Doctoral Dissertation Research: Second-hand Technologies or E-waste? The Composition of Germany's Progressive Environmental Legislation

二手科技还是电子垃圾？德国的构成？这篇博士论文研究了德国当代电气和电子设备（电子废物或WEEE）废物管理的政治和实践。与数字革命将导致资源密集度更低、环境更可持续的社会的预测相反，越来越明显的是，高科技的生活方式并不像许多人愿意相信的那样清洁和绿色。事实上，个人电脑、手机和ipod等数字技术的全球消费正在造成巨大的环境和健康成本。技术产物对环境和社会的影响贯穿其整个生命周期。然而，直到最近，技术一旦成为废物，就很少受到关注。通过人种学和档案研究，该项目重建了从政策制定者到跨国回收公司再到非正式回收商等社会行为者如何在德国将废弃的技术放在路边后进行转化。德国?在废物管理和更广泛的环保主义方面，法国享有典范的声誉，再加上它在欧洲的地位。美国最大的电子废物生产国和出口国，使其成为一个特别强大的网站，以了解国家解决电子废物的尝试与全球化合法和非法电子废物网络的存在之间的紧张关系和矛盾，这些网络不平等地分配了与全球回收和再利用废弃技术相关的污染和财富。该项目解决了德国对废弃技术的来世缺乏学术研究的问题。它还将科学技术与发展社会学之间的分析动态与当代政策决策联系起来，特别是与技术、环境和发展的交叉有关的决策。在全球各国都在努力管理电子废物的时候，这项对德国的研究为开发高效和负责任的电子废物管理系统所面临的挑战提供了重要的线索。此外，这个项目提供了一个具体的民族志和档案研究，研究在不平衡的全球化经济中国家制定环境政策的影响和局限性。

Second-hand Technologies or E-waste? The Composition of Germany?s ProgressiveEnvironmental LegislationSummaryThis doctoral dissertation examines the politics and practices of contemporarymanagement of waste from electrical and electronic equipment (e-waste or WEEE) in Germany. Contrary to predictions that the digital revolution would lead to less resource-intensive and thus more environmentally sustainable societies, it is becoming increasingly apparent that high-tech lifestyles are not as clean and green as many would like to believe. In fact, global consumption of digital technologies such as personal computers, cell phones and iPods is exacting significant environmental and health costs. The environmental and social impact of a technological artifact extends over its entire lifecycle. However, until recently, little attention has been focused on technologies once they become waste. Intellectual meritThrough ethnographic and archival research this project reconstructs how social actors, ranging from policymakers to multi-national recycling firms to informal recyclers, transform discarded technologies once they are placed on the curb in Germany. Germany?s reputation as a model when it comes to waste management and environmentalism more generally, coupled with its status as Europe?s largest e-waste producer and exporter, make it a particularly powerful site to understand the tensions and contradictions between national attempts to address e-waste and the existence of globalized licit and illicit e-waste networks that unequally distribute the pollution and wealth associated with the recycling and reuse of discarded technologies across the globe.This project addresses the lack of scholarship on the afterlife of discarded technologies in Germany. It also connects the analytical dynamic between S&TS and Development Sociology to contemporary policy decisions, particularly decisions pertaining to the intersection of technology, the environment and development. Broader impactIn a time when countries across the globe are struggling to manage their e-waste, this study of Germany offers important clues to the challenges associated with developing efficient and responsible e-waste management systems. Furthermore, this project provides a concrete ethnographic and archival study of the effects and limitations of national formulations of environmental policies in an uneven globalized economy.