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Composing Urban Orders from Rubbish Electronics: Cityness and the Site Multiple

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Listed:
  • Josh Lepawsky
  • Grace Akese
  • Mostaem Billah
  • Creighton Conolly
  • Chris McNabb

Abstract

What do cities look like when rubbish electronics are the vehicle with which they are explored? This article is an experiment designed to offer a response to that question, and in doing so to productively intervene in the conversation about ‘cityness', ‘metrocentricity' and ‘subaltern urbanism'. We intervene by following flows of rubbish electronics and the action that enacts them as waste and value, drawing on fieldwork in Dhaka, Singapore, Accra and Canada's Greater Golden Horseshoe. Our intervention is an experiment in writing an urban geography of rubbish electronics as a site multiple. We show how following the circulation of rubbish electronics offers a manyfolded synopsis of cities: urban enclaves of high finance and the information economy are also industrial waste producers. Peri-urban industrial zones are also managers of brands, legal liability and corporate public relations. Cities off the map are also urban innovation systems, while waste is rekindled as value and accumulated as poison. Thereby we suggest how a sensitivity to the site multiple may be a helpful way of grappling with shifting ontology and the performativity of our research practices in urban studies.

Suggested Citation

  • Josh Lepawsky & Grace Akese & Mostaem Billah & Creighton Conolly & Chris McNabb, 2015. "Composing Urban Orders from Rubbish Electronics: Cityness and the Site Multiple," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(2), pages 185-199, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:39:y:2015:i:2:p:185-199
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/1468-2427.12142
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jennifer Robinson, 2011. "Cities in a World of Cities: The Comparative Gesture," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(1), pages 1-23, January.
    2. Jennifer Robinson, 2002. "Global and world cities: a view from off the map," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 531-554, September.
    3. P. Gyau-Boakye, 2001. "Environmental Impacts of the Akosombo Dam and Effects of Climate Change on the Lake Levels," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 17-29, March.
    4. Tim Bunnell & Anant Maringanti, 2010. "Practising Urban and Regional Research beyond Metrocentricity," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 415-420, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Jennifer Robinson, 2022. "Introduction: Generating concepts of ‘the urban’ through comparative practice," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(8), pages 1521-1535, June.
    2. Kristian Saguin, 2017. "Producing an urban hazardscape beyond the city," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(9), pages 1968-1985, September.
    3. Roger Keil, 2020. "An urban political ecology for a world of cities," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(11), pages 2357-2370, August.
    4. Julia Eleanor Corwin, 2018. "“Nothing is useless in nature†: Delhi’s repair economies and value-creation in an electronics “waste†sector," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(1), pages 14-30, February.
    5. Viktor Wildeboer & Federico Savini, 2022. "THE STATE OF THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY: Waste Valorization in Hong Kong and Rotterdam," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(5), pages 749-765, September.

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