Social Reproduction of Waste
Processes of Discard, Labor, and Inequalities
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24229227 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Riya Raphael (0000-0002-2830-3842, Lund University), Julián Porras Bulla (0000-0002-2690-1339, Department of Sociology III (Social Trends), Faculty of Political Sciences and Sociology, National University of Distance Education (UNED), Calle Obispo Trejo 2, Madrid 28040) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 435-456 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Politics International Studies in Gender State & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1072-4745 • E-ISSN: 1468-2893 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/sp/jxaf068 |
| OpenAlex | W7202290354 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 40 |
Feminist social reproduction theories and approaches capture multiple scales of analysis, from everyday care work within households to the reproductive aspects of welfare systems such as health and education. Feminist thinkers draw our attention to the gendered, racialized, and classed intersections embedded within production processes, by analyzing the ecological, biological, and social dimensions of reproduction. Recent critical interventions into “pluralizing” social reproduction approaches indicate that significant domains of our socioeconomic and cultural lives remain undertheorized within feminist discussions. This article explores waste as a key site of social reproductive labor, which remains marginal within feminist scholarship. Waste as an analytical point of departure showcases the tension between capitalism and the environment, and harbors toxic and stigmatized workspaces. This paper combines Marxist feminist perspectives with discard studies to theorize how waste work is fundamental to the biological and the socioeconomic reproduction of the society.
capitalism and the environment · Care work · discard studies · Feminist theory · gendered labor · Marxist feminism · racialized labor · Social reproduction · waste · Feminism, Gender, and Intersectionality · Feminist Theory and Gender Studies · Political Economy and Marxism
Purity and Danger
Wasteocene
Social Reproduction Theory
Discard Studies
Policing the stigma in our waste
The New Imperialism
Towards a care perspective on waste
Contradictions at work
To the Perfection of Waste
The Problem of Women’s Labour
Inclusive recycling movements
Waste pickers and cities
Making chains that (un)make things
Trashing Solidarity
Unclean, Unseen
Anti-Caste Movements, Resistance, and Caste
Planet of Slums
Odor and Order
Pluralizing social reproduction approaches
Rethinking governance and value in commodity chains through global recycling networks
Accumulation by dispossession and the informal economy - Struggles over knowledge, being and waste at a Soweto garbage dump
Six theses on waste, value, and commons
Garbage as Racialization
Formalización de las organizaciones de recicladores de oficio en Bogotá
Dilemmas of Co-production
Rethinking the Economy with Thick Description and Weak Theory
| Highly cited | No |
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