SEMINAR: Anthropology and Sociology Seminar Series- Zoom Edition

The overflowing landfills, clogged up rivers, filthy beaches, and the dangerous ways in which humans and non-humans alike interact with waste may be "the most visceral expression of the Anthropocene" (Eriksen 2018). Thus, as elsewhere in the world, people in Indonesia are now trying to find ways to tame their waste. Local commentators and politicians all recognise that the issue of waste cannot be addressed y infrastructure alone. Instead, bins, trucks and landfills must move alongside the shifts in individual behaviour. My PhD project explores the interactions between waste management infrastructure and waste-related education in Indonesia, where civil society, non-governmental and private sector organisations work in tandem with local governments to improve coordination of waste management efforts and to change everyday behaviour related to waste. The project focuses on efforts that are being played out on the island of Sumbawa, in Western Nusa Tenggara (NTB).

In this seminar, I will share some early findings from the project and will invite you to discuss the conceptual and analytical framework that had to be carved out in order to examine the couplings between infrastructure and education. For this, I have turned to the neologism 'zero waste', a term which has also been adopted by the government of NTB for its waste-related development program, as a means to structure my thesis into three main analytics- revaluation, reassembling and transformation- and to extend the scope of the project so as to accommodate a more desk-oriented approach involving such approaches as policy analysis in the light of Covid-19 restrictions.

Zoom Details: Link: https://uwa.zoom.us/j/95457334331?pwd=c1k5QjFMWGhuWUFMS3FocnFIMms5dz09 Meeting ID: 954-5733-4331 Password: 428153