Domestic Digital Waste
Understanding the social life of domestic digital waste and designing better waste futures
Lead Supervisor: Philippa Williams
Degree Programme: PhD Geography
Co-Supervisor:
Alison Blunt (Geography and Environmental Science)
Project Description
This PhD project will examine the material, cultural and affective dimensions of domestic digital waste, rather than viewing it solely as a technical problem, with the aim to inform effective policy and guidance. Our homes are sites of numerous rechargeable devices: tablets, smart watches and fitness trackers, wireless headphones, e-readers, digital cameras, satnavs, games consoles, children's toys and more. Many are built for obsolescence, lack viable repair options or are quickly suprassed by new technology. Old devices are abandoned, kept as back-ups and not readily or routinely disposed of and yet these seeminly innocuous objects are potentially hazardous. The lithium-ion batteries in such rechargeable devices present a fire risk when old, damaged or left unused for long periods of time. Incidents of fires caused by lithium-ion batteries increasingly attract media attention concerning house fires as well as in landfill. These batteries also tie the home to the geopolitics of lithium extraction, prompting questions about who bears the risk and cost of the digital and AI economy.
The project will explore digital waste as a contemporary condition of everyday domestic life, with a focus on the rise of digital and AI waste at home. Working with communities and policymakers the project is intended to imagine and realise better futures for managing, repurposing and disposing of these devices and will analyse: 1. lived experiences of domestic digital waste, through interviews, participatory research and creative methods; 2. how far national, regional and local policy addresses digital waste in the home; 3. the effectiveness of guidance on managing domestic digital waste, through community engagement workshops; and 4. how everyday domestic digital waste presents a fire risk, how insurance, fire safety guidance or design might better mitigate it. Drawing on the supervisory expertise of Philippa Williams and Alison Blunt, the research could focus on the UK or India, examining how social inequalities intersect with and shape the social life of domestic digital and AI waste. Conceptually, it brings together studies of the home, digital geographies, critical AI studies and science and technology studies.
The project has the potential to make an original contribution to debates on waste management, digital geographies and geographies of home and develop recommendations to strengthen policy and guidance for the safe management of domestic digital waste.
What we're looking for in a student
We welcome applicants with a background in human geography or a related social science or humanities discipline, expereince in qualitative, creative and/or participatory research methods and an interest in digital technology, home, waste and risk. As well as being part of the Living with Waste cohort, the PhD candidate leading this project would also be affiliated with the Centre for Studies of Home, a 15-year partnership between Queen Mary and Museum of the Home. Their training and cohort development would be strengthened through their participation in Centre for the Study of the Home PGR/Early Career Research study days on home alongside the Waste School.
Key words: Digital and AI waste, domestic, materiality, policy, fire