}},
  keywords     = {{Behaviour change; Knowledge politics; Methods; Plastics; Social theory; Waste}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Energy Research and Social Science}},
  title        = {{Power and politics in plastics research : A critique of ‘Whither plastics? petrochemicals, plastics and sustainability in a garbage-riddled world’}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101445}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.erss.2020.101445}},
  volume       = {{61}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}