ABSTRACT

In contexts of limited access to urban infrastructures and restrictive cultural norms, managing menstrual waste has important sustainability implications and complicates the menstrual experiences of women. However menstrual waste management has remained largely under-researched. To address this research and policy-practice gap we combine postcolonial and African feminist scholarship with social practice theory to explore the socio-materialities of menstrual waste management in a global South context. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Lilongwe we provide a practice-based account of the different strategies followed by women to handle menstrual waste in a changing socio-material context (including changing absorbents, infrastructures, meanings, and interventions). We demonstrate that interventions normalising new types of disposable and reusable absorbents have not incorporated considerations for the implications related to reuse-disposal of new products. Such approaches pass on the responsibility for managing menstrual waste to women and leave them with no ‘right’ solution as they deal with the unequal infrastructural legacies in the city. We conclude by setting an agenda for research and policy: one that posits that the socio-environmental challenges presented by menstrual waste can be better accounted for by making the needs and desires of women central to the planning of water, sanitation and solid waste services.

摘要

在城市基础设施使用受限和文化规范受限的情况下，管理经期废物具有重要的可持续性影响，并使女性的经期经历复杂化。然而，月经废物管理在很大程度上仍未得到充分研究。为了解决这一研究和政策实践差距，我们将后殖民和非洲女权主义学术与社会实践理论相结合，探索全球南方背景下月经废物管理的社会重要性。借鉴在利隆圭进行的民族志研究，我们提供了基于实践的说明，说明女性在不断变化的社会物质环境（包括不断变化的吸收剂、基础设施、意义和干预措施）中处理月经废物的不同策略。我们证明，使新型一次性和可重复使用的吸收剂正常化的干预措施并未考虑到与新产品的重复处理相关的影响。这种方法将管理月经废物的责任转嫁给了女性，让她们在处理城市中不平等的基础设施遗留问题时没有“正确”的解决方案。最后，我们制定了一项研究和政策议程：假设通过将女性的需求和愿望作为水、卫生和固体废物服务规划的核心，可以更好地应对月经废物带来的社会环境挑战。这种方法将管理月经废物的责任转嫁给了女性，让她们在处理城市中不平等的基础设施遗留问题时没有“正确”的解决方案。最后，我们制定了一项研究和政策议程：假设通过将女性的需求和愿望作为水、卫生和固体废物服务规划的核心，可以更好地应对月经废物带来的社会环境挑战。这种方法将管理月经废物的责任转嫁给了女性，让她们在处理城市中不平等的基础设施遗留问题时没有“正确”的解决方案。最后，我们制定了一项研究和政策议程：假设通过将女性的需求和愿望作为水、卫生和固体废物服务规划的核心，可以更好地应对月经废物带来的社会环境挑战。