WASTE: Consumption and Buddhism in the age of garbage

WASTE: Consumption and Buddhism in the age of garbage’ is a collaborative, international research project led by Dr. Trine Brox. It organises six ethnographic studies that explore the generation of, sorting, and caring for waste in five Buddhist communities in India, Nepal, Japan, Bhutan, and the Christmas Islands.

photo by Trine Brox

The research project WASTE draws attention to the global waste crisis by investigating the waste output attendant to Buddhism. It investigates Buddhist consumption practices, waste imaginaries, and waste trajectories asking: how do Buddhists define and sort waste from non-waste? What are the effects of increased consumption and waste production on the cultural practices, environment, social relations, rituals and customs in Buddhist contexts? The project argues that the perceptions and practices concerned with consumption and the varied afterlives of consumed items are crucial for understanding contemporary Buddhism. More broadly, the project aims to understand the importance and role of religion in the generation and interpretation of waste.

 

The research project WASTE integrates a targeted set of micro-studies that will be developed in six ethnographic studies.

  • Trine Brox studies valuable waste in the Tibetan cultural sphere in the form of THE AFTERLIFE OF BUDDHIST MATERIAL OBJECTS

  • Saskia Abrahms-Kavunenko investigates radical permeability and toxicity in the research IMPERMANENT – IMPERISHABLE: PLASTICS AND PRAXIS AMONG BUDDHISTS IN OCEANIA.

  • Sierra Humbert focuses on Newar experiences of waste and menstrual hygiene management (MHM) in the phd-project SANITARY RITUALS WITHIN VAJRAYANA BUDDHIST PILGRIMAGE IN SANKHU, NEPAL

  • Jørn Borup looks at the electronic remains in Japanese Buddhism in his research on WASTE AND THE ‘SPIRIT OF TECHNOLOGY’

  • Dendup Chophel studies CURRENT AND EMERGING CONCEPTION OF PRODUCTIVITY, CONSUMPTION AND WASTE IN BUDDHIST MILLENNIALIST MOVEMENTS IN BHUTAN

 

Researchers

Internal

Name Title Phone E-mail
Brox, Trine Associate Professor - Promotion Programme +4551302965 E-mail
Humbert, Sierra Josephine Louise PhD Fellow +4535325427 E-mail

External

Jørn Borup, associate professor, Dept. of the Study of Religion, Aarhus University

Funding

Velux FoundationsProject period: September 2021 until March 2026

PI: Associate professor Trine Brox

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