Trading disaster: Containers and container thinking in the production of climate precarity

Abstract

International trade and material mobility are both growing aspects of the global economy. Global material use has tripled since the 1980s, with global consumption of raw materials forecast to double again by 2050 (UNEP, 2016). As the globalisation of production and consumption continues to deepen, a third of this material volume is now traded across international borders (UNEP, 2020). As 'international commodity trade is becoming the mainstay of many of the world's