The anthology, Waste as a Critique, uses waste to understand and question society. By looking at waste from the perspectives of materiality, society, economy and time, the anthology shows how waste can reveal patterns in how we live, consume and organize ourselves, but also how we relate to risk, control, race, responsibility, or time. The aim is to introduce a new way of looking at waste – as a stepping stone to critically examining our world.
– As a field of research, waste offers a unique platform for critical social analysis. The stigma attached to waste, for example as something dangerous, dirty, or obsolete, makes waste a unique approach to analyzing the social world, says Hervé Corvellec about the anthology.
The book's chapters take us from industrial pollution in southern China, to lonely bananas in Finland, via rag pickers in South Africa, used electronic chips in US defense systems, and soup kitchens in Gothenburg.
The anthology is available in open access via Oxford University Press.
