Abstract
Precarity has often been considered a hallmark of waste-picking, a survival activity whose practitioners are exposed to health risks, exploitation and fluctuating commodity markets. Adopting a three-dimensional approach to precarity that centres on 'exposure to danger', 'uncertain tenure' and 'dependence', this paper compares Uruguayan waste-pickers' (clasificadores) experiences of precarity at the Felipe Cardoso landfill, its related cooperative, and a formal sector recycling plant. Clasificadores at Felipe Cardoso characterise the landfill as a 'mother' who dependably provides them with food, clothes and construction materials. Recently, the Uruguayan state has sought to divert clasificadores to what is regarded as more dignified labour in recycling plants. I argue that the formalisation of some waste-pickers creates a cleavage within the occupation, dispossessing and delegitimising those who continue to work 'informally'.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 31-44 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Dialectical Anthropology |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 5 Nov 2018 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 5 Mar 2019 |
Keywords
- Recycling
- Waste
- Precarity
- Formalisation
- Dispossession
Access to Document
- O'Hare_2018_DA_Landfill_CC
Copyright © The Author(s) 2018. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.