Patrick O''Hare
Biographic Data
| ID | 916023 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Patrick O''Hare |
| GIVEN NAMES | Patrick |
| FAMILY NAME | O''Hare |
| SIGNATURE | HARE P O |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of St Andrews |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2535-2881 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 62 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
"Nothing is simple". An ethnographic theory and its history
This lecture was given on April 16th, 2026, at St Andrews University, as the 2nd Peter Gow Memorial Lecture. Its aim is not only to pay tribute to a great anthropologist who died prematurely, but also to explore a fundamental aspect of his work. Namely, the fact that Peter Gow developed what we might call an “ethnographic theory of mixture”. This theory is elaborated here through a comparison between Peter Gow’s work and my own, with a particular…
Plastic Time
The study of plastics reveals a disjuncture in time. Plastic production draws on resources from our deep geological past while driving an accumulation of waste that will survive into the deep future as a marker of our geological agency. Yet the apparently infinite replaceability of plastics narrows our horizons to the present of the eternally new. The ubiquity and disposability of plastic instills in consumers a time sense that is focused on pres…
Special Issue Introduction-Autonomy Through Collaboration
This special issue explores the encounter between cultural memory, media, and autonomy in collaborative printing and editorial projects. In recent years, there has been a rise in Indigenous publishing involving collaboration with anthropologists and/or anthropological knowledge. Indigenous collectives often invite anthropologists to support their autonomous publishing projects centered around history and cultural revitalization, due to their pres…
Creating Waste and Resisting Recovery
This article focuses on a ‘register of recovery’ that emerged in post-crisis and post-neoliberal Argentina as a way of imagining and framing an increasingly disparate collection of persons, things, and ideas, from young workers, to green space, to hose pipes. Drawing on ethnography conducted at the NuevaMente recycling cooperative in Morón, Greater Buenos Aires, the article attends to the material implications stemming from the adoption of the ra…
Teorizando a dobradiça cartonera
Trata-se de uma tradução do capítulo "Methods: Trans-Formal Research for Transformational Practice", parte do livro Taking Form, Making Worlds: Cartonera Publishers in Latin America (2022). Ao longo do artigo, os autores acompanham as atividades das cartoneras mexicanas La Rueda Cartonera e Viento Cartonero para teorizar sobre o fazer cartonero e, ao mesmo tempo, elaborar uma reflexão sobre a metodologia para fazê-lo, partindo de uma visão interd…
Waste, colonialism, and the city
A review of 'a mass conspiracy to feed people', 'pollution is colonialism', and 'waste siege: the life of infrastructure in Palestine'
Waste and Its Disguises
The introduction to this special issue starts with a brief thematisation of the key theoretical interventions in the anthropology of waste in order to situate our own contribution. We follow this by discussing, and adding to the recent anthropology and sociology of ignorance and not knowing, before turning to the intersections between waste and ignorance, thinking through how we and other scholars have theorised ways of deflecting attention away …
The politics of coproduction during Latin America’s ‘Pink Tide’
Coproduction brings together a diverse range of state and non-state actors to create and deliver public services. These processes, which occur across the Global South, have been widely studied. However, insufficient critical attention has been paid to their politics. We address this gap in the literature by analysing the politics of coproduction in Latin America during the ‘pink tide’ of the early twenty-first century. Drawing on original qualita…
Cambridge, Carnaval, and the ‘Actually Existing Circularity’ of Plastics
This article draws on comparative ethnographic research on plastic consumption, (re)use, and disposal in households and collective spaces in Cambridge (England) and Montevideo (Uruguay). Focusing on practices of re-use by individuals and collectives, it argues that these constitute forms of ‘actually existing circularity’ that provide an alternative to circular economy schemes premised on retained corporate ownership. In the context of discussion…
Introduction to Special Collection
Concern around plastic pollution and China’s ban on receiving foreign waste and recyclate have refocused attention on responsible waste management and attracted interdisciplinary research that impacts policy and practice. Consequently, plastic has elevated the role of social science in the innovation space, which has traditionally been occupied by science and enterprise. This opening article marks the launch of a special collection of works, whic…
