Plastic Legacies: Pollution, Persistence, and Politics

by Trisia Farrelly (Editor), Sy Taffel (Editor), Ian Shaw (Editor)

Overview

There is virtually nowhere on earth that remains untouched by plastics and the situation presents a serious threat to our natural world. Despite the magnitude of the problem, the interventions most often put in place are consumer-led and market-based and only nominally capable of addressing the issue. As the problem worsens and neoliberal ideologies limit the world’s responses to this crisis, there is a growing need for legislative frameworks that attend to the complex social and ecological issues associated with plastics.

The contributors to this volume bring expertise from across academic disciplines to illustrate how plastics are produced, consumed, and discarded and to find holistic and integrated approaches that demonstrate an understanding of the wide-ranging problem. From the plasticization of earth’s oceans to the endocrine disrupting chemicals that have the potential to seriously harm life as we know it, these essays beg the question that we all must answer: what is our plastic legacy?

With contributions by: Imogen E. Napper, Sabine Pahl, Richard C. Thompson, Sasha Adkins, Stephanie B. Borrelle, Jennifer Provencher, Tina Ngata, Sven Bergmann, Christina Gerhardt, Elyse Stanes, Tridibesh Dey, Mike Michael, Laura McLauchlan, Johanne Tarpgaard, Deirdre McKay, Padmapani Perez, Lei Xiaoyu, and John Holland.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771993296
Publisher:	Athabasca University Press
Publication date:	07/08/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	284
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

TRISIA FARRELLY is a senior lecturer in social anthropology and co-director of the Political Ecology Research Centre at Massey University, Aotearoa New Zealand. SY TAFFEL is a senior lecturer in media studies and co-director of the Political Ecology Research Centre at Massey University, Aotearoa New Zealand. IAN SHAW is an author and broadcaster as well as a professor of toxicology at the University of Canterbury.

Trisia Farrelly is a senior lecturer in social anthropology and a co-director of the Political Ecology Research Centre at Massey University, Aotearoa New Zealand. She is co-founder of the New Zealand Product Stewardship Council and the Aotearoa Plastic Pollution Alliance. She has been a member of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Expert Group (Marine Litter and Microplastics) since 2017; and she was nominated to its associated Scientific Advisory Committee in 2019.
Sy Taffel is a senior lecturer in media studies and co-director of the Political Ecology Research Centre at Massey University, Aotearoa New Zealand. He has published work on political ecologies of digital media, media and materiality, hacktivism, digital automation, and pervasive/locative media. He is the author of Digital Media Ecologies (Bloomsbury 2019).
Ian Shaw is an author, broadcaster and academic. He has worked in government science, the pharmaceuticals industry, and in several universities. He rose to dizzy administrative heights as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Science) at the University of Canterbury, until he defected to the world of real science in 2009. He is now Professor of Toxicology at the University of Canterbury.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Our Plastic Inheritance / Trisia Farrelly, Sy Taffel, and Ian Shaw

Part I: Pollution
1. Marine Litter: Are There Solutions to This Global Environmental Problem? / Imogen E. Napper, Sabine Pahl, and Richard C. Thompson
2. Slow Violence: The Erosion of Marine Plastic Debris and of Human Health / Sasha Adkins
3. How Seabirds and Indigenous Science Illustrate the Legacies of Plastics Pollution / Stephanie B. Borrelle, Jennifer Provencher, and Tina Ngata
4. Dawn of the Plastisphere: An Experiment with Unpredictable Effects / Sven Bergmann

Part II: Persistence
5. Plastiglomerate: Plastics, Geology, and the New Materialism of the Anthropocene / Christina Gerhardt
6. Dressed in Plastic: The Persistence of Polyester Clothes / Elyse Stanes
7. Caring for the Multiple Cares of Plastics / Tridibesh Dey and Mike Michael
8. On Becoming a Massively Distributed Thing: Hedgehogs, Plastics, and the Bearable Lightness of Becoming / Laura McLauchlan

Part III: Politics
9. Communicative Capitalism, Technological Solutionism, and The Ocean Cleanup / Sy Taffel
10. Toward Large-Scale Social Change and Plastic Politics: An Anthropological Perspective on the Practices of a Danish Environmental Organization / Johanne Tarpgaard
11. Plastics Talk/Talking Plastics: The Communicative Power of Plasticity / Deirdre McKay, Padmapani Perez, and Lei Xiaoyu
12. Redressing the Faustian Bargains of Plastics Economies / Trisia Farrelly, Ian Shaw, and John Holland

Conclusion: Where There’s a Will . . . Contesting Our Plastic Inheritance / Trisia Farrelly

List of Contributors