Waste in the Space, Time, and Matter of Research/Inquiry

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 25
  In Roundtable Session: Explorations of Waste in Academic Inquiry

Abstract

Waste–or junk, faeces, scat, rubbish to name a few synonyms–recalls danger. It is something that must be eliminated or disappear. In Douglas’ terms, it is 'a matter out of place' (2002/1966). Historically, according to Corvellec (2019), waste has been eliminated through three main ways. The first coincided with the dumps; those places where our predecessors, since ancient times hid excrement, bones, and broken objects. A line of continuity connects dumps to the most recent landfills which in turn are tied with modern repositories, built to protect us from nuclear waste. The second way of eliminating waste is represented by recycling and transforming, which allows the discarded material to be included in the economic cycle. Finally, the third way “to make waste disappear is to equate it with a defect that one should systematically search for and eliminate, such as through lean production” (Corvellec, 2019, p. 218). We think that these discourses around waste can echo and shape also our research/inquiry, in particular when during a research process we eliminate or remove events, data and pieces of writing.

Starting from this backdrop, in this paper we will try to address some questions/provocations that arose from the encounter between us and two words: waste and inquiry. We will ask: 1) Can research be wasted research? 2) Does research produce waste, conceived as pollution, dirt, or unusable and unwanted material that researchers want to eliminate? 3) Does waste or can waste become vital matter for our own and other’s research, that is something with that strange and curious capacity of animating, acting and producing “dramatic and subtle effects” (Bennet, 2010, p. 6; see also Reno, 2014)? Inspired by the art of Mark Dion (Tate Thame Dig), we will ask what research becomes when we collect waste (Viney, 2014) or when we resist the easy temptation to eliminate waste and instead we let ourselves be carried away by its vital matter? The paper concludes with some reflections on the responsibility to produce and take care of waste.

Authors

• Angelo Benozzo

• Dana Unger, University of East Anglia