The informal waste collection sector and the waste pickers: A case study in Ankara

Abstract

This thesis, departing from the current concerns for the dissolving of the informal waste collection sector under the disturbance of neoliberal urban restructuring, focuses on the organization of the informal waste sector and its inner dynamics. The thesis elaborates on the formation of that sector, the history of that formation, how it operates, the specific ways and reasons people are recruited and stay in this sector, for the reason that the author of this thesis believes only the exploration of those dynamics can shed light on the possible future projections about waste pickers. Another motivation of this thesis is the urge to change the perceptions about waste picking and waste pickers, that can be summarized as, waste picking is a marginal, disorganized and stable activity, performed by independent individuals which soon be dissolved as more modern systems of waste collection is implemented. The findings of this study shows that, the power relations that the informal waste collection sector is built upon both among networks tied to each other with “bounded solidarity” and among workers in the sector who are tied to each other by “moral obligations” reveal that the informal waste collection sector in Ankara is an established and a very well organized sector. Another finding of this study is that the waste picking is like a protection shield of the poor to avoid more harsh conditions of poverty, yet regardless of the waste pickers‟ position in the hierarchical scheme, it has a magnet affect on altering the social exclusion of waste pickers as it articulates the experiences of forced migration and poverty. Moreover, the ways which they are threated as the “threatening other,” decreases the possibilities of incorporation and creates mistrust relations among the parties.