Forging a New Conceptualization of “The Public” in Waste Management

The involvement of informal workers in municipal service delivery is generally theorized and studied as a key component of a neoliberal privatization agenda that erodes both the public sector and the rights of workers employed within it.

This paper critically analyses innovative approaches to including informal waste pickers in service delivery in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Pune, India and Bogota, Colombia and argues that by mobilizing collectively to demand formal incorporation into municipal waste management systems waste pickers are expanding both the public sector and the public sphere, transforming relations between the state, formal economy, informal economy, and residents, and contributing to the forging of a more inclusive, participatory, and democratic state.

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