WASTE: Consumption and Buddhism in the age of garbage
About the project
The research project WASTE draws attention to the global waste crisis by investigating the waste output attendant to Buddhism. It investigates Buddhist consumption practices, waste imaginaries, and waste trajectories asking: how do Buddhists define and sort waste from non-waste? What are the effects of increased consumption and waste production on the cultural practices, environment, social relations, rituals and customs in Buddhist contexts?
The project argues that the perceptions and practices concerned with consumption and the varied afterlives of consumed items are crucial for understanding contemporary Buddhism. More broadly, the project aims to understand the importance and role of religion in the generation and interpretation of waste.
Project information
Principal Investigator (PI)
Project period
Organisation
Subprojects
The research project WASTE integrates a targeted set of micro-studies that will be developed in six ethnographic studies.
- Trine Brox studies valuable waste in the Tibetan cultural sphere in the form of THE AFTERLIFE OF BUDDHIST MATERIAL OBJECTS
- Saskia Abrahms-Kavunenko investigates radical permeability and toxicity in the research IMPERMANENT – IMPERISHABLE: PLASTICS AND PRAXIS AMONG BUDDHISTS IN OCEANIA.
- Sierra Humbert focuses on Newar experiences of waste and menstrual hygiene management (MHM) in the phd-project SANITARY RITUALS WITHIN VAJRAYANA BUDDHIST PILGRIMAGE IN SANKHU, NEPAL
- Jørn Borup looks at the electronic remains in Japanese Buddhism in his research on WASTE AND THE ‘SPIRIT OF TECHNOLOGY
- Dendup Chophel studies CURRENT AND EMERGING CONCEPTION OF PRODUCTIVITY, CONSUMPTION AND WASTE IN BUDDHIST MILLENNIALIST MOVEMENTS IN BHUTAN
Funding
Researchers
- Associate Professor - Promotion Programme