Absorbents, practices, and infrastructures: Changing socio-material landscapes of menstrual waste in Lilongwe, Malawi

Alda-Vidal, Cecilia; Browne, Alison

doi:10.1080/14649365.2021.1901974

Cited by 12 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Exceptions to this behavioral framing is provided by scholars exploration of women's use and disposal of menstrual absorbents (e.g., Alda‐Vidal & Browne, 2020; Hawkins et al, 2019). These studies emphasize “the wider societal requirements for discretion and the design, accessibility and availability of bins and bathroom facilities” (Hawkins et al, 2019, p. 11) as the main elements that limit the possibilities women have to dispose of menstrual absorbents differently.…”

Section: Research Synthesis: Existing Research Gaps and Opportunitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This could be connected to prevailing countertrends in the increased availability of, and interest in, “reusable” menstrual hygiene products in recent years (Jones, 2018). This trend may have potentially reduced the impact of disposable hygiene products on the system also comes with increasing water demand from washing these reusable products which has its own impacts and problems during times of water scarcity or disruption (Alda‐Vidal & Browne, 2020).…”

Section: Research Synthesis: Existing Research Gaps and Opportunitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An additional question to consider is how these dynamics connect different infrastructures of waste disposal in bathroom inside and outside of the home, with wider metabolisms of sanitation and hygiene waste flows in cities. This includes understanding the diversity of everyday use and disposal of unflushable products in different settings, and critical reflection on how these insights might feature in planning systems to preserve dignity, reduce environmental impacts, and consider other possibilities for discarding products without creating problems somewhere else in the waste system (Alda‐Vidal & Browne, 2020). There is a need to situate these reflections within an analysis of how these subterranean flows (Garrett, 2016), are murky examples of the materialities of modern consumer cultures.…”

Section: Research Synthesis: Existing Research Gaps and Opportunitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Around the world there are pervasive menstrual stigmas including shame, beliefs, taboos, which require menstruating people to deal with their periods in privacy and secrecy. These dynamics, intersecting with infrastructural limitations due to a failure of sanitation governance to plan for menstrual hygiene needs, has importantly restricted the possibilities for menstruating people to deal with their periods in a safe and hygienic way across home, public, and work/educational spaces (Alda‐Vidal & Browne, 2020; Bobel, 2019). In the United Kingdom and other western countries due to menstrual etiquette “the management of menstruation has remained a highly personal, private act which needs to be concealed at all costs” (Moffat & Pickering, 2019, p. 768) impacting on the everyday experiences of discarding menstrual waste.…”

Section: Research Synthesis: Existing Research Gaps and Opportunitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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“Unflushables”: Establishing a global agenda for action on everyday practices associated with sewer blockages, water quality, and plastic pollution

2020

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The disposal of unflushable products via the toilet is an enduring problem and increasing contributor to environmental and infrastructural challenges such as fatbergs, water quality and plastic pollution. Rising scientific and public interest in “throw‐away” cultures, and renewed government pressure for water and sewerage companies to act as custodians of water resources, raises questions about how and why impactful disposal practices occur and what might be done to change them. To date there has been little systematic research on unflushable products, and little is known about the routines and practices through which unflushable products find their way into wastewater systems. This paper reviews social science research including historical, sociological, and anthropological studies of cleanliness and hygiene, as well as sociotechnical approaches to the study of household practices and infrastructures to understand the challenges of unflushables. Based on this research, the paper offers a new conceptualization of the unflushables challenge. We argue that unflushables are a distributed problem, one that is not the direct consequence of either individual behavior, product design or infrastructural decline, but the outcome of myriad social, cultural and material developments in society. These include diversity in “flushing” cultures, gendered expectations in cleanliness practices; the evolution of conventions around cleanliness and hygiene; infrastructural imaginaries and expectations; and political dimensions of infrastructural development and maintenance. We demonstrate how social science research is essential in defining a new global research agenda on unflushables that further aids the design of new intervention and policy pathways. This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Sustainable Engineering of Water Science of Water > Water Quality

