240174 SE The Power of Things (P1) (2014W)

This course explores the interrelations between material wastes and emotions. We will deal with the manifold and changing ways of peoples engagement with waste and how such processes are linked to the social generation and distribution of particular emotions. Apparently, once a matter is culturally defined as waste it may evoke strong emotions such as disgust and fear. In turn, transforming waste into reusable matters may foster the hope for a better life or a healthy environment. Thus, the entanglement of emotions and waste may profoundly shape the moral configuration of particular social orders both in the presence and imagined futures. This makes it a fascinating area for thinking about nature/culture, the qualification of matters as dangerous, valuable, reusable etc., or what people are fearful/ hopeful of in their imaginaries, thus providing a promising route to the study of the affective politics of waste.

Based on relevant literature and students own empirical research we will investigate such processes within four topical fields: medical/ biological waste (e.g. in hospitals); waste on mountains (e.g. in relation to tourism; faeces at Alpine huts); urban mining for valuable resources in wastes produced in cities; and messie syndrome/hording disorder.