Periodical Article: An index of waste: humanitarian design, ‘dignified living’ and the politics of infrastructure in Cape Town
| Title: | An index of waste: humanitarian design, ‘dignified living’ and the politics of infrastructure in Cape Town |
| Authors: | Redfield, Peter Robins, Steven |
| Year: | 2016 |
| Periodical: | Anthropology Southern Africa (ISSN 2332-3264) |
| Volume: | 39 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Pages: | 145-162 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | South |
| Subjects: | sanitation bodily wastes social status |
| External link: | https://doi.org/10.1080/23323256.2016.1172942 |
| Abstract: | This article develops a framework for thinking about waste as an index that signals a relational position within contested, historically layered conceptions of human order. It follows two contrasting frameworks for thinking about sanitation infrastructure: a quest to redesign the toilet at a global level for underserved populations, and popular conceptions of rights, citizenship and dignity grounded in the materiality of infrastructure in post-apartheid South Africa. By integrating highly abstract understandings of value with intimately embodied qualities of experience, the problem of sanitation simultaneously connects and divides human populations. It unites them at a species level, only to distinguish them at a social one. From this perspective, human waste is hardly a neutral substance, defined by its chemical properties. Rather, waste actively registers relational human status and position within a political ecology of needs. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract, edited] |
References
- africabib.org
- doi.org
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