Waste recyclers, embodied research and planning: evidence from Guangzhou, China

Abstract

The continued flow of rural migrants into cities has created major challenges for planning and urban management in China. Despite the growth of research concerning the embodied dimension of rural migrants’ urban lives, the development of integrated embodied knowledge and its significance for planning and urban management is yet to be articulated. In connection with waste recyclers in Guangzhou, a conceptual framework involving the body of power, the experiencing body and the embodied encounter is established to integrate embodied knowledge. Reflection on the ways in which rural migrants struggle to live in cities and their agency and capability is imperative to inform socially sensitive planning in a diverse and heterogeneous metropolis.