Dana Kornberg | University of California, Santa Barbara (original) (raw)
Papers by Dana Kornberg
Social Forces, 2020
How did informal garbage collectors, who had long provided the only door-to-door and recycling se... more How did informal garbage collectors, who had long provided the only door-to-door and recycling services in Delhi, manage to survive the introduction of formal garbage collection trucks? This question raises the larger problem of why informal institutions—well-organized and socially recognized, but legally unauthorized and unregulated platforms for political and economic organization—have proven so persistent. I draw on evidence collected during 20 months of ethnographic research in Delhi, focusing on participant observation with informal collectors during their neighborhood routes and interviews with 50 informal collectors. Bringing together political and urban sociology, postcolonial urban studies, and institutional theory, the paper frames competition over city garbage and recycling as a relational matter. I argue that informal workers preserved their jurisdiction through practical legitimation, depending on everyday actions and social expectations rather than explicit laws or bel...
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2016
Critical Sociology, 2018
What might it take for politically marginalized residents to challenge cuts in public spending th... more What might it take for politically marginalized residents to challenge cuts in public spending that threaten to harm their health and wellbeing? Specifically, how did residents of Flint, Michigan contribute to the decision of an austerity regime, which was not accountable to them, to spend millions to switch to a safe water source? Relying on evidence from key interviews and newspaper accounts, we examine the influence and limitations of residents and grassroots groups during the 18-month period between April 2014 and October 2015 when the city drew its water from the Flint River. We find that citizen complaints alone were not sufficiently able to convince city officials or national media of widespread illness caused by the water. However, their efforts resulted in partnerships with researchers whose evidence bolstered their claims, thus inspiring a large contribution from a local foundation to support the switch to a clean water source. Thus, before the crisis gained national media...
The results of the Flint water crisis were disastrous. Though a desire to reduce public spending ... more The results of the Flint water crisis were disastrous. Though a desire to reduce public spending motivated the decisions that culminated in the water crisis, the economic costs of pipe replacement and health care have far exceeded any initially projected savings. Furthermore, permanent damage has been done to Flint’s most vulnerable residents, the city’s water system, and residents’ trust in government institutions.
Economic & Political Weekly, 2019
The reorganisation of informal household garbage collection work in Delhi is analysed, as migrant... more The reorganisation of informal household garbage
collection work in Delhi is analysed, as migrants from
eastern states like West Bengal have begun doing
manual waste work, even as their Balmikis deal only with
monthly cash payments. Drawing on fieldwork,
the effect on the Balmiki jamadars is noted, and the
Bengali Muslims, who newly contend with the practices
of untouchability in their neighbourhoods of work, are
focused on. These newer migrants come to justify the
shame they experience by focusing on the equivalence
of scrap with money, which has redemptive potential.
This reveals a dynamic process through which caste
differences are being remade—”casteification”—in
relation to economic life.
Social Forces, 2020
How did informal garbage collectors, who had long provided the only door-to-door and recycling se... more How did informal garbage collectors, who had long provided the only door-to-door and recycling services in Delhi, manage to survive the introduction of formal garbage collection trucks? This question raises the larger problem of why informal institutions - well-organized and socially recognized, but legally unauthorized and unregulated platforms for political and economic organization - have proven so persistent. I draw on evidence collected during 20 months of ethnographic research in Delhi, focusing on participant observation with informal collectors during their neighborhood routes and interviews with 50 informal collectors. Bringing together political and urban sociology, postcolonial urban studies, and institutional theory, the paper frames competition over city garbage and recycling as a relational matter. I argue that informal workers preserved their jurisdiction through practical legitimation, depending on everyday actions and social expectations rather than explicit laws or beliefs to secure legitimacy. I demonstrate how status-based relations, here based on caste and labor migration, can confer legitimacy and provide a source of regulation, as actors set out and meet implicit expectations for appropriate actions, relationships, and social boundaries.
