Contesting informality through innovation “from below”: epistemic and political challenges in a waste pickers cooperative from Buenos Aires (Argentina)

Abstract

This paper draws on an ethnographic research to critically analyze the process of formalization of the so-called “informal” recyclers within the Buenos Aires metropolitan area. It claims that their recognition by governmental and nongovernmental agencies has been mostly oriented to crystallize their role as a workforce in the lower shackles of the recycling value chain. In contrast, other valuable contributions of waste pickers, such as the development of a practical pedagogy towards the segregation and recycling of materials, or the design and manufacturing of their own technological devices, have not been yet properly recognized or strengthened in the same way. Therefore, to approach the waste management field by focusing on the innovations dynamic is revealing of to what extent it is shaped by asymmetric power relations, which include epistemic and techno-cognitive dimensions. Drawing on the notion of epistemic (in)justice, this paper provides a critical reflection on the drivers and obstacles that shape innovation skills aimed at waste management, and thus, define which actors are to be legitimated as “innovators” within this field and which are not. Finally, I share some open reflections about some policy guidelines that could help to profit from the rich body of technological experience and knowledge elaborated within waste picker’s grassroots organizations. At the same time, I will highlight the specific contribution of an ethnographic perspective to the study of grassroot innovations.