Negotiating attachments to plastic

Abstract

Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in the office and warehouse of an organic wholesaler in Germany, this article presents a trans-sequential analysis of an innovation that aimed to reduce the use of plastic wrap. During the analytical reconstruction of the innovation process, the substitution of plastic wrap turned out to be a precarious process of negotiating attachments to plastic. Against this background, innovation is not simply about the implementation and substitution of technology by human actors, but about negotiating attachments that humans have towards objects within socio-technical assemblages. Drawing on actor-network theory and the sociology of attachment, the article highlights the dynamic interplay between persistence and problematization of plastic wrap, which characterizes the innovation process. This interplay is seen along several steps during the innovation process: from (1) the problematization of plastic dependency to (2) the mobilization of alternatives, to (3) resistance against measures to be implemented and (4) the enforcement of reusable strings as technological substitution and (5) to conclusive retrospection on the innovation process. The trans-sequential analysis shows that ‘getting rid of something’ might be an imperfect approach to dealing with unsustainable object relations. Instead, withdrawing is a double-sided process of detaching and attaching, removing constraints and building new ones.

Revisión de la teoría del actor red (TAR) como referente metodológico en la investigación en ciencias sociales

“…Tomemos como ejemplo al medio ambiente (Anfinsen, 2021;Jacob et al, 2018;McSweeney et al, 2021), que se convierte en supra agencia que actúa en diversas redes simultáneamente y que, en toda medida, traduce según sea la referencia que se analiza. Esto permite analizar los fenómenos desde la posibilidad de comprender las agencias que no son humanas y los actores que participan por fuera de la voluntad de algún sujeto, abriendo de esta manera el espectro a todos los actores de manera equitativa e incluyendo con ellos nuevas formas de interconexión que permiten relacionar los fenómenos con un contexto más amplio (Sattlegger, 2021). Esta simetría de actores no solo se aplica a los actores no humanos.…”

Risky plastics and the limits to consumer responsibilization

“…These issues around consumer agency emphasize that the use of risk in plastic governance needs to be reconsidered and tempered in light of networks of heterogenous consumers and dynamics of authority, control and socio-technical assemblages affecting any given plastic consumption (Sattlegger, 2021). Plastic governance need to evaluate whether risk-based regulations and bans are accurate and fair to all citizens.…”

Social–Ecological Impact Assessment and Success Factors of a Water Reuse System for Irrigation Purposes in Central Northern Namibia

“…To facilitate the selection of appropriate interviewees, several stakeholder groups were considered, including science (8 interviews), governmental institutions (5), private sector (4), development cooperation (3) and pastoralists (1). The number of interviews is comparable to similar studies [63][64][65] and proved to be sufficient, as saturation occurred in terms of statements and identified impacts; i.e., no further impacts could be identified in the course of the field phase.…”