The Garbage Economy book launch

Please join us to celebrate the launch of Dana Kornberg’s award-winning book The Garbage Economy: Casteing Capitalism and the Persistence of Informal Recycling in Delhi, published by Oxford University Press on October 20, 2026. Kornberg will be joined by Prof. Sarah Swider, Wayne State University, for a discussion and Q&A at 6pm, followed by a book signing and social time. Fellowship hall is located a short flight of stairs down from the main floor at The Congregation. Enter from the front of the building on Rosa Parks for the shortest walk. Street parking is available on Rosa Parks and the nearest cross streets. Your RSVP will help us to ensure we have enough seating and refreshments. We will have light refreshments available. Drinks and food are available for purchase from the Congregation. Signed book copies will be available for purchase. See below for book details. Hope to see you there! ____________ Book Description: In the race to become “world-class,” the city of Delhi, India, turned to corporate partnerships and incineration technologies that promised to solve the city’s garbage problem. However, these efforts exposed an uncomfortable reality: the city’s drive toward modernization collided with an informal recycling economy that was more sustainable and deeply rooted. This persistence was not simply a policy failure; it was the outcome of relations between hundreds of thousands of oppressed-caste Dalit and Muslim workers and the dominant-caste, middle-class households they serve. Based on over a decade of fieldwork, The Garbage Economy traces the postcolonial remaking of Delhi’s solid waste programs and follows transactions in garbage, recyclables, and money from neighborhood collection routes to recycling commodity chains. Kornberg reveals the pathways through which caste articulates with capital, regulating who is allowed to accumulate wealth and who is confined to survival at the margins. Winner of the 2025 Joseph W. Elder Book Prize from the American Institute of Indian Studies. Link to book: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-garbage-economy-9780197681244 Discount code (30% off): AUFLY30 Tickets / more info: https://evite.me/5Gy86K5F3Q