From cartonera publishing practices to trans-formal methods for qualitative research
Interdisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity and counter-disciplinarity are the hallmark of cultural studies and qualitative research, as scholars over the past three decades have discussed through extensive self-reflexive inquiry into their own unstable and ever-shifting methods (Denzin and Lincoln, 2018; Dicks et al., 2006: 78; Grossberg, 2010). Building on the interdisciplinary thought of Jacques Rancière and Caroline Levine on the one hand and tr…
Cultural Responses to the War on Drugs
Cardboard publishers (editoriales cartoneras) are small, independent publishers linked by the recovered cardboard that covers their books, a commitment to the promotion of local authors, and a drive to make literature accessible. This cultural movement, whose actors often form part of broader social movements, has spread across Latin America and beyond, with other 250 active collectives. Drawing on ethnography conducted with some of Mexico’s thir…
We Looked after People Better when We Were Informal
Drawing on participatory research, this article explores the state formalisation of Uruguayan clasificadores (waste-pickers). It goes beyond the informal/formal binary, instead proposing the concepts of 'para-formality' to describe economic activity that exists in parallel to regulated and taxed spheres, and 'quasi-formality' to describe processes of formalisation that are supported by underlying informal practices. When unregulated, clasificador…
Latin American politics underground
Cartonera publishing emerged in post-crisis Buenos Aires with the birth of Eloísa cartonera (2003), whose founders proposed a radically new model of making books out of recycled cardboard, purchased from, and made with, cartoneros (waste-pickers). Since then, this model has been adapted across Latin America by an ever-growing number of collectives (currently around 250). In this article we ask: What relations and/or networks have enabled this mod…
Waste
From plastics in the oceans, to the export of toxic materials, waste is an issue that increasingly attracts public attention as well as demands for political and environmental action. Within the social sciences, writing on waste has clustered around the emergent and growing sub-discipline known as ‘discard studies’. This entry looks at how anthropologists have broached the issue of waste, from a long-standing interest in pollution, to more recent…
Harm Reduction
Waste and Its Disguises
The introduction to this special issue starts with a brief thematisation of the key theoretical interventions in the anthropology of waste in order to situate our own contribution. We follow this by discussing, and adding to the recent anthropology and sociology of ignorance and not knowing, before turning to the intersections between waste and ignorance, thinking through how we and other scholars have theorised ways of deflecting attention away …
We Looked after People Better when We Were Informal
Drawing on participatory research, this article explores the state formalisation of Uruguayan clasificadores (waste-pickers). It goes beyond the informal/formal binary, instead proposing the concepts of 'para-formality' to describe economic activity that exists in parallel to regulated and taxed spheres, and 'quasi-formality' to describe processes of formalisation that are supported by underlying informal practices. When unregulated, clasificador…
Creating Waste and Resisting Recovery
This article focuses on a ‘register of recovery’ that emerged in post-crisis and post-neoliberal Argentina as a way of imagining and framing an increasingly disparate collection of persons, things, and ideas, from young workers, to green space, to hose pipes. Drawing on ethnography conducted at the NuevaMente recycling cooperative in Morón, Greater Buenos Aires, the article attends to the material implications stemming from the adoption of the ra…
Special Issue Introduction-Autonomy Through Collaboration
This special issue explores the encounter between cultural memory, media, and autonomy in collaborative printing and editorial projects. In recent years, there has been a rise in Indigenous publishing involving collaboration with anthropologists and/or anthropological knowledge. Indigenous collectives often invite anthropologists to support their autonomous publishing projects centered around history and cultural revitalization, due to their pres…
The politics of coproduction during Latin America’s ‘Pink Tide’
Coproduction brings together a diverse range of state and non-state actors to create and deliver public services. These processes, which occur across the Global South, have been widely studied. However, insufficient critical attention has been paid to their politics. We address this gap in the literature by analysing the politics of coproduction in Latin America during the ‘pink tide’ of the early twenty-first century. Drawing on original qualita…
Cambridge, Carnaval, and the ‘Actually Existing Circularity’ of Plastics
