Title
The Breaking Hand - Skills, Care, and Sufferings of the Hands of an Electronic Waste Worker in Bangladesh.
Abstract
While repair work has recently been getting increasing attention in HCI, recycling practices have still remained relatively understudied, especially in the context of the Global South. To this end, building on our eight-month-long ethnography, this paper reports the electronic waste (`e-waste', henceforth) recycling practices among the e-waste recycler (`bhangari') communities in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In doing so, this paper offers the work of the bhangaris through an articulation of their hands and their uses. Drawing from a rich body of scholarly work on social science, we define and contextualize three characteristics of the hand of a bhangari: knowledge, care, and skills and collaboration. Our study also highlights the pains and sufferings involved in this profession. By explaining bhangari work through the hand, we also discuss its implications for design, and its connection to HCI's broader interest in sustainability.
Year
DOI
Venue
2019
10.1145/3290605.3300253
CHI
Keywords
Field
DocType
electronic waste, ictd, recycle, tactile experience
Global South,Public relations,Computer science,Electronic waste,Multimedia,Ethnography,Sustainability
Conference
ISBN
Citations 
PageRank 
978-1-4503-5970-2
0
0.34
References 
Authors
0
3