Daniel Sosna (2026) Europe’s Disappearing Waste, New York, Berghahn
Daniel Sosna's book based on his long-term research in waste management in Central Europe
We are delighted to share that Daniel's new book, Europe's Disappearing Waste: Unanticipated Conflicts between Removal and Greening, has been published by Berghahn Books, as Volume 17 in the New Anthropologies of Europe series edited by Michael Herzfeld and Melissa Caldwell.
Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Czech waste management, the book examines the contrast between the belief that waste should disappear and the impossibility of achieving it. The book unpacks regimes of disappearance and reappearance to capture their multifaceted quality and entanglements. It puts the "underflows" of waste streams — the opportunities they open for people who refuse to be passive witnesses to disposal and the loss of value — at the centre of interest and questions the normative faith in market-based solutions and techno-optimism that dominate waste management today. Instead, it points to a commitment to salvage as an alternative way of relating to waste.
Many thanks to interlocutors, colleagues, editors, and people at Berghahn for making this possible.
50% discount code Sosn5511 is valid until 31st August 2026.
🔗 More information: here
🔗 Introduction: here
🎙️ Podcast on the Cultures of Energy: here
