Olli Pyyhtinen has co-authored an article together with Ella Lepistö, titled ‘Affective encounters with waste: The role of affects in trash activism’. The article has come out in the journal Ethnography and it examines the role of affects in the practices of Finnish trash activists whom were followed by means of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork, the participant observation taking place not only in different geographical sites where the first author met with trash activists, talked with them, and took part in their trash picking activities, but also in the digital world, where the activists publish posts on their practice. The article shows that while negative emotions like disgust were for trash activists a key impetus to take action, the encounters and entanglements with waste also sparked such positive affects as joy, pleasure and inspiration. The article also argues affects to be crucial in and for the formation of ethical ways of relating to waste.
The article is open access and it can be accessed here.