Patrick O’Hare

Dr. Patrick O’Hare is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. He holds the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (FLF) and previously served as an ESRC research fellow at the University of Manchester. His work focuses on recycling economies, waste management, and labor dynamics in Latin America, with a regional emphasis on Argentina, Uruguay, and Mexico. He is affiliated with the Cambridge Creative Circular Plastics Centre (UKRI-funded) and the Cartonera Publishing Research Project (AHRC-funded), exploring cardboard book-making and circular economy ethics.

• Educations:
• PhD in Social Anthropology (University of Cambridge, 2017)

His research interests include the anthropology of waste, informal labor, and the intersection of social and circular economies. Recent projects examine 'ethical vertical integration' in binational recycling frameworks and bioplastics' role in just circular systems. He critiques global inequalities in resource management through studies of waste-pickers formalization, post-neoliberal state policies, and cultural resistance to environmental degradation.

Publications reflect ongoing engagement with waste economies, urban marginalization, and cultural production. He has received major grants from UKRI, ESRC, and AHRC, advancing interdisciplinary studies on sustainability and labor rights.

• Awards:
  • UKRI Future Leaders Fellow
  • ESRC Research Fellowship

His advising and grant activities include fostering collaborations across institutions like Cambridge, Manchester, and Surrey. Current projects emphasize bioplastics and 'just plastics' in global supply chains, while past work addressed Mexico’s drug war cultural responses and Uruguayan waste-pickers’ precarity.

Key affiliations include the Cambridge Creative Circular Plastics Centre and the Cartonera Publishing Research Project, where he investigates sustainable practices and grassroots cultural movements.