Grand Challenges lecture series ILAS 2016-2017 | Page 4

GRAND CHALLENGES
PLASTISPHERE: THE
INTERDISCIPLINARY
CHALLENGE TO
TRANSFORM
THE SOCIAL LIFE
OF PLASTIC
DR DEIRDRE MCKAY
2 NOVEMBER 2016 | 6.30PM-7.30PM KEELE HALL | THE SALVIN ROOM
We tend to consider plastics to be cheap and disposable,
almost already the garbage they will likely become.
Thus our challenge is to think of plastics differently.
It’s not just stuff but substances inscribed with cultural
meanings. Plastic raises material, global and social
questions. Deirdre McKay will explore how our interactions
with these materials shape the ways we feel and think
about ourselves in the ‘plastisphere’ we now inhabit.
Dr Deirdre McKay is Senior Lecturer in Social Geography
and Environmental Politics at Keele University. Her research
draws on both social/cultural geography and social
anthropology to explore people’s place-based experiences
of globalisation and development.
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our challenge
is to think of
plastics differently