生態／廢品研究Waste Studies

胡嘉明 Wu Ka Ming

垃圾是一個世界性的問題。從香港到全球的高消費城市，垃圾製造量相當驚人。用完即棄的「丟棄文化」，把資本主義對環境的罪惡面向赤裸暴露出來。正如近年熱衷談論的『人類世』概念所言，人類活動對地球的影響足以成立一個新的地質時代。文化生態研究都不得不拷問根本性的制度問題──資本主義世界是否真的可持續發展？我們的知識和研究如何應對當今人類世已成為當今政治經濟文化面臨最急切的挑戰？

How does the culture of a “throwaway society” work in Asian cities? How much and what kind of waste do we throw away on a daily basis?  How is urban waste shaping class and gender relations? How is waste changing human relationship with non-human animal and plant species?

In the age of the Anthropocene, challenges arising from global environmental change are numerous: extreme weather, land and water pollution, species extinction, toxic contamination, just to name a few. These challenges are now raising concerns both from scholars in the natural science and from the humanities and the social sciences.  A transdisciplinary field of inquiry that combines socio-cultural theories with recent methodological and theoretical approaches of understanding the Anthropocene, including cultural ecology, environmental history, science studies, is emerging.  New knowledge shall allow us to think across disciplinary borders and tackle the environmental and social challenges of current times.