Local Environment, 2019
This paper explains why local leaders may adopt and promote forms of environmentalism that privil... more This paper explains why local leaders may adopt and promote forms of environmentalism that privilege aesthetic and class-based concerns, displacing environmentalisms of the poor that promote more socially just and sustainable practices. Presenting a case study from Delhi, India, I ask why centralised and mechanised approaches to garbage services, which included incineration or “waste-to-energy,” were promoted over manual recycling systems despite their unproven efficacy and significant expense. I argue that Indian leaders saw incineration as a mechanism for decontaminating garbage, and by association, de-stigmatising the city’s reputation. Transforming a chaotic cluster of materials – garbage – into a singular object for incineration – fuel – allowed Indian bureaucrats and managers, who tend to be upper-caste men, to claim and profit from materials that are recycled by lower-caste and Muslim informal workers. I analyze ethnographic and documentary evidence and find that these motivations became particularly legible during the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, when postcolonial desires for international recognition were made explicit.
Critical Sociology, 2018
What might it take for politically marginalized residents to challenge cuts in public spending th... more What might it take for politically marginalized residents to challenge cuts in public spending that threaten to harm their health and wellbeing? Specifically, how did residents of Flint, Michigan contribute to the decision of an austerity regime, which was not accountable to them, to spend millions to switch to a safe water source? Relying on evidence from key interviews and newspaper accounts, we examine the influence and limitations of residents and grassroots groups during the 18-month period between April 2014 and October 2015 when the city drew its water from the Flint River. We find that citizen complaints alone were not sufficiently able to convince city officials or national media of widespread illness caused by the water. However, their efforts resulted in partnerships with researchers whose evidence bolstered their claims, thus inspiring a large contribution from a local foundation to support the switch to a clean water source. Thus, before the crisis gained national media attention, and despite significant constraints, residents' sustained organization—coupled with scientific evidence that credentialed local claims—motivated the return to the Detroit water system. The Flint case suggests that residents seeking redress under severe austerity conditions may require partnerships with external scientific elites.
Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste: The Social Science of Garbage, 2012
Environ Polit, 2011
... a more general audience in mind, I use the term in this latter, inclusive sense; although ...... more ... a more general audience in mind, I use the term in this latter, inclusive sense; although ... it is unethical to profit from water, a substance essential for life and human dignity. ... THE URBAN WATER CRISIS 3 private interests for profitwhich invariably deepens social and environmen ...
Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets, 2000
Environmental Politics, 2011
... a more general audience in mind, I use the term in this latter, inclusive sense; although ...... more ... a more general audience in mind, I use the term in this latter, inclusive sense; although ... it is unethical to profit from water, a substance essential for life and human dignity. ... THE URBAN WATER CRISIS 3 private interests for profitwhich invariably deepens social and environmen ...
Environmental Politics, 2013
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research , 2016
This article develops the concept of territorial stigma by analyzing how it can be cultivated at ... more This article develops the concept of territorial stigma by analyzing how it can be cultivated at the level of political institutions across administrative divides. I consider the case of Detroit's regional water department, which until 2016 was owned and operated by the city and served over 120 suburban regional municipalities. I start by examining the cooperative city–suburban water system expansion in the 1950s and then analyze the rise of Detroit's first black-led administration in 1974, after which the water authority became a key regional institution that provided an opportunity for white suburban leaders to organize against the city. I find that suburban leaders advanced their immediate goal of mitigating rate hikes by declaring the city to be greedy and inept, instead of acknowledging structural conditions that increased operational costs. This had the effect of reproducing racialized stereotypes at the political level, which had enduring effects. The argument builds on the existing literature on territorial stigma by (1) identifying state institutions as sites for the propagation of stigma and (2) considering stigmatized places in relation to their non-stigmatized neighbors. The analysis integrates material-structural and cultural-symbolic factors in order to understand the perpetuation of regional urban inequalities.
Teaching Documents by Dana Kornberg
Center for Social Development Policy Brief, 2019
The purpose of this brief is to describe the shortcomings of Michigan’s EM system and inform poli... more The purpose of this brief is to describe the shortcomings of Michigan’s EM system and inform policymakers on potential improvements for its eventual replacement. We first frame the EM system within the logic and practice of urban austerity politics. Next, we demonstrate how emergency manager policies are not race-neutral approaches to
solving urban financial crises. Rather, historically oppressed groups—and African Americans in particular—tend to absorb its costs. We conclude by considering what the Flint water crisis suggests about policy mechanisms that might prevent future environmental health crises, outlining the role of social workers in this process.
