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Waste, Art, and Social Change: Transformative Consumer Research Outside of The Academy?

This document discusses two documentary films, Trashed and Waste Land, that highlight issues of waste and consumption. The films help bring awareness to problems like finite resources and the hazards of waste disposal that are typically removed from people's immediate awareness. They can contribute to an "estrangement effect" that challenges taken-for-granted ideas and encourages reflection on consumption habits and their environmental impacts. Current consumption patterns are fundamentally problematic but difficult to change given how social and economic systems distance people from the consequences of their actions.
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
64 views7 pages

Waste, Art, and Social Change: Transformative Consumer Research Outside of The Academy?

This document discusses two documentary films, Trashed and Waste Land, that highlight issues of waste and consumption. The films help bring awareness to problems like finite resources and the hazards of waste disposal that are typically removed from people's immediate awareness. They can contribute to an "estrangement effect" that challenges taken-for-granted ideas and encourages reflection on consumption habits and their environmental impacts. Current consumption patterns are fundamentally problematic but difficult to change given how social and economic systems distance people from the consequences of their actions.
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Commentary

Journal of Macromarketing
2014, Vol. 34(1) 80-86
Waste, Art, and Social Change: ª The Author(s) 2013
Reprints and permission:
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Transformative Consumer Research DOI: 10.1177/0276146713509631
jmk.sagepub.com
Outside of the Academy?

Mark Tadajewski1 and Kathy Hamilton2

Abstract
Films and documentaries can be highly useful pedagogic and research tools. They take complex topics that are theoretically and
empirically rich and distill them into vehicles having the potential to deeply affect the way we look at marketing, consumer beha-
vior, and the natural environment. They illuminate how our current consumption patterns are fundamentally problematic in ways
that we rarely register because they are far removed from our sight. Using the work of Zygmunt Bauman on moral distance as well
as two recent documentary films that bring the subject of waste to the fore, we explore these and related issues. Trashed (Brady
2012) highlights our planet’s finite resources and the hazards stemming from various waste disposal practices. Waste Land (Walker
2010) draws our attention to excess by profiling an example of how waste can be transformed into art. We make a case that these
accounts can contribute to the ‘‘estrangement effect’’ articulated and praised by Herbert Marcuse and concomitantly provide us
with examples of Transformative Consumer Research outside of the academy.

Keywords
waste, consumption, documentaries, critical marketing, transformative consumer research, macromarketing

Introduction Despite the arguments offered by many within our discipline


about the sophistication of consumers, their ability to process
In a number of recent papers, some of the most preeminent fairly complex information (cf. Belk 1987; Ozanne and Murray
consumer researchers and macromarketing scholars have made
1995), and their understanding of the role of marketing within
a compelling case for the use of films in teaching and research
society, we are still bounded in our sense-making activities. It
(e.g. Belk 2002, 2011; McDonagh and Brereton 2010). As Belk
is fair to say that marketing, advertising and salesmanship, all
(2002, p. 124) puts it, ‘‘many researchers have discovered how
combine to encourage us to not reflect on the production ori-
parts of feature films and other visual and oral media can covey
gins of the goods we consume – this is the phenomenon known
‘truths’ about human behavior.’’ In our teaching we have both
as commodity fetishism – never mind the ultimate end-point
used such forms of knowledge transfer to encourage students to
for those we divest. This end-point, the rubbish heap, the
think differently about the topics that are being explored. We incinerator, the mid-Atlantic, is most likely cognitively and
have found them to be extremely valuable sources of material.
spatially far distant from where we currently reside. This will,
Films have the ability to convey very important, yet
naturally enough, make it difficult to encourage people to think
sometimes theoretically complicated ideas in a more accessible
differently about what and how much they consume, for the
fashion, resulting in what Marcuse (1964/1972) calls an
simple reason that our individual contributions to the world’s
‘‘estrangement effect,’’ whereby our understanding of a given
garbage is small, and we rarely see the combined effects of
topic is shattered, when alternative understandings displace
waste with our own eyes.
previously taken-for-granted ideas. This is particularly useful
Like many others in macromarketing, critical marketing,
when dealing with issues that are far removed from the imme- and Transformative Consumer Research (e.g. Dholakia 2012;
diate consciousness of the people we teach and indeed our own
experiences as busy people, working in an increasingly hectic
world. Hectic lives lead to a delimited focus on those aspects
1
of our social existence that are most salient to us. We displace Durham Business School, Durham University, Stockton-on-Tees, UK
2
things not essential to our day-to-day activities and so many Strathclyde Business School, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK
aspects of our lives, such as the impact of our consumption
Corresponding Author:
habits, which are effectively very distant from our vision, merit Mark Tadajewski, Durham Business School, Durham University, Queen’s
little attention (De Coverly et al. 2008; Tadajewski and Saren Campus, Wolfson Institute, Stockton-on-Tees, UK.
2008). Email: [email protected]

