About this issue
Waste is never completely or permanently “out of sight.” Once discarded, it undergoes transformations, often reappearing elsewhere in new forms. It can become a problem or a resource; it may be suppressed or remembered. In this volume of RCC Perspectives, scholars from different disciplines—from history and art history, urban geography, environmental studies, and anthropology—investigate the traces waste leaves behind in the course of its travels. The essays follow the journeys of unwanted substances and unusable objects by studying how they have transformed landscapes, ecosystems, and even the human body.
How to cite: Mauch, Christof, ed. “Out of Sight, Out of Mind: The Politics and Culture of Waste,” RCC Perspectives: Transformations in Environment and Society 2016, no. 1. doi.org/10.5282/rcc/7388.
Content
- Introduction by Christof Mauch
Someone Else’s Problem?
- The “Flying Dutchmen”: Ships’ Tales of Toxic Waste in a Globalized World by Simone M. Müller
- The “Urban Mine” in Accra, Ghana by Richard Grant
- When Waste Disappears, or More Waste Please! by Catherine Alexander
- The Last Sink: The Human Body as the Ultimate Radioactive Storage Site by Kate Brown
Sighting and Siting
- Plastic, Oil Culture, and the Ethics of Waste by Amanda Boetzkes
- Fresh Kills: The Making and Unmaking of a Wastescape by Martin V. Melosi
- Forget About It: Purposeful Ignorance (of Waste) in a City Nature Preserve by Sarah Hill
