Culture and Waste: The Creation and Destruction of Value

Culture and Waste: The Creation and Destruction of Value
ISBN-10
0742519821
ISBN-13
9780742519824
Category
Social Science
Pages
143
Language
English
Published
2003
Publisher
Rowman & Littlefield
Authors
Stephen Muecke, Gay Hawkins

Description

Waste is a key category for understanding cultural value. It is not just the 'bad stuff' we dispose of; it is material we constantly struggle to redeem. Cultures seem to spend as much energy reclassifying negativity as they do on establishing the negative itself. The huge tertiary sector devoted to waste management converts garbage into money, while ecological movements continue to stress human values and 'the natural.' But the problems waste poses are never simply economic or environmental. The international contributors to this collection ask us to pause and consider the complex ways in which value is created and destroyed. Their diverse approaches of ethics, philosophy, cultural studies, and politics are at the forefront of a new field of 'ecohumanites.'

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