Sketches for a theory of abject economies

Abstract: I begin in the space between two epigraphs, both compelling and contradictory. Each invokes a different paradigm of wealth and waste. Why tell such contrary stories in the same breath? Both reveal something about the uncanny social worlds at their margins. My pur - pose here is to sketch out the possibilities for lives and livelihoods to persist, even flourish, in ambiguous everyday terrains where such competing economic imaginaries simultaneously hold currency.