The Interface between Political Ecology and Actor–Network Theory: Exploring the Reality of Waste

Abstract

The human–environment relationship and its association is a prominent discourse in many academic disciplines. Environmental pollution, climate change and vulnerabilities associated with waste have been major concerns for policymakers, activists and academicians across the globe over the past two decades. However, it remains under-theorised despite its significance in the academic world. Waste being a physical and external phenomenon makes it difficult for social science researchers to understand all of its sociocultural aspects with the help of any existing theoretical paradigm. This article addresses the urgent need to understand the multidimensional nature of waste and waste management with the help of political ecology and actor–network theory (ANT). The article provides the areas of possible linkages between both theories to study waste with the help of secondary research tools like the literature review. By adopting theoretical pluralism and a pragmatic approach, this article aims at explaining waste-related issues through the theoretical lens of political ecology and ANT, which corroborate and extend each other on the aspects of analysing the power structure in waste issues, in exploring the changing relationship between waste and people in the globalised world.