Burning Matters

Global trade in electronic waste (e-waste) has led to various waste management challenges and many regions of the Global South have suffered the toxic consequences. In <em>Burning Matters </em> Peter C. Little explores the complex cultural economic and environmental health politics of e-waste work in<br>Ghana. He brings to light the lived experiences of Ghana's e-waste workers as they navigate the health social and economic challenges of highly toxic e-waste labor. In particular Little engages the experiences of e-waste workers who burn bundles of electrical cables to extract copper a practice<br>that contaminates bodies and the urban environment and which has attracted international organizations seeking to mitigate risk and find quick tech solutions to this highly toxic e-waste work. A nuanced perspective on e-waste burning and environmental politics in Africa at a time when global<br>e-waste generation and trade is at an all-time high <em>Burning Matters</em> contends that e-waste interventions devoid of ethnographic perspective and knowledge risk downplaying the vibrant complexities of e-waste itself and the matters of social life and labor that matter most to Ghana's e-waste workers.