Intersectionality and the Role of Place in Ethnographic Research on Informal Recyclers' Livelihoods

How social structures such as gender, race, and class shape informal recyclers’ livelihoods and how they actively create and navigate space in their everyday lives remain understudied in the Global North. In this article I highlight how the diverse social identities of informal recyclers intersect to influence their livelihood activities, focusing on football tailgates as emblematic sites of consumption and discard. Football tailgates are social events where football fans socialise and party before a football game, and tailgaters are the fans who attend football tailgates. I investigated how the intersectionality of informal recyclers’ self- and externally perceived social identities shape their livelihood activity and explored how the identity of place determines it as a site of collection of recyclable material. The findings indicate that informal recyclers are self-conscious of the stereotyping, stigma, and discrimination associated with their self and externally perceived social identities. Low social class has the most impact on how informal recyclers engage in their livelihood. Their activities tend to be more acceptable at football tailgates than other places. I argue that the intersection of informal recyclers’ social identities with place and social capital unravels the dynamics that shape their participation in discard practices.