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Tadajewski and Hamilton 81

Ellis et al. 2011; Mick 2006; Varey 2010, 2012, 2013), we think Appreciating our responsibility is, however, more difficult
realistic appraisals of our own consumption habits and their than we might think and here recalling the comments of Bau-
impact on the world are greatly needed. After all, our present man about adiaphorization – the rendering of an act as morally
consumption patterns are fundamentally problematic. While and ethically un-troubling – are useful when he describes how
our personal opinion is that the expectation of market and indi- the structural organization of society works against this process
vidual consumer self-correction is unlikely to happen without of ethical reflection (see also Desmond 1998). As Bauman
government and macro-institutional restructuring and oversight (1991, p. 145) explains,
(see Van Dam and Appldoorn 1996) and, after watching the
two documentaries discussed below, we fully appreciate that To start with the removal of the effects of action beyond the reach
government action is not necessarily as effective as we would of moral limits . . . once . . . separated from both the intention-
like, something clearly has to change about the way we view conscious sources and the ultimate effects of action by a chain
our relationship with the natural environment. If we required of mediators, the actors seldom face the moment of choice and
evidence on this front, the figures that Burroughs (2010, gaze at the consequences of their deeds; more importantly, they
p. 127) recently recounted in the pages of this Journal make for hardly ever apprehend what they gaze at as the consequences of
troubling reading: their deeds . . . Social organization may be therefore described
as a machine that keeps moral responsibility afloat; it belongs
to no one in particular, as everybody’s contribution to the final
While the United States and Western Europe only represent 12 per- effect is too minute or partial to be sensibly ascribed a causal
cent of the world’s population, these countries account for 60 per- function.
cent of the world’s consumer spending . . . the United States
consumes more than five times its rightful proportion of the
world’s energy (i.e., the United States is 5 percent of the world’s
population but consumes 26 percent of its oil, 25 percent of its coal,
and 27 percent of its natural gas). Moreover, consumer culture Trashed: Finite Resources, Major Hazards
appears to be one of America and the West’s best exports. Coun- The two films we consider redirect our attention to the moral
tries such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China are poised to join the and ethical implications of our consumption choices, highlight-
global consumer economy and in many ways this transition has ing how the effects of choices made at various points in our
already begun (e.g., China adds another 11,000 automobiles to the historical and cultural development, can still haunt us today.
roads every day . . . That is another three billion individuals joining In Trashed we follow Jeremy Irons around the world as he
the ranks of the consumer class, who will naturally expect to par- showcases evidence to confirm that waste is a global problem
ticipate as fully in the global economy as their Western that affects our lands and seas. The film is factual in its
counterparts.
approach as we learn, amongst other things, about pollution,
global warming, landfill regulations, the different mechanisms
Two recent films bring the subject of waste to the fore. for disposing of waste (e.g. landfill, incineration) and the finan-
Trashed (Brady 2012) highlights our planet’s finite resources cial and environmental costs and benefits associated with each,
and the hazards stemming from various waste disposal prac- through to the dangers of dioxins entering the food chain.
tices. Waste Land (Walker 2010) draws our attention to excess From the opening credits we are confronted with a project
by profiling an example of how waste can be transformed into that would fit comfortably under the designation of ‘‘con-
art. The subjects of the two films are remarkably different. In sciousness raising.’’ The credits scroll through many day-to-
Trashed, a range of professors, campaigners, scientists, doctors day items we find around our houses – pens, plastic cutlery,
and researchers articulately inform us about the impacts of our iPod ear-buds, clothes hangers, children’s toys, and other
consumption and waste. Their testimony about our consump- plastic items – all remind us of the extent to which our consump-
tion patterns is passionate and scientifically well informed. tion patterns are permeated with items that seem relatively
In Waste Land we are invited into the lives of a group of innocuous. Yet, they are only innocuous in the singular. When
‘‘catadores’’ or pickers who, although they have less formal we register the sheer numbers of these items in circulation, the
education than those offering testimony in Trashed, are perhaps resource intensive nature of our everyday lives and the pressure
more inspiring as they tell us about their work at the largest it exerts on the ecosystem, starts to be truly appreciated.
landfill site in the world. Despite their different perspectives, We are told that simply burying waste – out of sight, out of
both films are important in drawing attention to a subject that mind – is not an option in many major locations around the
is often neglected. De Coverly et al (2008, p. 290) critique the world that have reached their limits to capacity. But it is not
‘‘social avoidance of waste’’ and argue that waste is not only simply the amount of things we consume and dispose of that
physically hidden from sight but also removed from our sense is problematic. The materiality of the items has also changed.
of responsibility. This is similar to Douglas’ (1966) belief that Over the last century and a half, we have shifted from disposing
provided dirt/waste is kept invisible, it causes us no concern. of natural items – wool, food waste and so forth – to products
Thus, although waste is often considered as post-consumer that are more and more toxic (e.g. heavy metals, synthetics,
(Smart 2010), these films remind us of the need for us all to radioactive substances). Such facts are troubling in themselves,
take some responsibility. but the documentary makers have understood that they need to

