Discard Studies: Wasting, Systems, and Power

by Max Liboiron, Josh Lepawsky

An argument that social, political, and economic systems maintain power by discarding certain people, places, and things.

Discard studies is an emerging field that looks at waste and wasting broadly construed. Rather than focusing on waste and trash as the primary objects of study, discard studies looks at wider systems of waste and wasting to explore how some materials, practices, regions, and people are valued or devalued, becoming dominant or disposable. In this book, Max Liboiron and Josh Lepawsky argue that social, political, and economic systems maintain power by discarding certain people, places, and things. They show how the theories and methods of discard studies can be applied in a variety of cases, many of which do not involve waste, trash, or pollution.

Liboiron and Lepawsky consider the partiality of knowledge and offer a theory of scale, exploring the myth that most waste is municipal solid waste produced by consumers; discuss peripheries, centers, and power, using content moderation as an example of how dominant systems find ways to discard; and use theories of difference to show that universalism, stereotypes, and inclusion all have politics of discard and even purification—as exemplified in “inclusive” efforts to broaden the Black Lives Matter movement. Finally, they develop a theory of change by considering “wasting well,” outlining techniques, methods, and propositions for a justice-oriented discard studies that keeps power in view.

Genres: Nonfiction, Environment, Theory, Indigenous

224 pages, Paperback

Published May 24, 2022

About the author

Max Liboiron is Associate Professor of Geography at Memorial University.

Reviews

[bookblogjourney · Rating 5 out of 5]

The field and book of Discard Studies: Wasting, Systems, and Power by Max Liboiron and Josh Lepawsky is united by a critical framework of systems thinking that questions premises of what seems normal or given, and analyzes the wider role of society and culture, including social norms, economic systems, forms of labor, ideology, infrastructure, and power in definitions of, attitudes toward, behaviors around, and materialities of waste, broadly defined. As its starting point, discard studies holds that waste is not produced by individuals and is not automatically disgusting, harmful, or morally offensive, but that both the materials of discards and their meanings are part of wider sociocultural-economic systems. Our task is to interrogate these systems for how waste comes to be, and our work is often to offer critical alternatives to popular and normative notions of waste, not just as an ecological problem, but as a process, category, mentality, judgment, an infrastructural and economic challenge, and as a site for producing power as well as struggles against power structures.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slim volume that asks crucial questions: who and what gets wasted? how do you waste well? how do we take seriously multiple scales? Always fun to read a book that is the product of collaboration -- especially one that feels so seamless. Will recommend to others interested in these questions academically or politically.

[Liv · Rating 5 out of 5]

cool stuff

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

highly recommend to anyone interested in systems- thinking of any social justice movement, not just sustainability or environmental social justice, to address broken systems and not symptoms