Burns, RyanAdeyemi, Dare Moses2020-09-252020-09-252020-09-22Adeyemi, D. M. (2020). Waste Collection Technologies, Informal Waste Pickers, and Urban Exclusion: A Case Study of Calgary (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.http://hdl.handle.net/1880/112572Waste management engineers and administrators have conceived of technological efficiency and optimization as the “modern” way to sustainable waste collection and management. This instrumental ideology of technology offers a progressive chant for modern waste collection technologies and a less enthusiastic one for the tools and techniques of informal waste pickers. Few efforts have gone into conceptualizing the social context and implication of waste collection technologies. In this thesis, I used a qualitative case study to explore the impact of residential waste collection technologies on the exclusion of informal waste pickers in Calgary. I draw on Andrew Feenberg's critical theory of technology to situate waste collection technologies within social, economic, and political contexts in Calgary. I argue that the social relations of ownership and control over waste collection technologies in Calgary illustrate complex and contested values, norms, and privileges, which create an unequal social, material, and technical relationship contributing to the exclusion of pickers and the exploitation of labor and waste. Calgary’s new curbside program protects the social norms of private asset ownership and consumerism, as well as the interest of private homeowners and some bureaucratic and large capitalist individuals in Calgary. A local third-sector organization, Calgary Can, has resisted these acts through its hook program; local bottle pickers have also resisted them through their collection activity and technologies. These realities push back against the colloquial understanding of modern waste collection technologies as value-free, a conception that dominates academic research and city policies and programs in waste management.engUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.Waste managementInformal waste pickersWaste collectionCritical Theory of TechnologyCalgaryEducation--Social SciencesGeographySocial Structure and DevelopmentUrban and Regional Planningmaster thesis10.11575/PRISM/38232