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82 Journal of Macromarketing 34(1)

be conveyed in a manner likely to break through the attention and the manufacturing of some herbicides and pesticides. In
barriers of fairly jaded, entertainment economy oriented view- terms of dioxin release into the environment, uncontrolled waste
ers. They manage this exceedingly well. incinerators (solid waste and hospital waste) are often the worst
The imagery that accompanies the research-based arguments culprits.
is well selected. It is almost post-apocalyptic in its depiction of
human beings existing side-by-side with birds and sheep as they Dioxins are poisonous and when they enter the food chain
‘‘pick’’ and scavenge in a terrain constituted by a vast swathe of can devastate the health of agricultural workers. They cause
burning rubbish and billowing smoke. We are compelled to cancer and affect the skin. The footage shot in Vietnam is
watch a vision of the natural environment scarred by human particularly difficult viewing, but effectively highlights the
desire. Trees, hedgerows, and seas are polluted to an almost potential long term, toxic and sometimes hidden effects of
unbelievable degree with plastics, rendering water so thick with dioxin. The scientific community has traced horrendous birth
matter that it exhibits the constitution of a thick soup. This doc- defects back to the dioxins in Agent Orange used to remove
umentary transports the viewer to a world far removed from our foliage from forests in Vietnam. Although it has been over
immediate perception or the sanitized, middle-class viewing of 40 years since US forces spread these toxic chemicals in order
nature documentaries on local television stations. It underscores to disrupt troop movements and supply networks, children are
with a much-needed urgency what Varey (2012, p. 424) calls still being born with major physical and mental disabilities.
‘‘the contradiction of modern society’s provisioning system.’’ As the camera pans past the corpses of children stored in for-
Trashed is a thought-provoking confirmation that current levels maldehyde to the children living in hospital today – children
of consumerism are unsustainable. with no eyes, disfigured skull development, and joints that do
From beaches in Lebanon strewn with so much rubbish that not align who are described as ‘‘the lucky ones’’ – the harm
actually seeing the sand is a task of interpretive skill, the people can level on the natural environment and each other is
camera pans to a gigantic dump (‘‘a trash mountain’’) that palpably clear. A spokesperson from the hospital discusses how
receives around eighty tons of additional garbage each day, they receive thousands of abandoned and deformed children.
releasing chemicals into sea, soil and air, which affect at least Again, the network of influence does not just stop at human
six different countries. We move to a landfill site in the UK, a beings, the pollution caused by waste – we all have some expo-
country in which the majority of the population lives in close sure to dioxins – harms wildlife as well.
proximity to some kind of rubbish site. The problem with land- For example, our sea life is deleteriously affected, as the ocean
fills is their limited ability to control many of the concomitants becomes ‘‘a toxic soup of floating debris’’ for which the North
