Circular Economies in an Unequal World

Waste, Renewal, and the Effects of Global Circularity

Circular Economies in an Unequal World cover

Circular Economies in an Unequal World

Waste, Renewal, and the Effects of Global Circularity

Description

This landmark first anthropological volume on the topic of 'circular economies' brings together a range of international scholars with regional specialisations in Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America to examine the concept's global implications.

Aspirations towards circular economies have become increasingly prominent around the world, with the EU adopting an ambitious 'circular economy action plan', and China enshrining its own circular economy (xunhuan jingji) in law since 2008. Yet until now, social anthropology has largely neglected the potentially deep social impacts of this concept, focusing instead on metrics of waste, despite its obvious implications through every level of the economy and society.

This volume covers a diverse array of international actors, including waste-pickers, traders and policymakers, and the global movement of materials like gold, plastic and textiles. Through ethnographic and qualitative case studies, it exposes many of the tensions that exist between state and corporate ideals of the circular economy, and the vernacular practices and philosophies that exist around the world. Contributors examine the frictions that emerge as these concepts and materials travel across different geographic contexts, and ask – what can an anthropological analysis contribute to a concept that is increasingly reshaping economies and restructuring global flows of virgin commodities, recyclables, and waste?

Table of Contents

Introduction: Circularities and Economies in Anthropology -Patrick O'Hare (University of St Andrews) and Dagna Rams (University of Lausanne)


Part 1: Production
1.Global Circular Economy of Strategic Metals: How Emergent Developmental Designs are Rearranging Scrap Yards in Ghana - Dagna Rams (University of Lausanne)
2. On the Management and Migration of Gold Objects: Between Complete Control and Utter Unaccountability - Peter Oakley (Royal College of Art)
3. The Threat of Vicious Circles and Material Arrangements of Honesty in E-waste Recycling in India - Julia Perczel (University of Manchester)
Part 2: Consumption
4. Stimulating Economies: Making Plastics Circular in Uruguay - Patrick O'Hare (University of St Andrews)
5. EU Projects on “Circular Economy”: a Multi-Level (Non)Collaborative Process in Post-Memoranda Greece - Aliki Angelidou (Panteion University) and Mimina Pateraki (University of Thessaly)
Part 3: Recycling
6. Towards a Circular Economy 'from below': Reflections from a Political Ecology of Waste in Argentina - Sebastián Carenzo and Lucas Becerra (CONICET/ National University of Quilmes)
7. In the Shadow of Waste: The Politics of a Changing Recycling Economy in Cartagena: Colombia - Laura Neville (University of Lausanne)
7. 'Just spray the dusty surface!': Cycling of Water and Objects at the Landfills and Beyond - Daniel Sosna (Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences)
Part 4: Policy
9. “We Have Always Been…”: The Chains of the Textile Recycling's Fashionable New Label Circular Economy - Heike Derwanz (Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg)
10. The Circular Economy in China: For the People? With the People? –
Benjamin Steuer (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)
Afterword: Andrew Sanchez (University of Cambridge)

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published 28 Dec 2023
Format Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
Edition 1st
Extent 256
ISBN 9781350296640
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Volume Editor

Patrick O’Hare

Dr Patrick O'Hare is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow…

Volume Editor

Dagna Rams

Dagna Rams is a Visiting Fellow in the Department…

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