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Section: Research Synthesis: Existing Research Gaps and Opportunitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Research Synthesis: Existing Research Gaps and Opportunitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Research Synthesis: Existing Research Gaps and Opportunitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Research Synthesis: Existing Research Gaps and Opportunitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

“Unflushables”: Establishing a global agenda for action on everyday practices associated with sewer blockages, water quality, and plastic pollution

2020

Self Cite

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“…Where the physical state of WASH infrastructure was mentioned, it related to the quantity of available and physically functional toilets/latrines [22,26,28,32,33,37,40,44,46,58,63,73,75,76,78,81,86,87,89,91], the design of toilets/latrines [32,37,40,44,48,51,57,63,64,68,71,73,75,81,83,87,90,97], the quality and availability of running water in and around toilets or latrines [18,20,31,33,37,39,40,45,46,48,49,…”

Section: Reasoning Behind Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drivers of menstrual material disposal and washing practices: A systematic review

Robinson

Barrington

2021

PLoS ONE

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Background Disposal and washing facilities and services for menstrual materials are often designed based upon technical specifications rather than an in-depth understanding of what drives peoples’ choices of practices. Objectives and data sources This systematic review identified and summarised the main behavioural drivers pertaining to the choice of disposal and washing practices of menstrual materials through the thematic content analysis and study appraisal of 82 publications (80 studies) on menstrual health and hygiene published since 1999, reporting the outcomes of primary research across 26 countries. Results Disposal and washing behaviours are primarily driven by the physical state of sanitation facilities; however, this is intrinsically linked to taboos surrounding and knowledge of menstruation. Implications Using reasons given for disposal and washing practices by menstruators or those who know them well, or inferred by authors of the reviewed studies, we identify the key considerations needed to design facilities and services which best suit the desired behaviours of both planners and those who menstruate. Inclusivity The term menstruators is used throughout to encompass all those mentioned in the studies reviewed (girls and women); although no studies explicitly stated including non-binary or transgender participants, this review uses inclusive language that represents the spectrum of genders that may experience menstruation. Registration The review protocol is registered on PROSPERO: 42019140029.

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Unpacking everyday urbanism: Practices and the making of (un)even urban waterscapes

Rusca

Cleaver

2022

WIREs Water

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Inequalities in conditions of access to water are emblematic of contemporary urban life and have long been at the center of urban scholarship. This paper considers the theoretical and empirical potential of a focus on the everyday as a contribution to critical urban water studies. Drawing on research in Political Ecology and Critical Institutionalism, we focus on the intersection of everyday urbanism and water to reflect on whether such perspectives can further understandings of socio-natural inequalities and "real" governance challenges in the urban waterscape. We suggest that a focus on the everyday brings attention to the hybrid arrangements that constitute urban waterscapes and offers new insights to the polycentric nature of water governance, agency, and everyday urban struggles. However, we also outline limitations of these studies in unpacking the concept of the everyday and in capturing the practices through which everyday life is constituted. We explore the potential of an engagement with Practice Theory as a sensitizing lens for developing grounded understandings of everyday life, its constituent practices, and how these change over time. Concurrently, we argue that Practice Theory could be strengthened by drawing on critical approaches that explain everyday urban governance through:(1) the linking of practices to broader patterns of inequality; (2) the multiple social identities of practitioners and the variability in their exercise of agency; (3) the role of institutions as crucial mediating mechanisms and the processes through which practices become enduring institutional arrangements. We, thus, conclude that these approaches are complementary rather than competing.

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Absorbents, practices, and infrastructures: Changing socio-material landscapes of menstrual waste in Lilongwe, Malawi

Cited by 12 publications

References 54 publications

“Unflushables”: Establishing a global agenda for action on everyday practices associated with sewer blockages, water quality, and plastic pollution

“Unflushables”: Establishing a global agenda for action on everyday practices associated with sewer blockages, water quality, and plastic pollution

Drivers of menstrual material disposal and washing practices: A systematic review

Unpacking everyday urbanism: Practices and the making of (un)even urban waterscapes

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