of waste disposal carried by the wind to populations living Pacific gyre or convergence zone (see Figure 1), home to the
locally. At this point in the documentary we are told of the link Great Pacific Garbage Patch, serves as an exemplar (GYRE
between waste and birth defects. It is a story that will feature 2013). This very large area contains as much trash as biota (e.g.
prominently throughout the film, becoming less abstract, and zooplankton). And in an extremely disconcerting case, we are
more disturbing as the narrative unfolds. reminded of the story of the whale found dead on a beach in
From this we move via Iceland to a street in France known as Seattle with a plethora of items inside its stomach including plas-
‘‘Cancer Road.’’ This label is unfortunately apt. The figures tic bags, duct tape, sweat pants, and even a golf ball. This one
are horrifying. One fourth of the residents in the street behind the example effectively conveys the diversity of objects that are left
local incinerator, which was releasing harmful substances, were at the end of our consumption process. Even those objects meant
diagnosed with cancer, and so the appellation stuck. The effects to be biodegradable continue to pose a threat to the natural envi-
on human beings are only part of the account. Animals, farms, ronment. After being removed after a year in the sea, ‘‘biodegrad-
and the natural environment were all harmed. This account able’’ plastic bags remain strong enough to hold shopping goods.
is troubling on so many different levels and as if the problems Due to its inherent properties, this plastic waste attracts other
caused were not enough, the case also presses home the limits chemicals, finds its way into the seafood we consume, affects our
to deliberative democracy (Ozanne, Corus, and Saatcioglu immune system, and subsequently influences human reproduc-
2009), when small groups from a community come up against tion. The circle of consumption returns to poison us.
powerful vested interests. In this case the precautionary principle By reporting such stories Trashed reveals that responses to
was not mobilized to ensure the safety of the local population. waste problems are needed at individual, company, and public
Numerous examples taken from Argentina, Iceland, and policy levels through, for instance, stricter monitoring of
other locations illustrate the problem of dioxins. Dioxins are emission levels. That some kind of intervention is necessary
products already in the natural environment. As with many by corporate actors and government is echoed by those speak-
things, the natural dioxins (for example, compounds released ing to the camera, one of whom asks why producers continue to
during volcanic irruptions) pale into insignificance when com- use resource intensive methods of packaging when there are
pared to the man-made compounds. As the World Health Orga- more ecologically friendly alternatives already available. The
nization (2010) explains, silence is deafening. In equal measure, gestures are made to
customer confusion created by the profusion of symbols on
Dioxins are unwanted by products of a wide range of manufactur- packaging that do not assist them in making informed decisions
ing processes including smelting, chlorine bleaching of paper pulp about the environmental impact of products.

