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Global destruction networks and hybrid e-waste economies: Practices and embeddedness in Guiyu, China

Author

Listed:
  • Kun Wang

    (Key Lab of Guangdong for Utilization of Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System, Guangdong Open Laboratory of Geospatial Information Technology and Application, Guangzhou Institute of Geography, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, China)

  • Junxi Qian

    (Department of Geography, 25809The University of Hong Kong, China)

  • Shenjing He

    (Department of Urban Planning and Design, 25809The University of Hong Kong, China)

Abstract

Recent geographical scholarship on the illicit e-waste geographies and e-waste processing hubs in the Global South has shed light on the global mobilities, production/destruction networks, and political economy/ecology of e-waste. However, their views about the reactivation of value in waste and the dialectics between waste and value rest predominantly on networks of material linkages shaped by broader political-economic structures at macro scales, but are relatively reticent about how mobilities and networks are coordinated by specific places, and how economic practices conducted by a broad diversity of local actors, often informal, constitute economic relations, transactions and dependencies, mediated by place-sticky social and cultural fabrics and vernacular institutions. Based on a study of Guiyu town in Guangdong Province, China, an (in)famous hub of global e-waste recycling, this study unpacks its cluster evolution through a perspective that works with the concept of embeddedness but by way of an emphasis on practice. By tracing a multiplicity of territorial, sociocultural, and political dynamics that articulate between the local and the global, this study enriches existing scholarships on e-waste geographies, global production/destruction networks, and the economic geographies of the illicit.

Suggested Citation

  • Kun Wang & Junxi Qian & Shenjing He, 2022. "Global destruction networks and hybrid e-waste economies: Practices and embeddedness in Guiyu, China," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 54(3), pages 533-553, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:54:y:2022:i:3:p:533-553
    DOI: 10.1177/0308518X211061748
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Xia, Qifan & Du, Debin & Cao, Wanpeng & Wang, Shengpeng & Li, Xiya, 2024. "The paradox of waste geography? Dynamic evolution and quality evaluation of the global rare earth recycling trade network," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).

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