IntensifyingPlasticWorlds
How does inviting hundreds of plastic bottles into the early childhood classroom disrupt neoliberal & neocolonial everyday processes of plastic waste(ing)? #livingwithplastic
@DiscardStudies #Discard2020 @vpacinik @common_worlds
1/10

Neoliberal & neocolonial perpetual growth tendencies as waste(ing) processes
Capitalist hyper-production/hyper-consumption/hyper-waste(ing)
Neocolonialism-continues to take & use
hiding waste out of sight out of mind
@DiscardStudies #Discard2020 @vpacinik @common_worlds
2/10

(Re)Thinking Response(ability)
Finding ways to engage with plastics
disrupt consumerist realities of 21st century capitalism & toxic plasticized worlds
Bringing plastic in sight in mind in classrooms
#livingwithplastic @DiscardStudies #Discard2020 @vpacinik @common_worlds
3/10

@common_worlds waste pedagogies
resist remediation initiatives-3Rs & the neoliberal push to train children to become good environmental stewards that manage (externalized) plastic problem
Confronting inseparability #livingwithplastic @DiscardStudies #Discard2020 @vpacinik
4/10

Our strategy
Confront & interrupt reality children are currently immersed in & reframe ubiquitous nature of children’s plastic lives by thinking-with & being-with plastics
Sites of response(ability) #livingwithplastic
@DiscardStudies #Discard2020 @vpacinik @common_worlds
5/10

100s of plastic bottles suspend from ceiling, sit on shelves & gather in corners of the plastic classroom
Exaggerating plastics presence invites rituals of care with & between us
Ethical entanglement #livingwithplastic
@DiscardStudies #Discard2020 @vpacinik @common_worlds
6/10

Children search and spot blue boxes running toward plastics & retrieving them Ketchup, Sprite & Tropicana OJ bottles
New routines-invite discarded plastics into classroom #livingwithplastic @DiscardStudies #Discard2020 @vpacinik @common_worlds
7/10

Rituals of care vs rituals of discard
Children wash each bottle in soapy water, remove labels & dry thoroughly
Each bottle is then filled with other plastics & joins the growing mound
Ethics of care #livingwithplastic
@DiscardStudies #Discard2020 @vpacinik @common_worlds
8/10

Plastic’s unruliness intensifies
Challenges of living permanently with growing mounds of plastic!
We adapt #livingwithplastic malleability & durability
collectively ignoring plastics will outlive us all adults &children
@DiscardStudies #Discard2020 @vpacinik @common_worlds
9/10

IntensifyingPlasticWorlds
Inviting children to practice curiosity & disrupt indifference
Disrupting formation of neoliberalconsumer&neocolonialsubject
Recast child-plastic relations
Response(ability) #livingwithplastic
@DiscardStudies #Discard2020 @vpacinik @common_worlds
10/10