The three readings this week are diverse, but all share a common theme of how material waste is pushed to marginal places, spaces that are typically understood as having lower value (in multiple senses of the word). This can start from where bins are placed, to the larger containers where they are aggregated, town sorting facilities, and eventually outside cities where most humans live. This week, examine one of these marginal spaces, broadly defined. This can be a space either on or off campus. What aspects of this space (human or non-human constructed) seem to make it ‘appropriate’ for waste?
Readings:
Engler, Mira. “Dumps.” In Designing America’s Waste Landscapes. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004, 75-123.
Calvino, Italo. “Continuous Cities I.” In Invisible Cities. 1st Harvest/HBJ ed. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978, 114-6.
Locke, John. “On Property.” In Second Treatise on Government. 285-302