Julia Perczel

I am a social anthropologist working at the confluence of economic and environmental anthropology trying to understand the world of market-based solutions to the environmental crisis. My interests range from the waste trade as a social mobility strategy for marginalized sections of society and the social effects and portrayals of working with toxic substances. At the heart of my research are the contradictory effects of market logic in environmental sustainability projects. 

I am working on converting my doctoral thesis into a book on e-waste recycling in India titled “The Value of Waste: value transformations in the e-waste sphere in India’s green transition.” The research has received funding from a range of sources including a studentship from the School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester, the doctoral fieldwork grant by The Wenner-Gren Foundation, the Radcliffe-Brown Award by the Royal Anthropological Insitute, a visiting fellowships by the Max Planck Insititute for Social Anthropology, Halle, and a postdoctoral fellowship by the ESRC. 

Alongside, I am also starting a new project on regulating solid waste movements in the Indian Himalayas titled “The world’s highest rubbish dump: a Himalayan Anthropocene” funded by The Leverhulme Trust.