Plastic is a versatile material that is ubiquitous in our everyday lives—its material responsibilities perform important work in containing and preserving things. Plastic objects are also highly mobile entities that are entrained in material circularity loops. They usually defy spatial containment, even in their afterlives (e.g. off-gassing, leaching). Notably, their prevalent use and unique material qualities (i.e. being non-biodegradable) have led to a global plastic crisis. Consequently, there has been a proliferation of social-scientific studies on how changes to (gendered) household practices and consumption habits can contribute to plastic resource/waste management. These strands of research build on diverse conceptual-theoretical underpinnings such as practice theories, (eco-)feminisms, new materialism and assemblage/actor-network theory, among others. This workshop seeks to draw on such emerging social-scientific strands of work in the Asia-Pacific region.
This workshop is organised around three main themes. The first attends to plastic materialities and material relations that are implicated in subject formation within and beyond the household. The second pertains to plastic’s mobilities, especially its movement through material circularity loops. The third examines the extend to which material and circular practices related to plastic are mutable and whether a socio-political transformation may be possible.
In conceptual terms, key questions that this Asia-centric workshop seeks to raise include:
- How are plastic material circularity loops operationalised in the household and beyond? What kinds of circular R-behaviours (e.g. reuse, recycle) are prioritised over others and to what effects?
- How are plastic materials implicated in mobility regimes? (e.g. single-use disposable take-away containers/bottles enabling a fast-paced lifestyle)
- To what extent is plasticity (i.e. its mutability) associated with plastic materials, given their eventual fate as waste?
- What roles and/or responsibilities can households or communities play in initiating ways of ‘living differently’ with(out) plastics (e.g. circular activisms from below, alternative systems of provisioning)?
- In light of the substantial flows of plastic materials in and out of the Asia-Pacific region, what are the strengths and pitfalls of a circular economic approach to a plastic crisis?
WORKSHOP CONVENORS
Dr Tan Qian Hui | Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
Prof Brenda S.A. Yeoh | Asia Research Institute & Department of Geography, National University of Singapore
