Autore
Minervini, Dario

Titolo
The power of PET water
Periodico
Rassegna italiana di sociologia
Anno: 2020 - Fascicolo: 2 - Pagina iniziale: 355 - Pagina finale: 379

Today global arguments against plastic are receiving greater media exposure.The viral and dramatic images of a plastic island floating in the Pacific Oceanas well as of marine animals trapped by waste packaging or contaminated bymicroplastic particles are constantly displayed even beyond environmental activistcircles. Nevertheless, plastic packaging remains all-pervading in most people’severyday lives. Indeed, it seems to reveal a very powerful socio-materiality thatfeatures the above-mentioned contradictory global scenario. This paper focuseson this «power», investigating how the intertwinement between an essentialgood and a versatile plastic device is translated into shared justifications. Apragmatic theoretical approach and a socio-material sensitivity lead this analysisto the topic of bottled water in order to examine the ways in which differentactors consider the assemblage of PET bottles and mineral water as a valuableobject. In particular, the article retraces the orders of worth (Boltanski,Thévenot 1991), values and normativities (Law, Singleton 2014) enacting thepolitics of a disposable object (Hawkins 2015).A «situated» methodology informed this research, collecting the different pointsof view (judgments, normative arguments, justifications, critiques, etc.) of thoseactors enacting the plastic bottle assemblage. In particular, interviews withkey informants and document analysis were adopted to develop the empiricaldesign. The chain of worth that legitimates bottled water was retraced, fromproduction, through intermediation and logistics, retailing and consumption,to disposal/recycling. In the Conclusions paragraph, the research findings are discussed. A PETbottle represents a mobile, variable geometry and personal infrastructure. Itdisappears – just from the immediate distance of ordinary perception – oncecustomer needs are met. This is only one example of how the worth of thismoral object is enhanced within a contradictory world, where environmentalurgencies are claimed by the same people who used to drink plastic bottledwater.



SICI: 0486-0349(2020)2<355:TPOPW>2.0.ZU;2-M
Testo completo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/download/article/10.1423/97837
Testo completo alternativo: https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.1423/97837

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