Social Forces, 2020
How did informal garbage collectors, who had long provided the only door-to-door and recycling se... more How did informal garbage collectors, who had long provided the only door-to-door and recycling services in Delhi, manage to survive the introduction of formal garbage collection trucks? This question raises the larger problem of why informal institutions—well-organized and socially recognized, but legally unauthorized and unregulated platforms for political and economic organization—have proven so persistent. I draw on evidence collected during 20 months of ethnographic research in Delhi, focusing on participant observation with informal collectors during their neighborhood routes and interviews with 50 informal collectors. Bringing together political and urban sociology, postcolonial urban studies, and institutional theory, the paper frames competition over city garbage and recycling as a relational matter. I argue that informal workers preserved their jurisdiction through practical legitimation, depending on everyday actions and social expectations rather than explicit laws or bel...
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2016
Critical Sociology, 2018
What might it take for politically marginalized residents to challenge cuts in public spending th... more What might it take for politically marginalized residents to challenge cuts in public spending that threaten to harm their health and wellbeing? Specifically, how did residents of Flint, Michigan contribute to the decision of an austerity regime, which was not accountable to them, to spend millions to switch to a safe water source? Relying on evidence from key interviews and newspaper accounts, we examine the influence and limitations of residents and grassroots groups during the 18-month period between April 2014 and October 2015 when the city drew its water from the Flint River. We find that citizen complaints alone were not sufficiently able to convince city officials or national media of widespread illness caused by the water. However, their efforts resulted in partnerships with researchers whose evidence bolstered their claims, thus inspiring a large contribution from a local foundation to support the switch to a clean water source. Thus, before the crisis gained national media...
The results of the Flint water crisis were disastrous. Though a desire to reduce public spending ... more The results of the Flint water crisis were disastrous. Though a desire to reduce public spending motivated the decisions that culminated in the water crisis, the economic costs of pipe replacement and health care have far exceeded any initially projected savings. Furthermore, permanent damage has been done to Flint’s most vulnerable residents, the city’s water system, and residents’ trust in government institutions.
Economic & Political Weekly, 2019
The reorganisation of informal household garbage collection work in Delhi is analysed, as migrant... more The reorganisation of informal household garbage
collection work in Delhi is analysed, as migrants from
eastern states like West Bengal have begun doing
manual waste work, even as their Balmikis deal only with
monthly cash payments. Drawing on fieldwork,
the effect on the Balmiki jamadars is noted, and the
Bengali Muslims, who newly contend with the practices
of untouchability in their neighbourhoods of work, are
focused on. These newer migrants come to justify the
shame they experience by focusing on the equivalence
of scrap with money, which has redemptive potential.
This reveals a dynamic process through which caste
differences are being remade—”casteification”—in
relation to economic life.
Social Forces, 2020
How did informal garbage collectors, who had long provided the only door-to-door and recycling se... more How did informal garbage collectors, who had long provided the only door-to-door and recycling services in Delhi, manage to survive the introduction of formal garbage collection trucks? This question raises the larger problem of why informal institutions - well-organized and socially recognized, but legally unauthorized and unregulated platforms for political and economic organization - have proven so persistent. I draw on evidence collected during 20 months of ethnographic research in Delhi, focusing on participant observation with informal collectors during their neighborhood routes and interviews with 50 informal collectors. Bringing together political and urban sociology, postcolonial urban studies, and institutional theory, the paper frames competition over city garbage and recycling as a relational matter. I argue that informal workers preserved their jurisdiction through practical legitimation, depending on everyday actions and social expectations rather than explicit laws or beliefs to secure legitimacy. I demonstrate how status-based relations, here based on caste and labor migration, can confer legitimacy and provide a source of regulation, as actors set out and meet implicit expectations for appropriate actions, relationships, and social boundaries.
