Greiner Co-Authors Paper in Ecological Economics on an Agenda for Plastics Crisis Research
Posted: 2026-10-30 12:45:28 (CSDE Research)
CSDE Affiliate Patrick Trent Greiner (Sociology) and co-authors recently published a research article in Ecological Economics titled, “An Agenda for Plastics Crisis Research in the Synthetic Age.” Synthesizing insights from the environmental social sciences, the authors recast the plastics crisis as a structural feature of growth-dependent economies rather than a problem that consumer choice or incremental technologies can solve. Rather than reviewing work within ecological economics alone, the paper maps adjacent literatures to specify researchable questions, suitable methods, and tractable indicators for the field. It highlights the links between expansionary political-economic dynamics, globally uneven environmental burdens across the plastics life cycle, and the power and knowledge relations that shape what is produced, measured, and governed. The authors call for comparative, mixed-methods, multi-scalar research and for open, standardized data on plastics flows. They also argue for shifting attention upstream, from end-of-pipe cleanup to the transformation of provisioning systems, offering a roadmap for research beyond consumer or techno-managerial framings. The full article can be found here. Congratulations Dr. Greiner!
Date: 10/30/2026