Recycloscope VII : global views and local itineraries on recycling circuits and waste pickers

Abstract

The Cuestiones Metropolitanas collection brings together a wide range of academic works focused on issues related to urban conglomerates and, in particular, the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Region. The collection includes texts that address topics such as urban planning, ecology, local governance, sociology, and anthropology, all applied to the study of the social, economic, and environmental challenges of the metropolitan area. The Recycloscope collection constitutes a living archive of the emergence and evolution of social studies on waste and recycling in Argentina and Latin America. Each edition offers a curated selection of the most recent and relevant academic production, highlighting new themes and debates as well as theoretical and methodological perspectives that shape this novel field, organized around the distinctly interdisciplinary object of discarded matter. This seventh edition is no exception, as it reflects, for instance, the growing pervasiveness of the Circular Economy model and the productivity of approaches such as political ecology, intersectionality, and image-based analysis. Moreover, Recycloscope VII stands out for pushing the boundaries of the field to a transcontinental scale by incorporating localized experiences from Africa, Asia, and Europe. It constitutes an invaluable contribution to weaving together a South-South perspective that underscores the advances achieved in terms of sustainable development and inclusive management across Latin America, while also opening the door to exploring the transfer of locally developed management practices and technologies to new contexts.