Ecologies of Despair: Huge Shopping Malls, Huge Landfills and the ties that bind them

So yesterday I boarded a plane in Des Moines and stopped off in Detroit and Nagoya before finally arriving in Manila at 12:20 in the morning. Ian Sutherland, a new friend (introduced to me by the wonderful Dr. Lisa Kensler of Auburn University), graciously went out of his way to pick me up at the airport. We had a fine chat and then he dropped me off at my hotel, which is overlooking Manila Bay.

It's beautiful, and a new part of the city to me. Though I've been all over Manila, I've only ever stayed in Makati, near the PAEF headquarters--the folks who administer the Fulbright Program in the country. I've been to the US Embassy, which is nearby, but I'm staying up the road a bit in Malate, a part of Metro Manila that used to be known as the Red Light District but in recent times has developed something of a fine cultural flavor, with several little locally-owned restaurants and bars in between Rizal Park, Manila Zoological and Botanical Garden, De La Salle University, the Rizal Sports Complex and the Cultural Center of the Philippines. So...a new adventure for me. But what am I doing here?

I'm here to (a) try and do something important, research-wise, (b) traipse around a huge landfill for two weeks, and (c) do some hard thinking with Ian about what kind of research we can do with the 80,000 or so people who call the landfill home that is helpful rather than exploitative and that might ultimately contribute to better policies, better uses of philanthropic aid, and better living conditions for these "scavengers" as they are commonly called in the RP. Our project grew out of a discussion we started some years ago online about how much money and aid has gone the way of these people but it has never been sustainable and has largely been done AT them rather than WITH them. Our job, put simply (and it isn't at all simple), will be first to listen to them and then to engage in dialogue around issues they identify as important.

There is of course tremendous economic inequity throughout the world and there are three experiences that have compelled me to come back here to begin this work. First, my Fulbright experience changed me forever. It compelled me to rethink and reflect on what I do as a scholar and human being in ways I hadn't before. Many wonderful people opened their arms and hearts to me during my first visit and it touched me in a way that will always be with me. I did research with schools and people in much more dire economic circumstances than anything I have seen to this day. Yet, teach they did and in many instances they taught very well with indigenous teaching materials and little more than determination and instructional know-how. 

Second, I've written a bit about social justice in my work. While I'm proud of what I've done and I think there are a few good ideas in there I feel a space between doing research ON social justice and doing research FOR social justice. I am striving to make this project the latter.

Third, my aforementioned buddy Lisa Kensler invited me to a session a few weeks ago where we discussed ecological systems, sustainability and educational leadership. She facilitated a wonderful session that got me thinking about the ecology of educational systems, environmental systems, cultural systems and economic systems and made me realize that this study HAS to be about BOTH the microsystems within the scavenger community and the macrosystems that create and sustain the conditions in which they live.

Daunting? Yes.

Necessary? Yes.

If we are ever going to understand the ecology that includes the scavengers of Manila, the rural poor of Iowa and the urban poor in the world's largest cities we must develop methodologies for studying them that go beyond our traditional micro-at-the-expense-of-macro or macro-at-the-expense-of-micro and see the complex systems that conjoin them.

This, perhaps, is the beginning of being able to identify the ways we can create change in what seem to be intractable ecologies of despair.