Local Environment, 2019
This paper explains why local leaders may adopt and promote forms of environmentalism that privil... more This paper explains why local leaders may adopt and promote forms of environmentalism that privilege aesthetic and class-based concerns, displacing environmentalisms of the poor that promote more socially just and sustainable practices. Presenting a case study from Delhi, India, I ask why centralised and mechanised approaches to garbage services, which included incineration or “waste-to-energy,” were promoted over manual recycling systems despite their unproven efficacy and significant expense. I argue that Indian leaders saw incineration as a mechanism for decontaminating garbage, and by association, de-stigmatising the city’s reputation. Transforming a chaotic cluster of materials – garbage – into a singular object for incineration – fuel – allowed Indian bureaucrats and managers, who tend to be upper-caste men, to claim and profit from materials that are recycled by lower-caste and Muslim informal workers. I analyze ethnographic and documentary evidence and find that these motivations became particularly legible during the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, when postcolonial desires for international recognition were made explicit.
Critical Sociology, 2018
What might it take for politically marginalized residents to challenge cuts in public spending th... more What might it take for politically marginalized residents to challenge cuts in public spending that threaten to harm their health and wellbeing? Specifically, how did residents of Flint, Michigan contribute to the decision of an austerity regime, which was not accountable to them, to spend millions to switch to a safe water source? Relying on evidence from key interviews and newspaper accounts, we examine the influence and limitations of residents and grassroots groups during the 18-month period between April 2014 and October 2015 when the city drew its water from the Flint River. We find that citizen complaints alone were not sufficiently able to convince city officials or national media of widespread illness caused by the water. However, their efforts resulted in partnerships with researchers whose evidence bolstered their claims, thus inspiring a large contribution from a local foundation to support the switch to a clean water source. Thus, before the crisis gained national media attention, and despite significant constraints, residents' sustained organization—coupled with scientific evidence that credentialed local claims—motivated the return to the Detroit water system. The Flint case suggests that residents seeking redress under severe austerity conditions may require partnerships with external scientific elites.
Encyclopedia of Consumption and Waste: The Social Science of Garbage, 2012
Environ Polit, 2011
... a more general audience in mind, I use the term in this latter, inclusive sense; although ...... more ... a more general audience in mind, I use the term in this latter, inclusive sense; although ... it is unethical to profit from water, a substance essential for life and human dignity. ... THE URBAN WATER CRISIS 3 private interests for profitwhich invariably deepens social and environmen ...
Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets, 2000
Environmental Politics, 2011
... a more general audience in mind, I use the term in this latter, inclusive sense; although ...... more ... a more general audience in mind, I use the term in this latter, inclusive sense; although ... it is unethical to profit from water, a substance essential for life and human dignity. ... THE URBAN WATER CRISIS 3 private interests for profitwhich invariably deepens social and environmen ...
Environmental Politics, 2013
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research , 2016
This article develops the concept of territorial stigma by analyzing how it can be cultivated at ... more This article develops the concept of territorial stigma by analyzing how it can be cultivated at the level of political institutions across administrative divides. I consider the case of Detroit's regional water department, which until 2016 was owned and operated by the city and served over 120 suburban regional municipalities. I start by examining the cooperative city–suburban water system expansion in the 1950s and then analyze the rise of Detroit's first black-led administration in 1974, after which the water authority became a key regional institution that provided an opportunity for white suburban leaders to organize against the city. I find that suburban leaders advanced their immediate goal of mitigating rate hikes by declaring the city to be greedy and inept, instead of acknowledging structural conditions that increased operational costs. This had the effect of reproducing racialized stereotypes at the political level, which had enduring effects. The argument builds on the existing literature on territorial stigma by (1) identifying state institutions as sites for the propagation of stigma and (2) considering stigmatized places in relation to their non-stigmatized neighbors. The analysis integrates material-structural and cultural-symbolic factors in order to understand the perpetuation of regional urban inequalities.
Center for Social Development Policy Brief, 2019
The purpose of this brief is to describe the shortcomings of Michigan’s EM system and inform poli... more The purpose of this brief is to describe the shortcomings of Michigan’s EM system and inform policymakers on potential improvements for its eventual replacement. We first frame the EM system within the logic and practice of urban austerity politics. Next, we demonstrate how emergency manager policies are not race-neutral approaches to
solving urban financial crises. Rather, historically oppressed groups—and African Americans in particular—tend to absorb its costs. We conclude by considering what the Flint water crisis suggests about policy mechanisms that might prevent future environmental health crises, outlining the role of social workers in this process.