Rational Resistance: Homeowner contention against waste incineration in Guangzhou

Zhang, Amy

doi:10.4000/chinaperspectives.6458

Cited by 44 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…This documentary is in line with other recent studies of waste and toxicity (Reno 2016; Strasser 1999; Zhang 2014) and is generative for theorizing the interconnected forms of labor that have emerged in today’s technology economy. E‐waste salvaging, environmental clean‐up, and class‐action lawsuits all fall into a broad category of work that has arisen since the 1980s in response to the mass production of consumer technology.…”

supporting

confidence: 84%

Death by Design: The Dirty Secret of Our Digital Addiction. SueWilliams, Director. Ambrica Productions, 2016. Distributed by Bullfrog Films.

Bayuga

2020

Anthropology of Work Review

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supporting

confidence: 84%

Death by Design: The Dirty Secret of Our Digital Addiction. SueWilliams, Director. Ambrica Productions, 2016. Distributed by Bullfrog Films.

Bayuga

2020

Anthropology of Work Review

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“…Of course, well-informed citizens may still offer opposition, for instance, if they perceive a technology to be a threat to their health or safety. However, it can be argued that it is better for opposition to be fuelled by reason rather than emotion (Zhang, 2014).…”

Section: Contributions Of This Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

How Positive Framing May Fuel Opposition to Low-Carbon Technologies

Vries

2016

Journal of Language and Social Psychology

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Low-carbon technologies are necessary to combat global warming. However, they are often opposed by members of the general public, causing costly delays and cancellations. In this article, I argue that language may be a relevant cause of such opposition. I introduce a theoretical model describing a boomerang effect in which positively framed communication about low-carbon technologies may actually lead to opposition in the long run. An example of positive framing is emphasising the climate benefits of a technology while neglecting to mention associated safety risks. I predict that, over time, people begin to perceive positive framing as an attempt to manipulate them into supporting a technology. In turn, this perceived manipulation may make them feel that their freedom to make their own decision to support or oppose the technology is under threat. To counter this behavioural threat, people may begin to oppose low-carbon technologies. My boomerang model further describes how certain characteristics of the source of information as well as of the recipient may influence both the direct and indirect effects of positive framing. I then discuss the model’s implications for effective communication and indicate directions for future research.

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“…However, as citizens began to raise concerns over toxic emissions released from burning mixed waste without adequate environmental oversight, organized protests against WTE incineration sprung up all over China and became particularly heated in Guangzhou (A. Zhang 2014). Citizens pointed out that large amounts of organic waste posed a critical challenge to waste management strategies in the city.…”

Section: Toward An Ecological Modern Approach To Urban Wastementioning

confidence: 99%

Circularity and Enclosures: Metabolizing Waste with the Black Soldier Fly

Zhang

2020

Cult. Anthropol.

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This essay traces a scientific pilot project to transform the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) into a biotechnology to treat urban organic waste in accordance with the dominant cultural logics of an ecologically modern approach to waste management in contemporary China. A principle of urban waste management, circularity, and a spatial logic of urban living, enclosures, condition the scientific intervention that promises to harness animal metabolic labor as a biotechnology and a waste infrastructure that can be adapted to the urban ecologies of Guangzhou. While scientists emphasize the natural proclivities of insect metabolism to transform waste into value, my ethnographic research illustrates that the practice of aligning animal metabolism with urban metabolism is anything but natural or automatic. Together, circularity and enclosure, as guiding logics of waste management in Chinese ecological modernization, uphold a fiction of biocapital; they create the illusion that nature generates value and remediates environments without human intervention while mystifying and naturalizing the appropriation of nature and labor in the new green city.

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Rational Resistance: Homeowner contention against waste incineration in Guangzhou

Cited by 44 publications

References 7 publications

Death by Design: The Dirty Secret of Our Digital Addiction. SueWilliams, Director. Ambrica Productions, 2016. Distributed by Bullfrog Films.

Death by Design: The Dirty Secret of Our Digital Addiction. SueWilliams, Director. Ambrica Productions, 2016. Distributed by Bullfrog Films.

How Positive Framing May Fuel Opposition to Low-Carbon Technologies

Circularity and Enclosures: Metabolizing Waste with the Black Soldier Fly

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