Dirt: the filthy reality of everyday life
Ralph, B. and Pisani, E. and Brimblecombe, P. and George, R. and Cox, Rosie and Smith, V. (2011) Dirt: the filthy reality of everyday life. London, UK: Profile Books. ISBN 9781846684791.
Abstract
Book synopsis: Dirt- obsessively avoided, often misunderstood, but paradoxically also an indicator of'civilisation'(through production of waste), and a near-magical source of renewable life and medical discovery. History is rich with progressive victories over dirt, from the aqueducts and sewers of the Roman Empire to Sir Joseph Bazalgette's triumphant'Main Drainage of London'in the mid-nineteenth century, which still functions today. Yet our relationship with dirt is complex and ambivalent. Dirt is waste, excrement, rubbish - but what then is soil? Is cleanliness next to godliness - or sterility? And in a throwaway society, does the battle against dirt depend on an exploited and half-seen underclass of cleaners?Published to coincide with a major new exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London in March 2011, and lavishly illustrated with images from the Wellcome's archives, this provocative book features specially commissioned essays and a short graphic novel section on the significance and implications of dirt from the microbial level through to the environmental.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Book |
|---|---|
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences |
| Research Centres and Institutes: | Mapping Maternal Subjectivities, Identities and Ethics (MAMSIE), Gender and Sexuality, Birkbeck (BiGS) |
| Depositing User: | Sarah Hall |
| Date Deposited: | 12 Apr 2013 09:45 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Aug 2023 17:03 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/6449 |
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