Urban geographies of waste

ABSTRACT

Through this virtual collection, we examine how urban geographers have described, characterized, theorized, and mobilized waste in the pages of Urban Geography since 1990. The articles we have selected demonstrate the changing dimensions of waste geographies, but also reflect changing areas of interest and evolving epistemologies that have shaped urban geography, more broadly. The collection reveals how urban waste assemblages are transformed by global processes – such as urbanization, neoliberal capitalism, colonialism – and mediated through local politics, planning, and the everyday actions of waste workers and other city dwellers, both human and non-human. Importantly, the articles also demonstrate how these dynamic and always-evolving relationships, in turn, transform urban space.

KEYWORDS:

• Waste
• discard studies
• garbage
• rubbish
• sewage
• sanitation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Insight Development Grant number 430-2021-00836).