Speaker: Gonçalo Santos, University of Coimbra

Present-day climate and environmental disruptions are connected to the workings of a global capitalist order that generates ever-growing amounts of waste. Emerging scholarship on what has come to be known as the Wasteocene has highlighted how waste in the age of global capitalism is never simply about matter; it is also about systems of power and wasting relationships. One the best ways to explore this relational history of waste in global capitalism is through the history of the modern flush toilet and the wider waterborne system of waste disposal supporting its operation. This system of waste disposal is widely regarded as a symbol of global modernity, but it uses a lot of water and carries considerable environmental costs, and for this reason, there is a growing body of multidisciplinary research promoting alternative approaches to sanitation. Some of this research is historical and focuses on civilizations like China that developed a seemingly more sustainable model of sanitation based on the large-scale commercialization of human manure. In this paper, I draw on collaborative research with my colleague Jun Zhang to revisit the rise of Chinese agro-urban circular economies of human manure in the late imperial period, providing a new explanation of why these circular economies did not collapse after the end of the imperial order and during much of the 20^th century. My account questions “Western-centric” historical narratives of sanitation and modernity, while showing that contemporary debates on global ecological transitions have much to learn from Chinese historical experiences.

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