Waste management and its contestation in the Republic of Ireland*

^*I would like to thank Andrew Biro for his comments on an earlier draft and the colleagues who worked on the research project with me: Denis O'Hearn, Michael Murray, Gerard Mc Cann and Ronaldo Munck. An earlier version of this paper appeared in Irish Journal of Sociology, 12, 1, 2003.

Abstract

I'll tell you what I see here, Sims. The scenery of the future. Eventually the only scenery left. The more toxic the waste, the greater the effort and expense a tourist will be willing to tolerate in order to visit the site. Only I don't think you ought to be isolating these sites. Isolate the toxic sites, okay. This makes it grander, more ominous and magical. But basic household waste ought to be placed in the cities that produce it. Bring garbage out into the open. Let people see it and respect it. Don't hide your waste facilities. Make an architecture of waste. Design gorgeous buildings to recycle waste and invite people to collect their own garbage and bring it with them to the press rams and conveyors. Get to know your garbage. And the hot stuff, the chemical waste, the nuclear waste, this becomes a remote landscape of nostalgia. Bus tours and postcards, I guarantee it.1

^*I would like to thank Andrew Biro for his comments on an earlier draft and the colleagues who worked on the research project with me: Denis O'Hearn, Michael Murray, Gerard Mc Cann and Ronaldo Munck. An earlier version of this paper appeared in Irish Journal of Sociology, 12, 1, 2003.

¹Don DeLillo, Underworld (New York: Scribner, 2000), p. 286.

Notes

^*I would like to thank Andrew Biro for his comments on an earlier draft and the colleagues who worked on the research project with me: Denis O'Hearn, Michael Murray, Gerard Mc Cann and Ronaldo Munck. An earlier version of this paper appeared in Irish Journal of Sociology, 12, 1, 2003.

¹Don DeLillo, Underworld (New York: Scribner, 2000), p. 286.

²Immanuel Wallerstein, The Capitalist World Economy (London: Cambridge University Press, 1979).

³See Giovanni Arrighi, ed., Semi-Peripheral Development (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1985).

⁴See in particular Peter Lange, “Semiperiphery and Core in the European Context,” in ibid.; C. Terlouw, “The Elusive Semiperiphery: A Critical Examination of The Concept of Semiperiphery,” International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 34, 1–2, 1993.

⁵Christopher Chase-Dunn, “Resistance to Imperialism: Semi-Peripheral Actors,” Review, 13, 1990.

⁶Immanuel Wallerstein, “The Relevance of the Concept of Semiperiphery to Southern Europe,” in Arrighi, op. cit., p. 35.

⁷Denis O'Hearn, “The Irish Case of Dependency: An Exception to the Exceptions?” American Sociological Review, 54, 4, 1989; Ronnie Munck, The Irish Economy: Results and Prospects (London: Pluto, 1993); Peadar Kirby, The Celtic Tiger in Distress: Growth with Inequality in Ireland (Houndmills and New York: Palgrave, 2002).

⁸See, for example, André Gunder Frank, Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1969).

⁹O'Hearn, op. cit.

¹⁰Damien Kiberd, “Open Ireland Inc to Private Investment,” Sunday Times, November 24th, 2002.

¹¹Peadar Kirby, Luke Gibbons and Michael Cronin, eds., Reinventing Ireland: Culture, Society and the Global Economy (London: Pluto Press, 2002).

¹²Ronaldo Munck, “Globalisation, Development and Labour Struggles: Ireland in Context,” Irish Journal of Sociology, 9, 1989.

¹³See Arturo Escobar, “Culture Sits in Places: Reflections on Globalism and Subaltern Strategies of Localization,” Political Geography, 20, 2001.

¹⁴Arif Dirlik, “Place-Based Imagination: Globalism and the Politics of Place,” Review xxii, 2, 1999, p. 158.

¹⁵See Albert Bergesen and Tim Bartley, “World-system and Ecosytem,” in T. Hall, ed., A World-System Reader: New Perspectives on Gender, Urbanism, Cultures, Indigenous Peoples, and Ecology (Boulder, CO: Rowan and Littlefield, 2000), p. 315; and David Smith, “Uneven Development and the Environment: Toward a World-system Perspective,” Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, 20, 1, 1994.

¹⁶See Martin O'Brien, “Rubbish Values: Reflections on the Political Economy of Waste,” Science as Culture, 8, 3, 1999.

¹⁷Robin Murray, Creating Wealth from Waste (London: Demos, 1999).

¹⁸G. Honor Fagan, Denis O'Hearn, Gerard McCann and Michael Murray, Waste Management Strategy: A Cross Border Perspective (Maynooth: National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis, 2001).

¹⁹Garry Gereffi, “The Organization of Buyer-Driven Global Commodity Chains: How US Retailers Shape Overseas Production,” in Garry Gereffi and Miguel Korzeniewicz, eds., Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism (Connecitut: Praeger, 1994).

²⁰John Urry, “Time, Complexity and the Global,” published by the Department of Sociology, Lancaster University at: http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/sociology/soc057ju.html 2000, p. 5.

²¹John Urry, “Global Citizenship and the Environment: An ESRC Funded Research Project,” published by the Department of Sociology, Lancaster University at: ⟨http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/sociology/jures.html⟩, 1999.

²²Murray, op. cit., p. 20.

²³European Environment Agency, Environment in the European Union at the Turn of the Century (Luxemburg: EC Publications, 1999), p. 215.

²⁴ Ibid., p. 203.

²⁵ Ibid.

²⁶Greenpeace, The International Trade in Toxic Wastes: An International Inventory (Washington: Greenpeace International, 1993).

