| dc.description.abstract | This thesis is about the value that is extracted and exploited from discarded materials, salvaged from the ruins of capitalism, modernity, and empire. That little value, the value that remains in the debris of consumer products that ought to make people happy—maybe not entirely satisfied, however—make our lives less of a burden. Some things we cannot keep forever because they take up space where they are not supposed to in our lives, do not serve their purpose, or are outdated, out of fashion, or have lost their aesthetic appeal. Those things that stand in our way and disrupt the order of life. Objects that we throw away. Things we don’t want in our lives. It is about things, and specifically electronic waste (e-waste), that this thesis thinks with.
Far too often, Tanzania, where my thesis is based, is viewed exclusively through the lens of the Global North—the ‘developed’ industrial countries that endlessly reproduce stereotypes and tropes. Places like Tanzania are diminished to somewhere far away from European shores, from American lives, from the ‘more important’ concerns of the centres of production. The Global South and developing countries are often referred to dismissively as ‘poor countries,’ places Europeans see on TV or hear about on the radio and podcasts as sites of unending corruption, conflict, and sexual misadventures and disasters (rape and HIV). These are places they might visit once or several times, or places that they will never see or care about. Situations out of sight, where the appetite for consumption sends its tides, erodes the shores, and slowly swallows bodies.
These are places that the assumed audience (who is in the Global North) does not understand and where life is strange, where others dwell. Areas that are geographically half a world away and take the filthy, discarded, and unwanted objects of the consuming North out from sight. However, the Global South, in this case Tanzania, is an integral part of global value chains. The lodged ingenuity and creativity in these places that turn e-waste into value are central to global and local capital systems.
This thesis is about a life shared by those who most people based in Europe and America do not know, do not see, and maybe will never see or understand; the significant, insignificant others. It is a thesis filled with names with a distinctive ring of the ‘other’ (Said, 2003): Salim, Salum, Mwanawane, Samwel, George, Mjomba Mjomba, Dinho, Msomali, Hussein, and others, my walimu (teachers) who have shared part of their lives with me. I have observed these people’s creative minds and their tireless hands. This thesis is about a refrigerator, a computer monitor, a CPU, and an air conditioning unit. This thesis is about humans and nonhuman e-waste actors, the life of people and things. The life of waste and those who live on the margins of our society. Those who feel the violence of the globalised world.
This thesis is about slow violence, the chemical particles so small that we cannot see them, we cannot feel them until they take over bodies, fill waters, and pollute the environment. It is about the dangers within the devices that produce safety and a comfortable life. These chemical compounds make our essential gadgets: the Fitbit, smartwatches, air-conditioning units, mobile phones … the list goes on and on. They are safe to use because of these ghosts embedded within them. However, those unseen particles become detrimental once released from the devices—to us, ecosystems, and the planet.
This is also a thesis about resistance and persistence. It is about the endurance of things and of people, even when in ruination. It is about the value that people gather and utilise to stay alive. It is about livelihood, daily bread, a roof to sleep under, covering health expenses, and education for the next generation. This thesis is about making and finding new ways of life for things and people. It is about encounters of things, chemical compounds, and people. | en_US |