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Waste as a Critique

Corvellec, Hervé LU orcid (2025)
Abstract
This volume shows how waste in its manifold variety provides an innovative starting point for interrogating twenty-first-century society. Waste in and of itself, along with those who work with it, may suffer from social stigma. As an epistemological point of departure however, waste offers an advantageous platform for social inquiry. Drawing on the contributions from an international team of interdisciplinary authors from discard and waste studies, this volume showcases the potential for waste as a revelatory lens through which the social world may be critically re-examined and assessed. Among the topics subjected to this critical analysis are anthropocentrism, disposability, economic growth, efficacy, environmental justice, matters of... (More)
This volume shows how waste in its manifold variety provides an innovative starting point for interrogating twenty-first-century society. Waste in and of itself, along with those who work with it, may suffer from social stigma. As an epistemological point of departure however, waste offers an advantageous platform for social inquiry. Drawing on the contributions from an international team of interdisciplinary authors from discard and waste studies, this volume showcases the potential for waste as a revelatory lens through which the social world may be critically re-examined and assessed. Among the topics subjected to this critical analysis are anthropocentrism, disposability, economic growth, efficacy, environmental justice, matters of concern, racism, ownership, stigma, social innovation, and techno-utopianism. The contents of this volume elaborate a novel, critical waste-based epistemology that addresses four broad thematic concerns: materiality, society, economy, and temporality. Departing from the ubiquity of what is discarded, rejected, and abandoned, the authors demonstrate how this wide-ranging critical approach challenges ingrained assumptions, categorical inconsistencies, and unconsidered outcomes in social practice and theory. Waste is notoriously unruly. So the critiques that depart from it may be equally inconvenient. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
editor
LU orcid
organization
publishing date
type
Book/Report
publication status
published
subject
keywords
waste, discard studies, epistemology, materiality, society, economy, temporality
publisher
Oxford University Press
ISBN
9780198907046
9780198907077
DOI
10.1093/9780198907077.001.0001
project
Organizing for Activities of Re-: action-nets that give more than one life to consumer products and their components
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
5321e99e-f692-471e-aa16-f0881c646ff8
date added to LUP
2025-02-26 22:13:40
date last changed
2025-04-04 14:52:23
@book{5321e99e-f692-471e-aa16-f0881c646ff8,
  abstract     = {{This volume shows how waste in its manifold variety provides an innovative starting point for interrogating twenty-first-century society. Waste in and of itself, along with those who work with it, may suffer from social stigma. As an epistemological point of departure however, waste offers an advantageous platform for social inquiry. Drawing on the contributions from an international team of interdisciplinary authors from discard and waste studies, this volume showcases the potential for waste as a revelatory lens through which the social world may be critically re-examined and assessed. Among the topics subjected to this critical analysis are anthropocentrism, disposability, economic growth, efficacy, environmental justice, matters of concern, racism, ownership, stigma, social innovation, and techno-utopianism. The contents of this volume elaborate a novel, critical waste-based epistemology that addresses four broad thematic concerns: materiality, society, economy, and temporality. Departing from the ubiquity of what is discarded, rejected, and abandoned, the authors demonstrate how this wide-ranging critical approach challenges ingrained assumptions, categorical inconsistencies, and unconsidered outcomes in social practice and theory. Waste is notoriously unruly. So the critiques that depart from it may be equally inconvenient.}},
  editor       = {{Corvellec, Hervé}},
  isbn         = {{9780198907046}},
  keywords     = {{waste; discard studies; epistemology; materiality; society; economy; temporality}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{02}},
  note         = {{Book Editor}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  title        = {{Waste as a Critique}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/9780198907077.001.0001}},
  doi          = {{10.1093/9780198907077.001.0001}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}