Social control against the locational waste disposal and cultural practices

Abstract

Cultural practices rooted in a certain community affect environmental issues and related human interactions. Colombo city is the central business hub in Sri Lanka and provide dwelling places for more than one million people. The highest population density has been reported from the same district along with 15 wards belongs to city central. The life styles of the people living in the different locations in the city show wide subcultural practices. Therefore, this research investigates locational strategies on the waste disposal problem. Methodologically this paper employs visual sociological methods and photo analysis. This study aims to understand public response on environmental pollution with concern to the waste disposal in public places in the Colombo city. Data collection was limited to selected areas which characterizes demographical differences. The research problem arises with the idea of cultural beliefs and practices of a certain community may affect the waste management or garbage disposal. 35 photographs which were taken in different locations have been used in the analysis. It has observed a number of incidents originate form the failures in the mechanism of garbage management systems that end up with aggressive and violent conflicts between two or more individuals or groups governed by different value systems. Sri Lanka has a long tradition of using magic and spiritual strategies on controlling human relationships and conflict situations. Findings clearly show that public beliefs on the power of the black magic are still a powerful method of social controlling than the official law enforcement agencies with respect to waste disposal.