Description
Book SynopsisThe Politics of Trash explains how municipal trash collection solved odorous urban problems using nongovernmental and often unseemly means. Focusing on the persistent problems of filth and the frustration of generations of reformers unable to clean their cities, Patricia Strach and Kathleen S. Sullivan tell a story of dirty politics and administrative innovation that made rapidly expanding American cities livable.
The solutions that professionals recommended to rid cities of overflowing waste cans, litter-filled privies, and animal carcasses were largely ignored by city governments. When the efforts of sanitarians, engineers, and reformers failed, public officials turned to the habits and tools of corruption as well as to gender and racial hierarchies.
Corruption often provided the political will for public officials to establish garbage collection programs. Effective waste collection involves translating municipal imperatives into new habits a
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Garbage Problem
1. A Conceptual Roadmap: Theory and Methods
2. Ready to Help: Experts Urge Municipal Garbage Collection
3. Ready to Profit: Inadequate Garbage Collection by Corrupt Regimes
4. Picking Up Trash: Adequate Garbage Collection by Corrupt Regimes
5. Solving the Garbage Can Problem: Race, Gender Hierarchy, and Compliance
6. Getting and Keeping Garbage Collection: Municipal Reliance on Racial Hierarchy
7. The Politics of Garbage Collection: Lessons Learned
Conclusion: Everyday Politics in Practice
Notes
Index
