Rhythms of Innovations: The Temporalities of Plastic Alternatives in the Packaging Industry.
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| Title: | Rhythms of Innovations: The Temporalities of Plastic Alternatives in the Packaging Industry. |
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| Authors: | Breitsprecher, Lea (AUTHOR) |
| Source: | Social Analysis. 2025, Vol. 69 Issue 3, p115-137. 23p. |
| Subjects: | Compostable materials, Technological innovations, Packaging industry, Mycelium, Biomaterials, Social change, Agricultural wastes |
| Geographic Terms: | Europe, Germany |
| Abstract: | Driven by critiques of the pollution caused by hydrocarbon-based plastic packaging, start-ups are currently developing biobased alternatives for the packaging industry. Mycelium and agricultural residues become material bases, and resulting compostable materials defy classification into plastics and bioplastics. The article focuses on such companies in Germany and Western Europe and seeks to understand the logics of their innovations by examining the temporalities that accompany them. The innovations produce different rhythms that affirm or break with dominant given temporal orders that are shaped by the hegemony of plastics. Emerging temporal consonances and dissonances in the context of the innovations point toward different modes of cultural change and different futures. The article therefore seeks access to 'plastic time' through the non-plastic and reflects on the power that temporal orders associated with plastics have on transformation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: | Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection |
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| Abstract: | Driven by critiques of the pollution caused by hydrocarbon-based plastic packaging, start-ups are currently developing biobased alternatives for the packaging industry. Mycelium and agricultural residues become material bases, and resulting compostable materials defy classification into plastics and bioplastics. The article focuses on such companies in Germany and Western Europe and seeks to understand the logics of their innovations by examining the temporalities that accompany them. The innovations produce different rhythms that affirm or break with dominant given temporal orders that are shaped by the hegemony of plastics. Emerging temporal consonances and dissonances in the context of the innovations point toward different modes of cultural change and different futures. The article therefore seeks access to 'plastic time' through the non-plastic and reflects on the power that temporal orders associated with plastics have on transformation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| ISSN: | 0155977X |
| DOI: | 10.3167/sa.2025.690306 |
