Sociological Reflections on Governing Waste

Abstract

The waste management issue in Ireland reached crisis proportions in the late 1990s. Reflecting on an all-Ireland empirical study of waste, this article develops a broader governance perspective and takes up the challenge of contributing to the sociology of waste. It situates waste in a ‘multiscalar’ perspective, viewing waste as a result of a complex global, national, local, and individual set of processes. It examines the dynamics involved in creating the conditions for the regulation and management of waste. It develops the notion of the ‘networked state’, and its implications for the processes of waste governance in Ireland. Finally, it focuses on the contestation of the Southern government's waste management plans and concludes that this is a positive effect of networking in a rapidly globalising Ireland.