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Tadajewski and Hamilton 83

Figure 3. Jardim Gramacho. Image from Wikimedia Commons,


Figure 1. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch convergence zone. Image licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.
from Wikimedia Commons, originally from U.S. National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration.

Figure 4. Vik Muniz at Crystal Award Ceremony Exploring Arts in


Figure 2. Remains of an Albatross chick with ingested plastic, Midway Society at the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland, January
Atoll. Image from Wikimedia Commons, originally from U.S. Geolo- 22, 2013. Image from Wikimedia Commons and licensed under the
gical Survey. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic.

After profiling a rich and varied series of cases, the narrative


landfill to tell us about a group of people who often remain
switches to potential solutions to the problem. The film visits
absent from these discussions – those who spend their time liv-
an Organic Store in England that encourages customers to refill
ing and working in these locations. In Waste Land the human
their own containers and the city of San Francisco where a zero
dimension is the means to secure audience attention. It does
waste initiative has been implemented. Accounts are provided
so by focusing on the ‘‘catadores’’ or pickers at the Jardim Gra-
of grass-roots organizations trying to empower local commu-
macho landfill site in Rio de Janeiro – a now defunct site that
nities to lobby and influence their governing bodies. These
closed not long after this account concludes (see Figure 3).
examples show that behavioral and social change is possible,
The film follows New York-based artist Vik Muniz (Figure
making consumption habits more sustainable than they are at
4) as he returns to his native Brazil to create his ‘‘Pictures of
present. We should note, however, that these solutions are
Garbage’’ series, based on portraits of the pickers (see Muniz
given far less airtime than the problems they intend to address.
2013). Muniz’ artistic style involves creating pictures from
unlikely materials. As Hetherington (2004, p. 159) reminds
us, waste does not necessarily involve an ‘‘act of closure’’ and
Waste Land: The Art of Garbage in this case, the rubbish/garbage/trash returns to inspire Muniz’s
While Trashed discusses the potential health effects arising work. The portraits he creates are another example of the use of
from living in close proximity to landfill sites and other waste art to ‘‘inspire people to reflect upon and imagine alternatives to
disposal facilities, Waste Land goes right to the heart of the consumption’’ (Biehl-Missal 2013, p. 245).

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84 Journal of Macromarketing 34(1)

