Choose an object in your everyday life that is typically considered to be waste. (Include a photo of it in your post.) In what ways does Mary Douglas‘ conception of dirt help us to understand why this object is waste? Are there other conceptions of waste that are more useful in explaining why we understand this object to be waste?

Readings used for this week:

Brekhus, Wayne. 1998. A Sociology of the Unmarked: Redirecting Our Focus. Sociological Theory 16(1): 34-51.

Douglas, Mary. “Secular Defilement.” In Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1966, 30-41.