Article ID: CBB873226342

Oozing Matters: Infracycles of 'Waste Management' and Emergent Naturecultures in Phnom Penh (2021)

unapi

Kathrin Eitel (Author)


East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal
Volume: 15
Issue: 2
Pages: 135-152


Publication Date: 2021
Edition Details: Special Issued: Material Itineraries: Southeast Asian Urban Transformations
Language: English

The Cambodian city of Phnom Penh displays a unique recyclable waste collection system. This article follows the daily practices of waste pickers and the movements of recyclable waste through the city. The hereby examined recurrent daily interactions define the overall infrastructure of recyclable waste handling that can be described as infracycles: sociomaterial constellations through which the quotidian flows of persons, goods, tools, narratives and ideas are organized in a recurrent and circular manner, thereby functioning as an actual lived infrastructure. This infrastructure is lived out bottom-up, as waste pickers, depot owners, and others interrelate. As waste circulates through cycles, different sociomaterialities emerge, which shape the city. Keeping the city somewhat clean, waste pickers form material itineraries and direct flows that shape urban ecologies. In the same process, oozy materials leaking from infracycles also create new versions of the city in the form of urban naturecultures, which compete with other imaginaries and designs for Phnom Penh’s urban transformation.

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Associated with

Article Casper Bruun Jensen (2021) Material Itineraries: Southeast Asian Urban Transformations. East Asian Science, Technology and Society: An International Journal (pp. 124-134). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB873226342/

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Authors & Contributors
Jensen, Casper Bruun
Shinichiro Nakamura
Kreitman, Paul
Prince K Guma
Aiduan Borrion
Arribas Ramírez
Concepts
Infrastructure
Technoscience; science and technology studies
Cities and towns
Waste disposal
Environment
Recycling
Time Periods
21st century
20th century
20th century, late
19th century
Places
Cambodia
Tokyo (Japan)
Sweden
Japan
China
Kampala (Uganda)
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