Book Review Essay: The Waste of the World
Writing almost 20 years ago, Nicky Gregson and her research partners claimed that “…(W)aste’s capacity as a theoretical vehicle is immense; like food it is good to think…
Tag: Consumption
Sorting It Out: Sustainability in Higher Education
by Kathy Zhang In May of 2021, I graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with a combined degree in Environmental and Sustainability Studies and Art. I…
Miss Tampon Liberty
In the 1980s, when menstruation was generally considered taboo, artist Jay Critchley made art out of discarded plastic tampon applicators washed up and collected on local beaches. With…
The Moral Economy of the English Football Fan in the Twenty-first Century
In late April of this year, it was announced that twelve of the wealthiest and best supported teams from across Europe would be competing in a new competition…
Taboos around menstruation are leading to a growing environmental crisis in India
If the disposability of menstrual products is not prioritised as much as their accessibility, India could be dealing with mountains of discarded waste products in less than 50…
On Wishcycling
Wishcycling is the process of placing discards into the recycling bin even when there’s little to no chance for their recovery. The term entered common use over the…
#Podcast Round Up: Best of March to August
Summer comes to an end, and some of us will start commuting again. Others will desperately wonder how to fill up the ‘spare’ time from their considerably shorter…
Sending surplus food to charity is not the way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
While giving food that would otherwise go to landfill to hungry people may be a convenient part of a solution to reduce greenhouse gases, it will do little…
Sex Sells: Female Athletes’ Use of Instagram
by Lucy Shepherd We have all seen it, female athletes being used as sex objects to sell products, pictured on billboards in bikinis or sports bras, posed in…
No insides on the outsides
“The main goal and mission of a content moderator is to clean up the dirt.” — unnamed content moderator in The Cleaners (00:06:20). All systems must rid themselves…
The Tragedy of the Tragedy of the commons
A Twitter essay by Matto Mildenberger (@mmildenberger) Something I’ve been meaning to say about The Tragedy of the Commons. Bear with me for a small thread on…
Disposability
by Gay Hawkins ‘Disposable’ usually describes minor ephemeral things from take-away coffee cups to plastic bags. More recently, it has been applied to furniture, fashion, technologies and even…
Our ‘Fashion Fast’: 6-week Reflections
**We are thrilled to have completed our 6-week, 6-item ‘fashion fast’ and have raised more than £600 for the labour rights NGO, Labour Behind the Label. If you would like…
Our ‘Fashion Fast’: Week 6
**We are thrilled to have completed our 6-week, 6-item ‘fashion fast’ and have raised more than £600 for the labour rights NGO, Labour Behind the Label. If you would like…
Our ‘Fashion Fast’: Week 5
We are nearly to the end of our 6-week ‘6 items challenge.’ As eight undergraduates and one lecturer at the University of Sussex, we have committed to living…
Our ‘Fashion Fast’: Week 2
by Amelia Yates **Read about the first week of our ‘fashion fast’ here. If you can, please donate to our efforts to raise money for the labour rights charity Labour Behind the…
From The Field: Superbowl Sunday, The Dude Abides?
by Jonny Craig Last week the New England Patriots faced off against the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl 53. At this, the culmination of the NFL season,…
Not all marine fish eat plastics
The Gulf Stream, which curves along the southern shore of Newfoundland, is saturated with plastics. Fish that feed from the surface waters, where plastics tend to accumulate, are…
Material Culture Journalism, 7
The Material Culture students do not know about Material Culture Journalism yet. Maybe this week I’ll mention it to them. Day one was surely an overload as it…
Material Culture Journalism, 6
The new year has promoted a lot of material culture journalism related to lifestyle changes and consumption habits. Some of the items here fit into this frame, including…
Material Culture Journalism, 1
Happily, next month I will again teach a graduate course in material culture studies at Indiana University. In that context I will be even more interested than usual…
Thinking with spirits by Kristine Krause
During my first visit to Ghana in 1998, I was involved in a research project that looked at possible co-operations between healers and psychiatric clinics. I stayed in…
Ghana, Electronic Waste, and the Circular Economy
By Tim Perkin As the demand for ICT increases worldwide, it is surprising how little is known about what happens to our electronic goods that are thrown away.…
Robert Reich’s “Inequality for All”: A Documentary Review
Why is there growing inequality in wealth distribution in the US? Is inequality inevitable? If inequality is inevitable, can it be useful? Can inequality become a problem? If…