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Flows, system boundaries and the politics of urban metabolism: waste management in Mexico City and Santiago de Chile

Guibrunet, L; Sanzana Calvet, M; Castan Broto, V; (2017) Flows, system boundaries and the politics of urban metabolism: waste management in Mexico City and Santiago de Chile. Geoforum , 85 pp. 353-367. 10.1016/j.geoforum.2016.10.011. Green open access

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Abstract

In this paper we examine two central concepts of urban metabolism (‘system boundaries’ and ‘flows’), and explore how to approach them as a means to politicise urban metabolism research. We present empirical findings from two case studies of waste management, in Mexico City and Santiago de Chile, looking at: the materiality of waste flows, the actors involved in them, and how waste flows relate to issues of environmental justice. We argue that urban metabolism, as a methodology to understand urban sustainability, has the potential to produce knowledge to trigger urban transformations, and to analyse the social, political and environmental aspects of waste management in urban areas.

Type: Article
Title: Flows, system boundaries and the politics of urban metabolism: waste management in Mexico City and Santiago de Chile
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.geoforum.2016.10.011
Publisher version: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2016.10.011
Language: English
Additional information: © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript version is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Non-derivative 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work for personal and non-commercial use providing author and publisher attribution is clearly stated. Further details about CC BY licenses are available at http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0. Access may be initially restricted by the publisher.
Keywords: Political-industrial ecology; Urban metabolism; Waste management; Mexico City; Santiago de Chile
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > UCL Institute for Global Prosperity
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1521006
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