‘Classification Freedom Registers of Value in E-waste Recycling’ paper in Anthropological Journal of European Cultures

Stehlíková, B. (2025) Classification Freedom, Anthropological Journal of European Cultures 34(1): 103-122. DOI: 10.3167/ajec.2025.340109

Abstract

This article investigates classification freedom in e-waste processing as a phenomenon that appears despite environmental risk and even though the promise of economic profit depends on strict discipline in e-waste disassembly and sorting. This paradox raises the question of what allows for classification freedom. E-waste recycling is embedded in specific registers of value shaped by a network of stakeholders: producers, e-waste processing facilities, the state, and the European Union. Building upon ethnographic research in an e-waste processing company in Czechia, I argue that the registers of value in e-waste recycling have stabilising effects on working conditions and make classification freedom possible. By elucidating the network of relations in e-waste recycling, the article sheds light on the link between stability and freedom.