However Muniz’s aim is not as straightforward as simply cannot achieve or maintain. This ethical dilemma has no easy
encouraging reflection on consumption practices. He had an means of resolution, but in the case of Waste Land appears to
impoverished childhood himself. What we can call the ‘‘condi- have been mitigated by the positive effects on those involved.
tions of possibility’’ for his artistic endeavors is revelatory: he Axiologically, then, we see this as an exemplar project in the
stopped a fight, was shot by one of the people involved, and vein of TCR. However, the method of doing so is not consistent
later given a pay-off that enabled him to move from Brazil to with, for example, participatory action research (e.g. Ozanne
America. His life could have been very similar to the subjects and Saatcioglu 2008). That is, it starts without community
of his art, but serendipity and artistic success helped channel involvement per se, with the artistic inspiration of Muniz and
his life in financially lucrative directions, thereby leaving him his immediate circle of collaborators leading the exercise, and
able to focus more of his energies to help others through his then seeks to enroll those who would be both object and subject
artwork. of the pictures that result. Even so, the input of the participants
Reflecting on an earlier project that involved him thinking is paramount. The knowledge and skill of the famous artist
about how hard labor in sugar plantations influenced the con- frames the artistic project, but also asks for the active participa-
tentment, joy, and satisfaction people experienced in their tion of those working – directly and indirectly – at the garbage
lives, led him to paint the young children of these workers. The site.
‘‘sugar’’ was the substance he thought had gradually ebbed In accenting the transformative nature of art, Muniz believes
from the lives of the elders. Artistic gatekeepers noticed this that his project will afford the pickers, many of whom have
series of pictures, so a socially oriented exercise inflected been at the landfill since childhood, a sense of escapism as it
Muniz’s career as artist and photographer in an extremely ‘‘takes people away, even just for a few minutes, from where
positive direction. As he explains in his current ‘‘Pictures of they are and show[s] them another world’’ (Muniz in Walker
Garbage’’ project, ‘‘What I really want to do is to change the 2010). From what we see of the landfill, it is unsurprising that
lives of a group of people with the same materials that they deal Muniz would assume the pickers are seeking escapism.
with every day’’ (Muniz in Walker 2010). The Jardim Gramacho is on the edge of the city, adjacent to
His reasoning for doing so is commensurate with the type of a location characterized by an active drug trade. The pickers are
rationale we have heard articulated recently by those involved both geographically and socially excluded as we are told ‘‘this
with Transformative Consumer Research (TCR). As expressed is where everything that’s not good goes, including the people’’
by David Glen Mick (2006), TCR attempts to undertake social (Muniz in Walker 2010). The images of the landfill are striking
change activities that can potentially affect many people. This as we see the pickers, who work day and night, securing mate-
places demands on our time and imagination, while requiring rials they can sell and recycle, scrambling over the mountains
emotional and physical labor that only the motivated can of rubbish with birds swarming overhead, and where the
provide, but which is sometimes unavoidable if we see our- ground wobbles due to the amount of trash shifting under the
selves as empathetic and change oriented actors (e.g. Jafari surface.
et al. 2013). This axiology is encapsulated in the response to In their desperate and determined search for the right mate-
Vik’s question about the demands of the project he has in mind. rials to sell to wholesalers, pickers rush towards the new mate-
His gallery director replies that whilst physical and safety rial almost before it has been safely deposited by newly arrived
issues are involved, they are firmly outweighed by the moral delivery trucks. We learn about the gendered nature of picking,
implications of not doing anything to help people who exist the preferences for selecting different materials based on
on the margins of society. weight and manageability. Numerous figures in the film, both
Highlighting the life-story and experiences of these people managers of the facility and Muniz himself, emphasize the sig-
is situated within a broader critique of the persistence of nificant and beneficial role of the pickers. Their recycling
class-based judgments that erroneously attribute success for efforts help ensure the site can continue to accommodate the
one group with self-directed individualistic endeavors, whilst massive amount of new trash daily. They are thus central to the
framing the less desirable circumstances in which others find continued viability of the consumption patterns of people living
themselves, solely as a product of their lack of will to succeed. in Rio de Janeiro. Accompanying these visuals, we hear the
This argument chimes with those working from more critical pickers talk about some of the distressing sights, including dead
perspectives in marketing today and especially resonates with human beings, to which they have been exposed.
debates taking place around intersectionality (Gopaldas However, alongside this narrative of exclusion is one of
2013), materialist feminism (Catterall, Maclaran, and Stevens pride. We meet Valter, a picker for 26 years, who speaks
2005), and space/exclusion (Saatcioglu and Ozanne 2013). passionately and knowledgeably about the importance of recy-
While Muniz embraces the idea that art can transform cling. Despite how we might rush to judgment about the ‘‘dirty
people and their way of relating to their lives and world, as well work’’ (Tyler 2009), others suggest it is a better choice than the
as enable them to see beyond the boundaries of current experi- alternatives of prostitution, drug dealing, or other criminal
ences, he and those involved with this project – especially his activities. One of the main characters profiled in the film is
wife – are concerned about the psychological ramifications that Tiao, the instigator and president of the Association of Pickers
such a world changing experience could have when it allows of Jardim Gramacho (ACAMJG) that represents the interests of
people to see opportunities for alternative paths in life that they the 2500-3000 pickers at the landfill. Perhaps the most

