Mapping Environmental Commitment: A Situational Analysis of Illegal Dumps in the City

Anna Kacperczyk; Remigiusz Żulicki

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.18.4.09

Authors

Anna Kacperczyk University of Lodz, Poland https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9643-0587
Remigiusz Żulicki University of Lodz, Poland https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2624-2422

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.18.4.09

Keywords:

Situational Analysis, Arena, Illegal Dumps, Waste Disposal, Environmental Commitment, Collective Mapping, City

Abstract

The paper refers to the research Trash in the Wild: A Pilot Project Mapping Citizenship Environmental Activism in the Collaborative Study in the Lodz Area. In the study, inhabitants of Lodz (Poland) were invited to participate in data gathering and create a map of unauthorized dumps in their city. The collaborative mapping was intended to localize problematic spots in the city of Lodz, but it also shows civic commitment and the inhabitants’ ecological consciousness level. The authors based on ethnographic data (observations, walk-alongs, interviews, and data obtained from institutions), attempting to develop a situational analysis of the phenomenon of illegal dumps in the city. The analysis reveals how different positions of the City Guard, Municipal Economy Department, waste disposal companies, journalists, environmental activists, researchers, and citizens participating in the project vary their standpoints and views on the studied problem. Presenting the context and first results of the research, the authors refer to the issue of building relationships with researched subjects during the investigation process. Trying to navigate between them, researchers strive to introduce their different, sometimes contradictory, viewpoints into the research, not losing their commitment and the valuable data they can submit. The analysis shows that the issue of illegal dumps lies at the intersection of many discourses and involves numerous social worlds, organizations, and entities. In this dynamic situation, many practices and conditions contribute to the persistence of the problem of illegal waste disposal.

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Author Biographies

Anna Kacperczyk, University of Lodz, Poland

Anna Kacperczyk is an Associate Professor of sociology at the University of Lodz, Poland. Substantive areas of her research included palliative and hospice care in Poland (2006), the sustainable development of an Amazonian village (2013), the social world of climbing (2016), and trash (2021). She is interested in the theory of social worlds and the methodology of social research, especially the issue of the position and role of the researcher in the investigation process. In her field research, she refers to the theoretical framework of symbolic interactionism, using ethnography, autoethnography, and the methodology of grounded theory. She is a chairperson of the Section of Qualitative Sociology and Symbolic Interactionism of the Polish Sociological Association and a member of the European Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction board. She serves as an associate editor and cover designer of the Qualitative Sociology Review.

Remigiusz Żulicki, University of Lodz, Poland

Remigiusz Żulicki, Ph.D., works at the Department of Social Research Methods and Techniques, Institute of Sociology, Faculty of Economics and Sociology, University of Lodz. His research interests include social science research methodology, social worlds/arenas, critical data studies, and digital sociology. He harmonizes panel survey data regarding precarity—CNB-Young project and maps citizenship environmental activism—Trash in the Wild. His Ph.D. thesis was concerned with the social world of data science in Poland. He is an open-source and open-science enthusiast.

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