Power and Politics in Plastics Research: A Critique of ‘Whither Plastics? Petrochemicals, Plastics and Sustainability in a Garbage-riddled World

Bregje van Veelen, Jacob Hasselbalch

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftReview artikelpeer review

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Abstract

The article ‘Whither Plastics?—Petrochemicals, plastics and sustainability in a garbage-riddled world’ discusses a number of recent issues around plastics, including plastics’ dependence on fossil fuels, its contribution to ocean waste, and its possible impact on human health [M. Jefferson, “Whither plastics?—Petrochemicals, plastics and sustainability in a garbage-riddled world,” Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 56 (2019)]. Despite these multiple ways in which plastics are framed as (potentially) problematic, the author is clear in his recommendations: the most important form of action is behavioural change. While we strongly welcome social science research into plastics, we have several issues with the study in question which we deem significant enough for us to write this response. At the heart of our concern is the paper's handling of extant research. There are three aspects to our critique: (1) conflations and misrepresentations of the data presented; (2) disregard of academic social science research on plastics; and (3) the resultant promotion of over-simplistic solutions to a complex set of problems.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
Artikelnummer101445
TidsskriftEnergy Research & Social Science
Vol/bind61
Antal sider3
ISSN2214-6296
DOI
StatusUdgivet - mar. 2020

Bibliografisk note

Published online 16 January 2020

Emneord

  • Plastics
  • Waste
  • Behaviour change
  • Social theory
  • Methods
  • Knowledge politics

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