Time and Plastic Tide: The Rhythms of Commensality and Connection on Christmas Island.
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| Title: | Time and Plastic Tide: The Rhythms of Commensality and Connection on Christmas Island. |
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| Authors: | Abrahms-Kavunenko, Saskia (AUTHOR) |
| Source: | Social Analysis. 2025, Vol. 69 Issue 3, p41-64. 24p. |
| Subjects: | Plastic marine debris, Effect of environment on animals, Islands, Meals, Cleanup of marine debris, Philosophy of time, World system theory |
| Geographic Terms: | Christmas Island (Indian Ocean), Indian Ocean |
| Abstract: | On a remote island in the Indian Ocean, plastics connect people to global supply chains, to one another through communal eating, and to ancestors as elements of shrines and offerings. While the island's human inhabitants depend on plastics, its wildlife is disturbed by the inundation of plastics on beaches that, following major currents, arrive from Southeast Asia. While most of the debris is unidentifiable, some items retain imprints from their former lives on land or at sea. People who regularly clean beaches find stories of connection and moments of beauty amid the massing. Engaging the ambivalences that many have toward plastics, this article explores how plastics, as an unintended consequence of their actuality, draw our attention to what it means to exist within the new temporalities of late capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: | Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection |
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| Abstract: | On a remote island in the Indian Ocean, plastics connect people to global supply chains, to one another through communal eating, and to ancestors as elements of shrines and offerings. While the island's human inhabitants depend on plastics, its wildlife is disturbed by the inundation of plastics on beaches that, following major currents, arrive from Southeast Asia. While most of the debris is unidentifiable, some items retain imprints from their former lives on land or at sea. People who regularly clean beaches find stories of connection and moments of beauty amid the massing. Engaging the ambivalences that many have toward plastics, this article explores how plastics, as an unintended consequence of their actuality, draw our attention to what it means to exist within the new temporalities of late capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| ISSN: | 0155977X |
| DOI: | 10.3167/sa.2025.690303 |
