Category Archives: Justice (EJ)

Reading Lists: Residential Schools and Canadian Colonialism

Content warning: this article covers topics of colonialism and genocide in Canada. In early June of 2021 news reports emerged about the remains of Indigenous children buried in unmarked graves on the grounds of the Kamloops Indian Residential School. A couple of weeks later, 751 more children’s graves were counted at Marieval Indian Residential School […]
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Reading Lists: Waste Colonialism and Palestine

When there’s conflict, academics and teachers will often put together a reading list or syllabus to show the breadth and depth of knowledge on a topic that is catching broad public attention. These reading lists are designed to add context, nuance, and history to public discussions (e.g. The Standing Rock Syllabus (2016); The Environmental Data […]
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A moral politics of blame

Modern municipal waste disposal is not limited to removal of garbage, but often involves a strategic churning out of unwanted people, and extreme events such as dump fires reflect the social precariousness of marginalised communities like those of waste-pickers.

Nigeria’s COVID-19 waste management policy should include the informal sector

Though Nigeria approved a national solid waste management policy earlier this year, it does not provide a plan to include the large informal sector. An inclusive policy is one recognising and involving informal waste workers in solid waste management while also yielding improvements in their lives and waste management performance.

There’s no such thing as “We”

Put simply, evoking the universal “we” is a way to discard differences and maintain business as usual.

The power (& disempowerment) of Menstrual Hygiene Management

Development initiatives focused on menstrual health and sanitary pads in Southern countries actually disempower women as knowers and innovators.

PSA: Beware of Easy Narratives

This is a Twitter essay by Josh Lepawsky (@rubbishmaker) about one of many recent examples of reporting on the e-waste trade. Many of the problems specific to the article considered here can be found in a wide variety of reportage about the international waste trade more generally.

Rethinking Remediation

Mining is, as some in the industry quip, primarily a waste management industry.

Yes, Genocide (a primer on the term) #MMIWG

For Raphael Lemkin, who invented the term, genocide was the effort to destroy a group as a group. #MMIWG

Climate Change Ain’t the First Existential Threat

A Twitter essay by Mary Annaïse Heglar: Sorry, Y’all, but Climate Change Ain’t the First Existential Threat