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Launch of Transboundary E-waste Controversy Map

The Step Inititiative - Always stay informed

StEP is pleased to announce the launch of its Transboundary E-waste Controversy Map. The map provides a publicly accessible tool for people concerned about the issue of cross-border shipments of e-waste. The map will be of help to anyone new to the issue or who may already have some familiarity with it. Learn how the debates over the transboundary issue are being shaped and by whom.

Transboundary movements of e-waste are a matter of concern for a wide variety of actors including legislators, regulatory authorities, NGOs, corporations, and individual citizens. This online document offers a mapping of the complex terrain of actors and issues associated with transboundary movements of e-waste. As such, the document provides a navigation tool for a wide range of potential users: from those who are new to the issues, to those who may have domain expertise in some area(s) of the issues (e.g., legislation, toxicology, supply chain management, trade, etc).

 

Scenarios of use

There are several ways this controversy map can be used. Users can quickly orient themselves in the complex debate about transboundary shipments of e-waste by learning:

  1. The range of terms used to frame the debate by different protagonists. In other words, what is the debate about and how do the terms of the debate frame the issue?
  2. The range of protagonists (or 'actors') that contribute to the debate. In other words, who are key players in the debate and who is relegated to the margins? How do actors connect together or, alternatively, disassociate themselves from one another?

The two scenarios above can be traced on different parts of the map. One part charts the controversy on the Anglophone web indexed by Google. Another part charts it in Anglophone scholarly literature indexed by Scopus.

Other more advanced uses of the controversy map are possible depending on specific users' interests. The map provides access to analysis tools with 'live' links to the underlying data. These data can be probed for questions of users' own making.

 

Link to website: http://scalar.usc.edu/works/transboundary-e-waste/index

 

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