Synopses & Reviews
Zsuzsa Gille combines social history, cultural analysis, and environmental sociology to advance a long overdue social theory of waste in this study of waste management, Hungarian state socialism, and post-Cold War capitalism. From 1948 to the end of the Soviet period, Hungary developed a cult of waste that valued reuse and recycling. With privatization the old environmentally beneficial, though not flawless, waste regime was eliminated, and dumping and waste incineration were again promoted. Gille's analysis focuses on the struggle between a Budapest-based chemical company and the small rural village that became its toxic dump site.
Review
"Gille's book is a fascinating analysis of environmental policies and the politics of waste, as well a study of socialism through its relationships with what is usually considered as a byproduct of production and/or consumption." --Barbara Potrata, Leeds Institute of Health Studies, Year XV.2 2009 Indiana University Press Indiana University Press Indiana University Press
Review
Judit Bodnar, American Journal of Sociology, May 2008
Review
"This is a good book, with a masterful balance of common sense and sophisticated social analysis that does not let relevance be defined by academic discourse only." --Judit Bodnar, American Journal of Sociology, May 2008
Synopsis
A social and cultural history of waste, environmental policy, and postsocialist transition
Synopsis
This book offers a critical perspective on the issue of organizing waste in cities, emphasizing the ways in which the notion of waste—and the narratives and discourses associated with it—have been socially constructed and the corresponding implications this has for waste governance and local wastehandling practices. It takes a broad approach to the ways in which the issue of waste is framed and brings together narratives from several diverse cities, uncovering the hidden stories of the urban waste landscape and connecting urban waste management to a host of social issues.
About the Author
Maria José Zapata is fellow in the Gothenburg Research Institute in the School of Business, Economics, and Law at the University of Gothenburg and at the Service Management Department at Lund University in Sweden. Michael Hall is professor in the Department of Management at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and fellow at the Freiberg Institute for Advanced Studies in Germany.
Table of Contents
List of figures and tables
Abbreviations
Notes on contributors
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction: narratives of organising waste in the city
María José Zapata Campos and C. Michael Hall
Part I: Spaces, places and sites of waste in the city
2. The ecological and environmental significance of urban wastelands and drosscapes
C. Michael Hall
3. The function of waste urban infrastructures as heterotopias of the city: narratives from Gothenburg and Managua
María José Zapata Campos
Part II: Global waste discourses and narratives shaping local practices
4. When clean and green meets the Emerald Isle: contrasting waste governance narratives in Ireland and New Zealand
Anna Davies
5. Waste in translation: global ideas of urban waste management in local practice
Patrik Zapata
Part III: Waste governance and management practices
6. Governance in a bottle
Dario Minervini
7. Hybrid organisations in waste management: public and private organisations in a deregulated market environment
Philip Marcel Karré
8. Waste management companies: critical urban infrastructural services that design the sociomateriality of waste
Hervé Corvellec and Johan Hultman
Part IV: Waste and environmental, economic and social justice
9. Cairo’s contested waste: the Zabaleen’s local practices and privatisation policies
Wael Fahmi and Keith Sutton
10. Ecomodern discourse and localised narratives: waste policy, community mobilisation and governmentality in Ireland
Liam Leonard
11. Waste collection as an environmental justice issue: a case study of a neighbourhood in Bristol, UK
Karen Bell and David Sweeting
12. Conclusions: framing the organising of waste in the city
C. Michael Hall and María José Zapata Campos
Index