This project investigates the geographiesafterlives of waste in Argentina. Building on my previous fieldwork in Paraná, I examine the history of a municipal landfill and its entanglements with contemporary socio-ecological relationships in the region. The landfill, locally called the Volcadero, is located in the middle of the city’s wetlands. Despite the Volcadero’s looming presence and its constant contamination of the wetlands, there is an emerging community-led ecotourism program that aims to reclaim and steward this territory that has been designated a wasteland. Through activities such as environmental education and wetland restoration, activists and communities in Paraná are working to reject the dominant narrative of the community’s disposability that has been established by neoliberal interests and extractive industries. At the center of this story is a community’s efforts to care for a landscape that has been discarded and rendered unproductive, and how they find ways to build more just human-nature relationships out of what remains. Drawing on qualitative interviews, archival research, and participant observation, I interrogate the discursive and material construction of waste and uneven development. This research engages with current debates in political ecology and discard studies to center a relational understanding of wastescapes and how power is produced and contested through meanings of value. Data collected will be used in the completion of my master's thesis.
Abstract:
Publication date:
November 8, 2024
Publication type:
Student Research