This article draws on comparative ethnographic research on plastic consumption, (re)use, and disposal in households and collective spaces in Cambridge (England) and Montevideo (Uruguay). Focusing on practices of re-use by individuals and collectives, it argues that these constitute forms of ‘actually existing circularity’ that provide an alternative to circular economy schemes premised on retained corporate ownership. In the context of discussion…
Introduction to Special Collection
Concern around plastic pollution and China’s ban on receiving foreign waste and recyclate have refocused attention on responsible waste management and attracted interdisciplinary research that impacts policy and practice. Consequently, plastic has elevated the role of social science in the innovation space, which has traditionally been occupied by science and enterprise. This opening article marks the launch of a special collection of works, whic…
Cultural Responses to the War on Drugs
Cardboard publishers (editoriales cartoneras) are small, independent publishers linked by the recovered cardboard that covers their books, a commitment to the promotion of local authors, and a drive to make literature accessible. This cultural movement, whose actors often form part of broader social movements, has spread across Latin America and beyond, with other 250 active collectives. Drawing on ethnography conducted with some of Mexico’s thir…
Waste, colonialism, and the city
A review of 'a mass conspiracy to feed people', 'pollution is colonialism', and 'waste siege: the life of infrastructure in Palestine'
From cartonera publishing practices to trans-formal methods for qualitative research
Interdisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity and counter-disciplinarity are the hallmark of cultural studies and qualitative research, as scholars over the past three decades have discussed through extensive self-reflexive inquiry into their own unstable and ever-shifting methods (Denzin and Lincoln, 2018; Dicks et al., 2006: 78; Grossberg, 2010). Building on the interdisciplinary thought of Jacques Rancière and Caroline Levine on the one hand and tr…
Latin American politics underground
Cartonera publishing emerged in post-crisis Buenos Aires with the birth of Eloísa cartonera (2003), whose founders proposed a radically new model of making books out of recycled cardboard, purchased from, and made with, cartoneros (waste-pickers). Since then, this model has been adapted across Latin America by an ever-growing number of collectives (currently around 250). In this article we ask: What relations and/or networks have enabled this mod…
Harm Reduction
Harm Reduction
Latin American politics underground
Cartonera publishing emerged in post-crisis Buenos Aires with the birth of Eloísa cartonera (2003), whose founders proposed a radically new model of making books out of recycled cardboard, purchased from, and made with, cartoneros (waste-pickers). Since then, this model has been adapted across Latin America by an ever-growing number of collectives (currently around 250). In this article we ask: What relations and/or networks have enabled this mod…
Waste
From plastics in the oceans, to the export of toxic materials, waste is an issue that increasingly attracts public attention as well as demands for political and environmental action. Within the social sciences, writing on waste has clustered around the emergent and growing sub-discipline known as ‘discard studies’. This entry looks at how anthropologists have broached the issue of waste, from a long-standing interest in pollution, to more recent…
Cultural Responses to the War on Drugs
Cardboard publishers (editoriales cartoneras) are small, independent publishers linked by the recovered cardboard that covers their books, a commitment to the promotion of local authors, and a drive to make literature accessible. This cultural movement, whose actors often form part of broader social movements, has spread across Latin America and beyond, with other 250 active collectives. Drawing on ethnography conducted with some of Mexico’s thir…
We Looked after People Better when We Were Informal
Drawing on participatory research, this article explores the state formalisation of Uruguayan clasificadores (waste-pickers). It goes beyond the informal/formal binary, instead proposing the concepts of 'para-formality' to describe economic activity that exists in parallel to regulated and taxed spheres, and 'quasi-formality' to describe processes of formalisation that are supported by underlying informal practices. When unregulated, clasificador…
Cambridge, Carnaval, and the ‘Actually Existing Circularity’ of Plastics
This article draws on comparative ethnographic research on plastic consumption, (re)use, and disposal in households and collective spaces in Cambridge (England) and Montevideo (Uruguay). Focusing on practices of re-use by individuals and collectives, it argues that these constitute forms of ‘actually existing circularity’ that provide an alternative to circular economy schemes premised on retained corporate ownership. In the context of discussion…
