Thirteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Urban political ecology (UPE) has and continues to undergo transformations in the forms of deviations from the traditional approaches of the field. For example, while urban political ecology is an offshoot of political ecology, UPE has several of its own offshoots, such as post-humanist, and situated UPE. While each of these offshoots has attempted to further the explanatory power of urban political ecology or at the very least alter the manner in which power relationships are explained, each has failed or stopped short of using the role of identity in explaining changes in these relationships through the social movements of marginalized people. In attempts to bring the role of identity to the forefront of UPE literature, this paper examines the urban political ecologies of solid waste, the associated social movements elicited through environmental, political, and economic injustices, and the role identity played in the success of each movement. To do so this paper provides an overview of the development and direction of UPE before critiquing case studies of solid waste social movements in UPE literature, regarding the role of identity. Additionally, the scalable nature of identity, whether it be at the most localized level, such as a single neighborhood in the city of Oaxaca or more macro levels such as the national identity manifesting in Nicaragua, is discussed.