Between Toxics and Gold

Devaluing Informal Labor in the Global Urban Mine

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3833763
AutoresJulia Corwin, Julia Eleanor Corwin (0000-0002-6460-2129, London School of Economics and Political Science, autor correspondente)
Ano2020
Volume31
Fascículo4
Páginas106-123
Data de publicação2020-10-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoCapitalism Nature Socialism (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1045-5752 • E-ISSN: 1548-3290
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10455752.2019.1690533
OpenAlexW2991462413
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas7
Referências citadas34

Environmental discourses on electronic waste have converged around two framings of e-waste as a significant global concern: as a polluting and hazardous waste product, and as an under-tapped source of value: an "urban mine." This paper argues that the discursive shift between these two framings is not based in material differences between either the electronics themselves or related labor processes; instead, the major determining factor in e-waste's categorization as hazard or resource is based on the category of labor working on it and where it is located. Drawing on research in India's used electronics industry, this paper argues that when associated with informal labor in the Global South, e-waste is easily devalued and judged a hazardous waste through devaluing the labor that works on it. The conflation of pollution with informal labor in the Global South offers such a powerful narrative, particularly in governance and industry circles, that it has become a significant way to devalue e-waste in the Global South, opening up "new" frontiers of value that would otherwise be captured by local, predominantly informal, industry. Thus, environmental concerns about the hazards of e-waste can be used to secure corporate e-waste markets through devaluing informal labor

Business · Conflation · Economic growth · Economics · Electronic waste · Environmental hazard · Hazard · Hazardous waste · Informal sector · Labor relations · Political science · Waste management · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Engineering · Law · Recycling and Waste Management Techniques · Water Governance and Infrastructure