Biography

Catherine Alexander is Professor of Anthropology at Durham University. Since 2000 she has been working in Kazakhstan and Britain on a variety of areas, many of which have been related to waste (recycling, third sector organisations, privatization, food waste). Increasingly, these interests have become intertwined with energy concerns: the development and promotion of anaerobic digestion, nuclear wastes and energy.

Selected publications:

2015 Central Asia, Anthropology of. In International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition). Wright, J. Elsevier. 3: 316-322.

2014 From Biopower to Energopolitics in England’s Modern Waste Technology. With Reno, J. Anthropological Quarterly 87(2): 335-358.

2013 The Garden as Occasional Domestic Space. In The Domestic Space Reader. Briganti, C. & Mezei, K. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

2013 Food Waste. With Gregson, N & Gille, Z. In The Handbook of Food Research. Murcott, A, Belasco, W & Jackson, P London: Bloomsbury Publishing. 471-484.

2012 Economies of Recycling: The global transformation of materials, values and social relations. With Reno, J. London & New York: Zed Books.

2012 Economic Valuations and Environmental Policy. In A Handbook of Economic Anthropology. Carrier, J. Edward Elgar. 451-468.

2009 Privatization: jokes, scandal and absurdity in a time of rapid change. In Ethnographies of moral reasoning: living paradoxes of a global age. Sykes, K. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 43-65.

2009 Evaluation of Bulky Waste and Re-Use Schemes in England. With Curran, A., Smaje, C. & Williams, I.  Proc on Inst of Civil Engineers, Journal of Waste and Resources Management 162(3): 141-150.

2008 Waste Under Socialism and After: A case-study from Almaty. In Enduring Socialism: Explorations of Revolution and Transformation, Restoration and Continuation. West, H. & Raman, P. Berghahn Books. 148-168.

2007 Urban Life in Post-Soviet Asia. With Buchli, V. & Humphrey, C. London: UCL Press (Routledge).

2003 Taking Control of Aisha Bibi: Nationalist projects and local heritage in Kazakhstan. Kumbez: Space, Time, Architecture 1: 23-32.

2002 Personal States: Making connections between people and bureaucracy in Turkey. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

2001 Legal and Binding: Time, change and long-term transactions. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 7(3): 467-485.