²⁷David Held, Anthony McGrew, David Goldblatt and Jonathan Perraton, Global Transformations: Politics, Economics and Culture (Cambridge: Polity, 1999), p. 407.

²⁸ Ibid., p. 408.

²⁹Environmental Protection Agency, Environment in Focus, 2002: Key Environmental Indicators for Ireland (Dublin: Environmental Protection Agency, 2002), p. 9.

³⁰ Ibid.

³¹See the debates in Timothy Luke, “Green Consumerism: Ecology and the Use of Recycling,” in Ecocritique (Minneapolis: University of Minnesotta Press, 1977).

³²Sarah Radcliffe, “Development, the State and Transnational Connections: State and Subject Formations in Latin America,” Global Networks, 1, 1, 2001.

³³Fagan, et al, op. cit.

³⁴ Ibid.

³⁵On the local implementation “deficit” in Ireland see Anthony Quinlivan, “European Standards and Waste Management in Ireland: Examining the Local Implementation Deficit,” Administration, 50, 2, 2002.

³⁶Phil Cerny, “Structuring the Political Arena: Public Goods, States and Governance in a Globalizing World,” in Ronen Palan, ed., Global Political Economy: Contemporary Themes (London: Routledge, 2000).

³⁷Martin Carnoy and Manuel Castells, “Globalization, the Knowledge Society and the Network State,” Global Networks, 1, 1, 2001.

³⁸ Ibid., p. 14.

³⁹ Ibid.

⁴⁰Gerry Stoker, “Governance as Theory: Five Propositions,” Journal of International Social Science, 155, 1998, p. 21.

⁴¹Of course sustainability can be interpreted in a number of ways, from token or minimalist definitions through to a radical “zero waste” definition taken by authors such as Robin Murray, Zero Waste (Greenpeace Environmental Trust, 2002) or the “aesthetic of sustainability” as advocated by Kate Soper, “Nature Prospect,” CNS, 14, 2, 2003.

⁴²Quoted in Frank Mc Donald, “Minister Wants to Fast-Track Planning on Waste,” Irish Times, August 12, 2002, p. 2.

⁴³Fagan, et al, op. cit., p. 42.

⁴⁴ Ibid., p. 10.

⁴⁵ Ibid., pp. 41–42.

⁴⁶Doreen Massey, “The Geography of Power,” Red Pepper, July, 2000, p. 8.

⁴⁷Manuel Castells, “Globalization and Identity in the Network Society,” Prometheus, 4, 2000, p. 110.

⁴⁸Fagan, et al, op. cit., p. 18.

⁴⁹Quoted in McDonald, op. cit., p. 1.

⁵⁰ Ibid.

⁵¹ Ibid.

⁵²Forfás, Key Waste Management Issues in Ireland (Dublin: Forfás, 2001), p. vi.

⁵³Council Directive 75/442/EEC, July 1975 (Article 3) and the later amendment to this, Council Directive 91/156/EEC, March 1991 (Article 5).

⁵⁴Fagan, et al, op. cit., p. 12.

⁵⁵Carnoy and Castells, op. cit., p. 11.

⁵⁶Fagan, et al, op. cit.

⁵⁷ Ibid.

⁵⁸ Ibid.

⁵⁹ Ibid.

⁶⁰ Ibid., p. 22.

⁶¹Quoted in Frank McDonald, “Waste Crisis is Worse than Had Been Thought,” Irish Times, August, 2002, p. 12.

⁶² Ibid.

⁶³Fagan, et al, op. cit., p. 17.

⁶⁴ Ibid., p. 16.

⁶⁵O'Brien, op. cit., p. 292.

⁶⁶Fagan, et al, op. cit., pp. 16–17.

⁶⁷Robin Cohen and Shirin Rai, eds., Global Social Movements (London: Athlone Press, 2000).

⁶⁸Arturo Escobar, “Gender, Place and Networks: A Political Ecology of Cyberculture” in Wendy Harcourt ed., Women@Internet: Creating New Cultures in Cyberspace (London: Zed Books, 1999), p. 32.

⁶⁹Christopher Mele, “Cyberspace and Disadvantaged Communities: The Internet as a Tool for Collective Action,” in Marc Smith and Peter Kollock, eds., Communities in Cyberspace (London: Routledge, 1999).

⁷⁰ Ibid., p. 305.

⁷¹Michael Burawoy, “Introduction: Reaching for the Global,” in Michael Burawoy, Joseph Blum, Sheba George, Zsuzsa Gille, Teresa Gowan, Lyn Haney. Maren Klawiter, Steven Lopez, Sean ÓRiain and Millie Thayer, Global Ethnography: Forces, Connections, and Imaginations in A Postmodern World (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), p. 29.

⁷²Mary Harney in Forfás, op. cit., p. i.

⁷³ Ibid., my italics.

⁷⁴Michael Burawoy, Foundations of a Sociological Marxism: The Complementary Convergence of Antonio Gramsci and Karl Polanyi (Berkeley: University of California, 2002), p. 65.

⁷⁵See Sallie Marston, “The Social Construction of Scale,” Progress in Human Geography, 24, 2000; Sallie Marston and Neil Smith, “States, Scales and Households: Limits to Scale Thinking?” Progress in Human Geography, 25, 2001; and Neil Brenner, “The Limits To Scale? Methodological Reflections on Scalar Structuration,” Progress in Human Geography, 25, 2001.

⁷⁶Marston, op. cit., p. 221.

⁷⁷Brenner, op. cit., p. 603.