Discard Studies: Wasting, Systems, and Power

Liboiron, Max; Lepawsky, Josh

ISBN 10: 0262543656 / ISBN 13: 9780262543651

Published by The MIT Press, 2022

Book is in Used-Good condition. Pages and cover are clean and intact. Used items may not include supplementary materials such as CDs or access codes. May show signs of minor shelf wear and contain limited notes and highlighting. 0.53. Seller Inventory # 0262543656-2-4

Synopsis:

An argument that social, political, and economic systems maintain power by discarding certain people, places, and things.

Discard studies is an emerging field that looks at waste and wasting broadly construed. Rather than focusing on waste and trash as the primary objects of study, discard studies looks at wider systems of waste and wasting to explore how some materials, practices, regions, and people are valued or devalued, becoming dominant or disposable. In this book, Max Liboiron and Josh Lepawsky argue that social, political, and economic systems maintain power by discarding certain people, places, and things. They show how the theories and methods of discard studies can be applied in a variety of cases, many of which do not involve waste, trash, or pollution. 
 
Liboiron and Lepawsky consider the partiality of knowledge and offer a theory of scale, exploring the myth that most waste is municipal solid waste produced by consumers; discuss peripheries, centers, and power, using content moderation as an example of how dominant systems find ways to discard; and use theories of difference to show that universalism, stereotypes, and inclusion all have politics of discard and even purification—as exemplified in “inclusive” efforts to broaden the Black Lives Matter movement. Finally, they develop a theory of change by considering “wasting well,” outlining techniques, methods, and propositions for a justice-oriented discard studies that keeps power in view.
 

About the Author: Max Liboiron is Associate Professor of Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador and the author of Pollution is Colonialism. Josh Lepawsky is Professor of Geography at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador and the author of Reassembling Rubbish (MIT Press). 

Bibliographic Details

Title: Discard Studies: Wasting, Systems, and Power
Publisher: The MIT Press
Publication Date: 2022
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: Good