Waste, Power, and Hegemony: A Critical Analysis of the Wastescape of Sri Lanka

• Author: Randika Jayasinghe,Caroline Baillie,Michael Azariadis
• Published date: 01 June 2019
• Date: 01 June 2019
• DOI: 10.1177/1070496518821722
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Waste, Power, and

Hegemony: A Critical

Analysis of the

Wastescape of Sri Lanka

Randika Jayasinghe

1

, Michael Azariadis

2

,

and Caroline Baillie

2

Abstract

This article explores the power dynamics that shape the wastescape of Sri Lanka. Using

theories of power and hegemony, we investigate how the discourses of expert knowledge

and formal waste management processes marginalize the discourses and practices of the

informal waste sector. By analyzing these discourses and practices, we demonstrate how

legitimate and authoritative knowledge is constructed. The analysis uncovered five themes

that frame the dominant model of waste management in Sri Lanka: (a) the discourse of

development, (b) expert systems, (c) political decision-making, (d) coercion and alienation,

and (e) removal of waste. We demonstrate that small-scale informal waste management

can be both a solution to Sri Lanka’s waste problem and a much needed income source

for the poor. Thus, instead of alienation, coercion, and exclusion, informal waste workers

should be recognized as valuable contributors of the urban wastescape to create a sus-

tainable wastescape in the country.

Keywords

power, waste, informal sector, recycling, Sri Lanka

Managing waste in a socially and environmentally acceptable manner is a

global challenge. It also presents signif‌icant economic challenges in developing

countries, as waste management often consumes a signif‌icant proportion of

municipal budgets (Visvanathan & Tra

¨nkler, 2003; Zurbru

¨gg, 2003). As a

Journal of Environment &

Development

2019, Vol. 28(2) 173–195

!The Author(s) 2019

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DOI: 10.1177/1070496518821722

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1

Faculty of Technology, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka

2

University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia

Corresponding Author:

Randika Jayasinghe, Faculty of Technology, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Gangodawila, Nugegoda,

Sri Lanka.

Email: randika@sjp.ac.lk

result, local governments in developing countries, especially in high-density

urban areas, struggle to provide acceptable waste management services to the

public (van Zon & Siriwardena, 2000; Zurbru

¨gg, 2003). In lieu of an ef‌f‌icient

formal system of waste management, these services are supplemented by an

informal sector—men, women, and even children—who collect, sort, and recycle

waste to make an income (Huysman, 1994; Medina, 2005; Nas & Jaf‌fe, 2004;

Rouse, 2006a; Wilson, Velis, & Cheeseman, 2006). Studies indicate, however,

that both corporate and state power inf‌luence who has access to waste and who

makes decisions about waste, ef‌fectively marginalizing informal waste workers

(Rogerson, 2001; Rouse, 2006b; Sternberg, 2013). For example, Joshua Reno’s

(2009) article, ‘‘Your Trash is Someone’s Treasure: The Politics of Value at a

Michigan Landf‌ill,’’ provides a powerful insight of the production of monetary

value within traditional urban waste management systems.

The waste management system in Sri Lanka also has an informal waste sector

(Jayasinghe, Mushtaq, Smythe, & Baillie, 2013; Perera, 2007). Despite providing

a useful service, they remain the unrecognized stakeholders of the urban waste

landscape (Perera, 2007). Our experiences and that of others reveal the presence

of a distinct hierarchy within the waste management system in Sri Lanka

(Environmental Foundation Ltd., 2007; Perera, 2007). In addition, there is

also an increasing preference for large-scale waste management approaches,

despite these projects generating negative results (Berenger & Fazlulhaq, 2009;

Fernando & Hassan, 2005; Perera, 2014; Withanage, 2009). Large-scale waste

management projects and top-down decision-making further marginalizes infor-

mal waste workers. We argue that the hegemony of formal discourses of waste

management in Sri Lanka has led to the subordination of informal waste worker

claims to legitimate knowledge and created a socially unjust waste management

system. Similar studies conducted around the world highlight that to dump

waste in environmentally unsustainable conditions and in a socially unjust

manner had become a prof‌itable business, which explains to an extent the cur-

rent marginalization, invisibilization, and even prosecution of informal workers

in the world (Alene, 2018; Axel, Camilla, Habtemariam, & Chekole, 2010;

Samson, 2003, 2009).

The aim of this article is to explore the power dynamics that shape the waste

management sector in Sri Lanka. Using the theories of Michel Foucault (1972,

1980) and Antonio Gramsci (1971), we investigate how the more powerful

discourses of expert knowledge and formal waste management processes margin-

alize the discourses of the informal waste sector. By analyzing these discourses

and practices, we attempt to understand how legitimate and authoritative know-

ledge is constructed.

In this article, we employ the term wastescape to identify the social and

physical spaces of waste management within which power operates and waste

management-related decisions are made. The notion of scapes is based

on Appadurai’s (1990) analysis of global cultural f‌lows. He uses the suf‌f‌ix

174 Journal of Environment & Development 28(2)