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Tadajewski and Hamilton 85

inspiring expression of this sense of pride is at the end of the poverty. This said, if you fall into the latter camp, the effects are
film when we see Tiao correct the language used by a chat likely to be more detrimental to your health and quality-of-life.
show host, telling him they are not pickers of garbage, but The poor of Jakarta, as Trashed reminds us, live by deeply pol-
pickers of recyclable material. luted water-flows, which they use to source drinking and bath
Whilst some of the pickers initially felt ashamed of their job, water. The effects are as predictable as they are disheartening.
exasperated by the reactions of others, participation in the proj- Yet, as Foucault said, where there is power, resistance is
ect has removed this feeling. The emotion of the pickers who likely to manifest. Films like the two reviewed here have the
participate is moving to watch. When Tiao is taken to London potential to move us from a state of indifference and apathy
to attend an auction of his portrait, which is sold for £28,000, toward outrage and demand for social change (Ozanne and
his joy is contagious. We witness their excitement as they Murray 1995). People can challenge how they understand and
attend the Museum of Modern Art in Rio to visit an exhibition act upon issues as complex and power laden as waste disposal
of their portraits, a place far removed from their normal envi- (e.g. Böhm and Brei 2008). While it might be a piece-meal
ronment. The self-appointed cook, who feeds the pickers from form of social change, if we alter our own consumption habits
meat and vegetable waste scavenged from the landfill, sums along the lines suggested on the DVD box for Trashed (utilize
this up as ‘‘sometimes we see ourselves as so small but people reusable bags; use reusable bottles and filter water at home;
out there see us as so big, so beautiful’’ (Laurentina da Silva in reduce food miles, shop locally, form a cooperative with
Walker 2010). friends and family), the point is that we can do something.
The film ends on an uplifting note. Over $250,000 raised Small changes sometimes make dramatic differences.
from the sale of prints has been given back to the ACAMJG
to improve the pickers’ working conditions. For some of the
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
pickers Muniz’ aim of transformation is achieved and many
of them do not want to return to the landfill. As one participant The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to
the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
suggests, the project has brought her ‘‘the will to change.’’
Unlike Trashed with its emphasis on scientific and rational
arguments against waste, Waste Land relies more on the notion Funding
of aesthetic knowing, a term used by Biehl-Missal (2013) to The author(s) received no financial support for the research, author-
describe the potential of the arts ‘‘to inspire people’s tacit ship, and/or publication of this article.
knowing, feeling, and imagination’’ (p. 256). So, in the same
way that the pickers are encouraged to reimagine what their
lives could be, viewers are also reminded, through a process References
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Mark Tadajewski is Professor of Marketing at Durham University.
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His fairly eclectic research interests include marketing history and
Journal of Macromarketing, 30 (2), 133-146.
critical marketing. He is currently co-editor of the Journal of Market-
Mick, David Glen (2006), ‘‘Presidential Address: Meaning and
ing Management, associate editor for the Journal of Historical
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Research in Marketing, and co-editor for book series published by
in Consumer Research, 33 (1), 1-4.
Routledge and Sage.
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2013), [available at http://vikmuniz.net/gallery/garbage]. Kathy Hamilton is reader in the Department of Marketing, University
Ozanne, Julie L. and Jeff B. Murray (1995), ‘‘Uniting Critical Theory of Strathclyde, UK. Her research tends to fall within the area of Con-
and Public Policy to Create the Reflexively Defiant Consumer,’’ sumer Culture Theory. Key projects have focused on consumer vul-
American Behavioral Scientist, 38 (4), 516-525. nerability, poverty, and the role of community in contemporary
Ozanne, Julie L. and Bige Saatcioglu (2008), ‘‘Participatory Action culture. Kathy is interested in interdisciplinary research and her work
Research,’’ Journal of Consumer Research, 35 (3), 423-439. has been published in a variety of journals including Annals of Tour-
Ozanne, Julie L, Canan Corus, and Bige Saatcioglu (2009), ‘‘The ism Research, Journal of Marketing Management, Sociology, and the
Philosophy and Methods of Deliberative Democracy: Implications European Journal of Marketing.

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