Geographies of waste: Conceptual vectors from the Global South

Abstract

Geographies of waste, which include examination of its flows and politics, have demonstrated empirical differences and contrasting approaches to researching waste in the Global North and South. Southern waste geographies have largely focused on case studies of informality and (neoliberal) governance. We draw on Southern theory to argue that this focus can be productively extended through greater consideration of the production of value and the role of materiality and technology in the wastescape. We argue that a relational understanding of multiscalar wastescapes contributes insights into the distribution of costs and benefits as well as what enables and constrains the extraction of value for different actors.

Getting soaked? Climate crisis, adaptation finance, and racialized austerity

“…These processes include experiences of austerity and climate crisis, ongoing dynamics of racialized dispossession, and the use of new financial instruments to fund climate change adaptation. Our choice to narrate green finance from cities that cut across north-south binaries draws from the convergence of two ongoing research projects and is oriented toward a conjunctural method that looks for patterns and overlapping processes across north/south binaries rather than sees southern cities as failed models of northern examples (Chattopadhyay, 2012;Lawhon et al, 2016;Millington & Lawhon, 2018;Robinson, 2016;Roy, 2005Roy, , 2009Roy, , 2017.…”

“…Research and analysis of Cape Town's water crisis was conducted in collaboration with Suraya Scheba (See Scheba& Millington, 2018).…”

At Home in an Unhomely World: On Living With Waste

“…As the scholarship in waste grows, so does the variety of answers to the question "what is waste?" We should also keep in mind that the conceptualization of waste is predominantly based in and on Global North contexts (Bell, 2018) in which waste is usually taken and kept "out of sight", whereas in the Global South waste is very much "in sight" (Davies, 2019) and people are used (and forced) to living with waste, which leads to different conceptualisations (Millington and Lawhon, 2018). There seems, however, to be an agreement on the fact that the answer depends on why the question is asked (Moore, 2012) and who's doing the asking (Reno, 2015).…”

Vulnérabilité métabolique et potentialités des milieux insulaires. Le cas de l’île de Ndzuwani (Anjouan), archipel des Comores

“…2De nombreuses activités économiques sont informelles et non recensées à Ndzuwani, notamment la gestion des déchets, la construction et l'agriculture. Ce contexte d'informalité très prégnant, bien connu en rudologie (Millington, Lawhon, 2018), conduit à relever un défi méthodologique dans le but de mener une étude de métabolisme avec l'outil d'Analyse des Flux de Matières (AFM [1][1]Traduit de MFA : Material Flow Analysis. ), ce qui est très peu abordé par ce registre d'études.…”

“…En cela, il n'est pas vraiment essentiel de proposer des perspectives pour consommer moins aux autorités anjouanaises, mais bien d'adapter le modèle de développement de l'île pour diminuer les fragilités environnementales et sociales. A l'opposé, ce cas du Sud global, comme d'autres(Millington and Lawhon, 2018), fournit des enseignements ayant une portée mondiale et démontre l'utilité de la mobilité des idées dans l'espace (et pas seulement du Nord au Sud, mais réciproquement). 52Enfin, l'informalité n'est pas la cause de la vulnérabilité.…”