The closing conference of the Waste Society project funded by the Academy of Finland is held online due to the corona situation. The speeches have been videotaped so you can attend the conference when it suits you best.
In the conference as in the project, waste is studied from a sociological viewpoint as part of everyday life, work, institutions and social relations.
– The discipline of sociology has worked hard on waste issues in recent years. Our Waste Society project was supposed to culminate in an international conference, but since it wasn’t possible in these days, we decided instead to compile a series of keynote lectures on current waste research issues on our website, says professor Jarno Valkonen, leader of the project.
In his keynote lecture Thomas Hylland Eriksen asks why do we classify some things as valuable and others as rubbish. The talk by Gay Hawkins explores the idea of waste as political material. Hervé Corvellec argues, that the Anthropocene is the age of waste because converging forces have made possible normalization of waste and habituation of wasting. Keynote lectures are commented by Finnish waste researchers Maria Åkerman, Karoliina Lummaa, and Olli Pyyhtinen.
As part of the conference, a roundtable discussion podcast has been produced with Versus media. Taru Lehtokunnas, Teemu Loikkanen, and Tanja Riekkinen talk on multiple political realities of waste and the relationship of circular economy, recycling, consumption and wasting.
– You are welcome to participate at any time and from anywhere, the conference organizers welcome.
Discussion takes place in Twitter by using hastag #wastesociety.
Web conference: https://wastesociety.com/
Versus podcast: https://www.versuslehti.fi/podcastit/versus-podcast-living-in-a-waste-society/
More information:
Jarno Valkonen, jarno.valkonen(at)ulapland.fi, +358 40 484 4237