Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Financialization of Industrial Waste Recycling

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

Considerable waste is generated in industrial settings, and efforts are frequently made to recycle waste more efficiently and profitably. The commoditization of waste among transnational institutions has broad economic, environmental, and health implications for communities that engage in the trade of waste. This study focuses in particular on the recycling of scrap metal from the shipbuilding industry, which employs large numbers of workers in domestic and international contexts. At multiple sites, the researchers use a complement of ethnographic methods to examine how working conditions, social organization, and ecological factors are impacted by fluctuations in the transnational flows of waste and its financialization. Relevant findings are shared with diverse stakeholders to improve local and global recycling infastructures in ways that enhance the working conditions of laborers in the industry while minimizing environmental impacts. This doctoral dissertation project examines the social and ecological consequences of changes in the commoditization of scrap metal waste. The researchers employ participant observation among financial professionals working in international scrap-metal markets. Similar ethnographic methods are used among workers at a ship-breaking yard. In addition to participation observation, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with a sample of key informants at both sites. Surveys and archival research on changes in the policies and economics of the scrap-metal provide complementary data that contextualize the ethnographic research. The findings of this research contribute to debates in economic anthropology, science and technology studies, and scholarship on the anthropology of finance, work, and waste. The project also contributes to the education of a graduate student in the social sciences. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.