Contested Worldings of E-Waste Environmental Justice: Nonhuman Agency and E-Waste Scalvaging in Guiyu, China

Abstract

Current environmental justice (EJ) research is moving beyond the distributional paradigm to embrace frameworks that emphasize the plurality of EJs. This study proposes that actor-network theory (ANT), which foregrounds nonhuman agency and heterogeneous associations, holds great potential for pushing forward this research agenda. It presents an ANT-informed analysis of the plural epistemologies of EJ by focusing on a global e-waste scalvaging hub—Guiyu in China. E-waste is considered a fluid and emergent material actant. The multiplicity of e-waste materialities coconstitutes the disparate worldings of EJ, with a wide range of actors involved in the knowledge-making practices. Disparate EJ realities concerning e-waste scalvaging have been worlded and enacted through the heterogeneous associations among numerous nonhuman actors, including discarded electronic devices, environmental conditions, pollutants, toxic substances, artifacts, discourses, tools and techniques, and a variety of human stakeholders, ranging from nongovernmental organizations, media, and academics to local scalvagers relying on e-waste for livelihood and wealth. In tracing these heterogeneous associations, this study juxtaposes two competing EJ worldings related to the ontological indeterminacy of e-waste. It first problematizes the worlding of North-to-South dumping that not only mispresents the complex geographies of e-waste, but also epitomizes a simplified distributional model of EJ.Then it ventures to theorize an often-neglected and underresearched dimension: EJ as situated capabilities and functionings concerned by the local community. This study thus adds to ongoing efforts to advance pluralist epistemologies of EJ.

目前的环境公正研究, 正在从分布式转向强调环境公正的多元性。本研究认为, 行动者网络理论强调非人类因素和异构关联, 具有推动这项研究的巨大潜力。本文关注全球电子废弃物拆解中心：中国贵屿镇, 基于行动者网络理论对环境公正多元认识论进行了分析。电子废弃物是一种液态的新型物质体。电子废弃物在物质性上的多样性, 共同构成了环境公正的不同世界, 在其知识创造过程中有很多影响因素。电子废弃物拆解的不同环境公正现实, 已经被世界化, 通过众多非人类因素的异构关联而实现。这些非人类因素包括：废弃电子设备、环境条件、污染物、有毒物质、人工制品、描述、工具和技术, 以及各种人类利益相关者（从非政府组织、媒体和学术界, 到依靠电子废弃物维持生计和致富的当地拆解人员）。在追踪这些异构关联时, 本研究列举了与电子废弃物本体论不确定性相关的两个环境公正世界。本文首先质疑了由北向南倾倒电子废弃物的世界, 这一观点不仅错误地表现了电子废弃物的复杂地理, 而且简化了电子废弃物分布模型。然后, 本文大胆地理论化了一个经常被忽视并鲜有研究的方面：环境公正是当地社区关注的特定能力和功能。因此, 这项研究推动了当前推动环境公正多元认识论的研究。

La investigación corriente sobre justicia ambiental (EJ) está yendo más allá del paradigma distribucional para acoger marcos que enfatizan la pluralidad de las EJs. Este estudio formula la propuesta de que la teoría actor-red (ANT), que proclama la agencia no humana y las asociaciones heterogéneas, guarda mucho potencial para impulsar esta agenda investigativa. Se presenta un análisis basado en ANT de las epistemologías plurales de la EJ centrando la atención en un punto focal de limpieza global de basura electrónica––Guiyu, en China––. La e-basura es considerada un material actante fluido y emergente. La multiplicidad de materialidades de la e-basura co-constituye disparidades térreas de la EJ, con un amplio rango de actores involucrados en prácticas productoras de conocimiento. Las realidades dispares de la EJ concernientes a la limpieza de la e-basura han sido tornadas a una condición de mundanalidad y realizadas por medio de asociaciones heterogéneas entre numerosos actores no humanos, que incluyen aparatos electrónicos desechados, condiciones ambientales, polutantes, sustancias tóxicas, artefactos, discursos, herramientas y técnicas, y una variedad de partes interesadas que van desde organizaciones no gubernamentales, los medios y académicos, hasta los limpiadores locales que dependen de la e-basura como su medio de vida y riqueza. Al seguir las trayectorias de estas asociaciones heterogéneas, este estudio yuxtapone dos mundanidades de la EJ en competencia relacionadas con la indeterminación ontológica de la e-basura. Primero se problematiza la mundanidad del vertimiento de desechos de Norte-a-Sur que no solo presenta mal las complejas geografías de la e-basura, sino que además epitomiza un modelo distribucional simplificado de la EJ. Se intenta luego teorizar una dimensión a menudo soslayada y muy poco investigada: la EJ como capacidades y funcionalidades situadas de preocupación para la comunidad local. Así, pues, este estudio se suma a los esfuerzos actuales para desarrollar más las epistemologías pluralistas de la EJ.

Key Words:

• actor-network theory
• capability environmental justice
• distributional environmental justice
• e-waste
• nonhuman agency

关键词:

• 行动者网络理论、能力环境公正、分布式环境公正、电子废弃物、非人因素。

Palabras clave:

• agencia no humana
• capacidad
• e-basura
• justicia ambiental distributiva
• teoría del actor-red

Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the valuable comments from the editor and anonymous reviewers.

Notes

1 Kirby and Lora-Wainwright (2015) coined the term scalvage by combing the notion of scavenging and salvaging to replace the notion of e-waste recycling, which has a false “green” connotation.

2 We draw this term from Lepawsky (2018). See the later explanation in the theoretical section.

3 State Environmental Protection Administration: Notification on Issues Associated with the Import of the Seventh Category of Waste, 16 January 2000.

4 See the documentary Exporting Harm: The High-Tech Trashing of Asia from the Basel Action Network at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDSWGV3jGekandt=170s (accessed January 2016).

5 See the following Web site for the revenue of BAN: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/10918435 (accessed 15 July 2020).

6 Guiyu Community (http://www.gzhshoulu.wang/article/2164711 [accessed August 2018]).

7 Please see part of the documentary at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVORBbZBbOk (accessed 15 July 2020).

8 Focus Interview Official Channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHdJ2Z7TNuw (accessed August 2018).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project Nos. 41671153 and 41871165).

Notes on contributors

Kun Wang

KUN WANG is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Geography and Resource Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests cover urban and political ecology, environmental justice, environmental governance, geographies of e-waste, informality, poststructural geography, and rural migrants in China.

Junxi Qian

JUNXI QIAN is Assistant Professor at the Department of Geography, The University of Hong Kong. E-mail: [email protected]. He is a social and cultural geographer who works at the intersection of geography, urban studies, and cultural studies. His research interests include place politics, urban public space, religion, China’s ethnic minorities and frontiers, and China’s recent urban transformation. Most of his published works partake in one or several of these themes.

Shenjing He

SHENJING HE is Professor of Urban Studies in the Department of Urban Planning and Design and Director of the Social Infrastructure for Equity and Wellbeing (SIEW) Lab at The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests focus on urban redevelopment and gentrification, urban governance, informal housing, rural–urban interface, and health geography.