Introduction to Special Collection
Concern around plastic pollution and China’s ban on receiving foreign waste and recyclate have refocused attention on responsible waste management and attracted interdisciplinary research that impacts policy and practice. Consequently, plastic has elevated the role of social science in the innovation space, which has traditionally been occupied by science and enterprise. This opening article marks the launch of a special collection of works, whic…
From cartonera publishing practices to trans-formal methods for qualitative research
Interdisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity and counter-disciplinarity are the hallmark of cultural studies and qualitative research, as scholars over the past three decades have discussed through extensive self-reflexive inquiry into their own unstable and ever-shifting methods (Denzin and Lincoln, 2018; Dicks et al., 2006: 78; Grossberg, 2010). Building on the interdisciplinary thought of Jacques Rancière and Caroline Levine on the one hand and tr…
The politics of coproduction during Latin America’s ‘Pink Tide’
Coproduction brings together a diverse range of state and non-state actors to create and deliver public services. These processes, which occur across the Global South, have been widely studied. However, insufficient critical attention has been paid to their politics. We address this gap in the literature by analysing the politics of coproduction in Latin America during the ‘pink tide’ of the early twenty-first century. Drawing on original qualita…
Creating Waste and Resisting Recovery
This article focuses on a ‘register of recovery’ that emerged in post-crisis and post-neoliberal Argentina as a way of imagining and framing an increasingly disparate collection of persons, things, and ideas, from young workers, to green space, to hose pipes. Drawing on ethnography conducted at the NuevaMente recycling cooperative in Morón, Greater Buenos Aires, the article attends to the material implications stemming from the adoption of the ra…
Teorizando a dobradiça cartonera
Trata-se de uma tradução do capítulo "Methods: Trans-Formal Research for Transformational Practice", parte do livro Taking Form, Making Worlds: Cartonera Publishers in Latin America (2022). Ao longo do artigo, os autores acompanham as atividades das cartoneras mexicanas La Rueda Cartonera e Viento Cartonero para teorizar sobre o fazer cartonero e, ao mesmo tempo, elaborar uma reflexão sobre a metodologia para fazê-lo, partindo de uma visão interd…
Waste, colonialism, and the city
A review of 'a mass conspiracy to feed people', 'pollution is colonialism', and 'waste siege: the life of infrastructure in Palestine'
Waste and Its Disguises
The introduction to this special issue starts with a brief thematisation of the key theoretical interventions in the anthropology of waste in order to situate our own contribution. We follow this by discussing, and adding to the recent anthropology and sociology of ignorance and not knowing, before turning to the intersections between waste and ignorance, thinking through how we and other scholars have theorised ways of deflecting attention away …
Plastic Time
The study of plastics reveals a disjuncture in time. Plastic production draws on resources from our deep geological past while driving an accumulation of waste that will survive into the deep future as a marker of our geological agency. Yet the apparently infinite replaceability of plastics narrows our horizons to the present of the eternally new. The ubiquity and disposability of plastic instills in consumers a time sense that is focused on pres…
Special Issue Introduction-Autonomy Through Collaboration
This special issue explores the encounter between cultural memory, media, and autonomy in collaborative printing and editorial projects. In recent years, there has been a rise in Indigenous publishing involving collaboration with anthropologists and/or anthropological knowledge. Indigenous collectives often invite anthropologists to support their autonomous publishing projects centered around history and cultural revitalization, due to their pres…
"Nothing is simple". An ethnographic theory and its history
This lecture was given on April 16th, 2026, at St Andrews University, as the 2nd Peter Gow Memorial Lecture. Its aim is not only to pay tribute to a great anthropologist who died prematurely, but also to explore a fundamental aspect of his work. Namely, the fact that Peter Gow developed what we might call an “ethnographic theory of mixture”. This theory is elaborated here through a comparison between Peter Gow’s work and my own, with a particular…
Sociology (11 works) · Political science (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Ethnography (7 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Water Governance and Infrastructure (6 works) · Aesthetics (5 works) · Anthropology (5 works) · History (5 works)