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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2021

A public service or a common good? The shifting boundaries of solid waste management in global South countries

Résumé

For several decades, the public service for managing solid household and similar wastes has seemingly sported a clear-cut public health objective of offering an identical service across a given territory. Yet, empirical research conducted over recent years in global South countries shows that the perimeter of this public service is changing with respect to global environmental issues, multiple governance and social implications, as well as increasingly challenging technical and economic issues. These developments never equate to a firmly stated political project but are often veiled behind new recycling needs, a lack of public financing or the intervention of private players, informal actors or citizens. Yet, this implicit redefinition of the boundaries of what is seen as a "public service" has been reshuffling the cards the political game of waste. The idea of the public actors' role is shifting, whether the goal be to include informal wastepickers, reduce poverty or preserve resources. Although other forms of this phenomenon are visible in global North cities, this paper focuses specifically on cities in the global South. 1 The six case studies (Lima, Bogotá, Lomé, Antananarivo, Delhi and Surabaya) offer a shifting picture of the boundaries of this public service. Sometimes, the perimeter of the service is reduced at the margins when recyclable and compostable wastes are removed ahead of municipal collection. In other cases, the service may be reduced upstream when a (more or less formal) primary collection scheme is set up. Some of the tasks are assigned to third-party actors, rather than simply privatising the service. Indeed, this does not call on either a market-economy rationale or an institutional logic. The notion of commons can then by introduced to analyse an increasingly composite form of solid waste management.
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Dates et versions

hal-03518038 , version 1 (08-01-2022)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-03518038 , version 1

Citer

Mathieu Durand, Jérémie Cavé, Irène Salenson. A public service or a common good? The shifting boundaries of solid waste management in global South countries. Re-opening the bin - Waste, economy, culture and society, Gothenburg university, Jun 2021, Göteborg [en ligne], Sweden. ⟨hal-03518038⟩
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