Shifting modes of governing municipal waste - A sociology of translation approach

摘要

In this study, we investigate the shifting of modes of governing municipal waste, from disposal (waste-to-landfill) to waste as a resource (sustainable recycling). To this end, we frame this study combining the modes of governing approach developed by Bulkeley, Watson and Hudson with Bruno Latour’s sociology of translation approach (or Actor-Network Theory). Within this double framework, we investigate practices that emerge from the attempts made by multiple stakeholders to shift modes of governing waste. This study contributes to the modes of governing waste in particular and, to environmental policy implementation studies in general. We posit that shifting governing modes involves (i) the construction of human–non-human networks that support the stabilization of a particular governing mode; (ii) consideration of the role of non-humans , their agency and materiality and; (iii) the acknowledgement that counter-networks and unintended consequences are likely to emerge. When we add to this view the role of politics, a more complex, dynamic and rich picture of the phenomenon surfaces.