Author Description

Waste Is Increasingly A Site Of Social Conflictivity. The Questions Related To Waste Management Are Not Merely Technical; What, How, Where And By Whom Becomes Intrinsically Political Questions. This Book Is About The Power Relations In Recycling, From The Viewpoint Of Political Ecology And Ecological Economics. Informal Waste Recyclers Are Invisible For Waste Studies, Citizens And Public Policy. Their Struggle Aims To Transform This Situation. This Book Focuses On Environmental Conflicts Related To Recycling, With Two Emblematic Case Studies From India. Firstly, Ship Breaking, Where The Metabolism Of A Global Infrastructure, Namely Shipping, Shifts Social And Environmental Costs To Very Localized Communities In Order To Obtain Large Profits. Secondly, The Conflict Around Municipal Solid Waste Management In Delhi Shows How Environmental Costs Are Shifted To Urban Residents, And Recyclers Are Dispossessed Of Their Livelihood Source: Recyclable Waste. The First Is An Example Of Capital Accumulation By Contamination, While The Second Involves Both Dispossession And Contamination. Therefore, The Book Investigates Both Global And Urban 'social Relations Of Recycling', Which Are The Social Relationships That Recyclers Must Enter Into In Order To Survive, To Produce, And To Reproduce Their Means Of Life. It Makes A Case For The Recognition Of The Important Contribution Of Informal Recyclers In Making The Economy More Sustainable, And Calls For Due Compensation For The Services They Provide. Based On Extensive Field Work Lasted A Decade, Case Studies Present A Range Of Experiences, Mostly In India But With Examples From All Over The World, To Inform Theory On How Environments Are Shaped, Politicized And Contested. The Struggles Of Informal Recyclers Constitute An Attempt To Repoliticize Waste Metabolism Beyond Techno-managerial Solutions By Fostering Counter-hegemonic Discourses And Praxis-- Provided By Publisher.