Waste studies brings to labor history a suite of conceptual tools to think about precarious labor, human capital, migration, the material quality of labor in urban and rural infrastructures, and the porosity and interchangeability of workers’ bodies in the toxic environments in which they labor. In this introduction, we explore the conceptual insights that the study of waste offers for the field of labor history, and what, in turn, a focus on labor history affords to social science research on waste. We examine the relationship between surplus populations and surplus materials, the location of waste work at the ambiguous fulcrum of trash and value, and the significance of labor for the understanding of infrastructure.

中文翻译：

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劳务废物：废物工作特刊简介

废物研究为劳动史带来了一套概念工具，可用于考虑不稳定的劳动力，人力资本，移民，城乡基础设施中劳动的物质质量以及在劳动环境中工人的多孔性和互换性。在本导言中，我们探讨了废物研究为劳动史研究领域提供的概念性见解，而对劳动史的关注又为废物社会科学研究提供了什么。我们研究了剩余人口与剩余材料之间的关系，废物工作在不明确的垃圾支点和价值支点上的位置以及劳动力对于理解基础设施的重要性。