Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Political Ecology of Waste Management in India

博士论文研究：印度废物管理的政治生态

基本信息

批准号：
1202985
负责人：
Erica Schoenberger
金额：
$ 1.2万
依托单位：
Johns Hopkins University
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2012
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2012-07-01 至 2013-12-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1202985&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Doctoral Dissertation Research Political Ecology

项目摘要

Discourses and practices of development consistently have held that urbanization is the key to progress. But urbanization also brings a set of problems, two of which are an informal sector that perpetually escapes the purview of the state and mounting piles of unmanaged and oft-times unmanageable garbage. At the intersection of these two problems are waste-pickers, individuals who informally manage the city's garbage. In the city of Delhi, India, the waste-pickers livelihoods are threatened as the city of Delhi privatizes its waste management services in its aspirations to be become a "world-class" and "global" city. This doctoral dissertation research project seeks answers to the following broad question: How can the problem of dealing with garbage tell us about relations within and between classes, the state and private capital in the process of urbanization in Delhi? More specifically, the doctoral student will pursue the following questions: (1) How has the state treated garbage and waste-pickers as objects of urban planning? (2) What information about the urbanizing process is provided from an examination of the tactics and strategies of private waste firms? (3) How have middle- and upper-class desires for a particular kind of urban modernity been enacted through the management of garbage? (4) How are informal sector waste-pickers organizing and contesting the discourses and practices of city-making? Drawing upon existing work in urban metabolism, the role of class relations in shaping urban spaces, the place of the informal sector in the urban economy, urban infrastructure privatization, and the growth of the waste management industry, the student will seek connections among these research areas by examining the different facets of the urban waste management problem in developing countries. The student will use semi-structured interviews with government officials, non-governmental organization, and development agency personnel and waste-firm managers; participant observation at six Resident Welfare Association (RWA) meetings, a waste picker organization (Safai Sena), and a waste firm; and household surveys in six neighborhoods where participant observation at RWA meetings will be conducted.This project will provide alternatives and guidance for municipal managers to develop policy solutions that are more just and inclusive for some of the city's most vulnerable populations by pointing out the distributional impacts of waste management program implementations. From a theoretical perspective, the project will contribute to the growing literature in urban political ecology; draw attention to garbage as a unique form of a common pool resource; contribute to the debates on the relationship between waste and value from a political economy perspective; and pose new questions for studying agglomeration economies and diseconomies. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.

发展的话语和实践一贯认为，城镇化是进步的关键。但城市化也带来了一系列问题，其中两个问题是永远脱离国家管辖范围的非正规部门，以及堆积如山、无人管理且常常难以管理的垃圾。这两个问题的交叉点是拾荒者，即非正式管理城市垃圾的个人。在印度德里市，随着德里市将其废物管理服务私有化，以期成为“世界级”和“全球”城市，拾荒者的生计受到威胁。本博士论文研究项目寻求回答以下广泛问题：垃圾处理问题如何告诉我们德里城市化进程中阶级、国家和私人资本内部和之间的关系？更具体地说，博士生将提出以下问题：（1）国家如何将垃圾和拾荒者作为城市规划的对象？ (2) 通过对私营垃圾公司的策略和战略的考察，可以提供哪些关于城市化进程的信息？（3）中上层阶级对某种城市现代性的渴望是如何通过垃圾管理来实现的？（4）非正规部门的垃圾收集者如何组织和争论城市建设的话语和实践？学生将利用城市新陈代谢、阶级关系在塑造城市空间中的作用、非正规部门在城市经济中的地位、城市基础设施私有化以及废物管理行业的发展等方面的现有工作，寻求这些研究之间的联系通过研究发展中国家城市废物管理问题的不同方面。学生将采用半结构化访谈的方式采访政府官员、非政府组织、发展机构人员和废物处理公司经理；参加六次居民福利协会 (RWA) 会议、一个垃圾收集者组织 (Safai Sena) 和一家垃圾处理公司的观察；以及将在 RWA 会议上进行参与观察的六个社区的家庭调查。该项目将为市政管理者提供替代方案和指导，以通过指出分配影响来制定对城市中一些最弱势群体更加公正和包容的政策解决方案废物管理计划的实施情况。从理论角度来看，该项目将有助于城市政治生态学文献的不断增长；提请注意垃圾作为公共池资源的独特形式；从政治经济学的角度为浪费与价值之间关系的辩论做出贡献；并为研究集聚经济和不经济提出新问题。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将为有前途的学生建立强大的独立研究生涯提供支持。