Reclaiming the Discarded: Life and Labor on Rio's Garbage Dump

by Kathleen M. Millar

In Reclaiming the Discarded Kathleen M. Millar offers an evocative ethnography of Jardim Gramacho, a sprawling garbage dump on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, where roughly two thousand self-employed workers known as catadores collect recyclable materials. While the figure of the scavenger sifting through garbage seems iconic of wageless life today, Millar shows how the work of reclaiming recyclables is more than a survival strategy or an informal labor practice. Rather, the stories of catadores show how this work is inseparable from conceptions of the good life and from human struggles to realize these visions within precarious conditions of urban poverty. By approaching the work of catadores as highly generative, Millar calls into question the category of informality, common conceptions of garbage, and the continued normativity of wage labor. In so doing, she illuminates how waste lies at the heart of relations of inequality and projects of social transformation.

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction

248 pages, Paperback

Published February 13, 2018

Reviews

[Froukje · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeej het boek is uit, nu alleen nog een academische review schrijven van 1500 woorden, brb.

[Lucy Lawrenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book that challenges readers to radically reconsider the generative capacities of garbage, as well as the representational practices we implicitly associate with ethnographic research in the 'Global South'.

In my opinion, the last chapter does not quite work and the book would have benefited from a 'conclusions' section, however the overall work still deserves 5 stars.

[Allyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reclaiming the Discarded challenges assumptions of catadores (pickers) who work in Jardim Gramacho dumps by arguing that their collecting of garbage is not simply a job, but a form of living. Millar implements beautifully written vignettes and metaphors that seamlessly incorporate her thoughts and observations. I only have one note concerning ethics and researcher/participant dynamics since I interpreted her tone of their relationships as friends rather participants. I’m sure they may have struck up a friendship especially since she lived with one of the catadores and participated in many of the social events, but I think it should have been interrogated more.

[Jb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant

Brilliant book with deep insight into a people often forgotten. I wonder if the way these people go about their lives will be a remnant of the past or increasingly common as society struggles with such seemingly intractable problems. Would like to know more about this community 20 years from now...

[Alexander Rezk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lifeworlds of Alternative Economic Ecologies

A brilliant study that troubles the formal/informal economic duality by introducing the concept of the “forms of living” as an alternative way to explain choice of labor and engagement with financial systems.

[Leah Mini · Rating 3 out of 5]

what an inspiring yet depressing case study. there are people, 'catadores', making a living by collecting garbage in literal dumps. why? millar frustratingly claims it's their different lifestyle and they should be inspiring figures. as individuals, i'll agree, but my mood overall plummets.

[DM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved her use of “plasticity” instead of formal/informal economies. Also excellent critique of the precarity framework in her argument about work as part of a mode of living.

[Isabel Cronin · Rating 4 out of 5]

kind of repetitive but enjoyable. appreciated the ending more than the rest of the book tbf.

[Kiki Geurts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forms of living, that’s the comment