Toxic Town

Toxic Town

Author: Peter C. Little

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2014-03-14

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 0814770649

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Shows the risks of high-tech pollution through a study of an IBM plant's effects on a New York town In 1924, IBM built its first plant in Endicott, New York. Now, Endicott is a contested toxic waste site. With its landscape thoroughly contaminated by carcinogens, Endicott is the subject of one of the nation’s largest corporate-state mitigation efforts. Yet despite the efforts of IBM and the U.S. government, Endicott residents remain skeptical that the mitigation systems employed were designed with their best interests at heart. In Toxic Town, Peter C. Little tracks and critically diagnoses the experiences of Endicott residents as they learn to live with high-tech pollution, community transformation, scientific expertise, corporate-state power, and risk mitigation technologies. By weaving together the insights of anthropology, political ecology, disaster studies, and science and technology studies, the book explores questions of theoretical and practical import for understanding the politics of risk and the ironies of technological disaster response in a time when IBM’s stated mission is to build a “Smarter Planet.” Little critically reflects on IBM’s new corporate tagline, arguing for a political ecology of corporate social and environmental responsibility and accountability that places the social and environmental politics of risk mitigation front and center. Ultimately, Little argues that we will need much more than hollow corporate taglines, claims of corporate responsibility, and attempts to mitigate high-tech disasters to truly build a smarter planet.


Book Synopsis Toxic Town by : Peter C. Little

Download or read book Toxic Town written by Peter C. Little and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2014-03-14 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shows the risks of high-tech pollution through a study of an IBM plant's effects on a New York town In 1924, IBM built its first plant in Endicott, New York. Now, Endicott is a contested toxic waste site. With its landscape thoroughly contaminated by carcinogens, Endicott is the subject of one of the nation’s largest corporate-state mitigation efforts. Yet despite the efforts of IBM and the U.S. government, Endicott residents remain skeptical that the mitigation systems employed were designed with their best interests at heart. In Toxic Town, Peter C. Little tracks and critically diagnoses the experiences of Endicott residents as they learn to live with high-tech pollution, community transformation, scientific expertise, corporate-state power, and risk mitigation technologies. By weaving together the insights of anthropology, political ecology, disaster studies, and science and technology studies, the book explores questions of theoretical and practical import for understanding the politics of risk and the ironies of technological disaster response in a time when IBM’s stated mission is to build a “Smarter Planet.” Little critically reflects on IBM’s new corporate tagline, arguing for a political ecology of corporate social and environmental responsibility and accountability that places the social and environmental politics of risk mitigation front and center. Ultimately, Little argues that we will need much more than hollow corporate taglines, claims of corporate responsibility, and attempts to mitigate high-tech disasters to truly build a smarter planet.

Toxic City

Toxic City

Author: Lindsey Dillon

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2024-04-09

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0520396227

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"Toxic City examines the politics of environmental repair and urban redevelopment in a historically segregated neighborhood of San Francisco. The book argues that environmental racism is part of a broad history of harm linked to slavery and its afterlives, and that environmental justice can be considered within a larger project of reparations. The book also details how, over many decades, residents have argued that toxic cleanup and urban redevelopment ought to be a socially, economically, and ecologically reparative process that supports the self-determination of Black residents"--


Book Synopsis Toxic City by : Lindsey Dillon

Download or read book Toxic City written by Lindsey Dillon and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2024-04-09 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Toxic City examines the politics of environmental repair and urban redevelopment in a historically segregated neighborhood of San Francisco. The book argues that environmental racism is part of a broad history of harm linked to slavery and its afterlives, and that environmental justice can be considered within a larger project of reparations. The book also details how, over many decades, residents have argued that toxic cleanup and urban redevelopment ought to be a socially, economically, and ecologically reparative process that supports the self-determination of Black residents"--

Toxic Heritage

Toxic Heritage

Author: Elizabeth Kryder-Reid

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-07-21

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 1000918017

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Toxic Heritage addresses the heritage value of contamination and toxic sites and provides the first in-depth examination of toxic heritage as a global issue. Bringing together case studies, visual essays, and substantive chapters written by leading scholars from around the world, the volume provides a critical framing of the globally expanding field of toxic heritage. Authors from a variety of disciplinary perspectives and methodologies examine toxic heritage as both a material phenomenon and a concept. Organized into five thematic sections, the book explores the meaning and significance of toxic heritage, politics, narratives, affected communities, and activist approaches and interventions. It identifies critical issues and highlights areas of emerging research on the intersections of environmental harm with formal and informal memory practices, while also highlighting the resilience, advocacy, and creativity of communities, scholars, and heritage professionals in responding to the current environmental crises. Toxic Heritage is useful and relevant to scholars and students working across a range of disciplines, including heritage studies, environmental science, archaeology, anthropology, and geography.


Book Synopsis Toxic Heritage by : Elizabeth Kryder-Reid

Download or read book Toxic Heritage written by Elizabeth Kryder-Reid and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-07-21 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Toxic Heritage addresses the heritage value of contamination and toxic sites and provides the first in-depth examination of toxic heritage as a global issue. Bringing together case studies, visual essays, and substantive chapters written by leading scholars from around the world, the volume provides a critical framing of the globally expanding field of toxic heritage. Authors from a variety of disciplinary perspectives and methodologies examine toxic heritage as both a material phenomenon and a concept. Organized into five thematic sections, the book explores the meaning and significance of toxic heritage, politics, narratives, affected communities, and activist approaches and interventions. It identifies critical issues and highlights areas of emerging research on the intersections of environmental harm with formal and informal memory practices, while also highlighting the resilience, advocacy, and creativity of communities, scholars, and heritage professionals in responding to the current environmental crises. Toxic Heritage is useful and relevant to scholars and students working across a range of disciplines, including heritage studies, environmental science, archaeology, anthropology, and geography.

The City Speaks

The City Speaks

Author: Subashish Bhattacharjee

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-09-29

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 100068573X

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This book studies the significance and representation of the ‘city’ in the writings of Indian poets, graphic novelists, and dramatists. It demonstrates how cities give birth to social images, perspectives, and complexities, and explores the ways in which cities and the characters in Indian literature coexist to form a larger literary framework of interpretations. Drawing on the theoretical concepts of Western urban thinkers such as Henri Lefebvre, Georg Simmel, Walter Benjamin, Edward Soja, David Harvey, and Diane Levy, as well as South Asian thinkers such as Ashis Nandy, Arjun Appadurai, Vinay Lal, and Ravi Sundaram, the book projects against a seemingly monolithic and homogenous Western qualification of urban literatures and offers a truly unique and contentious presentation of Indian literature. Unfolding the urban-literary landscape of India, the volume lays the groundwork for an urban studies approach to Indian literature. It will be of great interest to scholars and students of literature, especially Indian writing in English, urban studies, and South Asian studies.


Book Synopsis The City Speaks by : Subashish Bhattacharjee

Download or read book The City Speaks written by Subashish Bhattacharjee and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-09-29 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book studies the significance and representation of the ‘city’ in the writings of Indian poets, graphic novelists, and dramatists. It demonstrates how cities give birth to social images, perspectives, and complexities, and explores the ways in which cities and the characters in Indian literature coexist to form a larger literary framework of interpretations. Drawing on the theoretical concepts of Western urban thinkers such as Henri Lefebvre, Georg Simmel, Walter Benjamin, Edward Soja, David Harvey, and Diane Levy, as well as South Asian thinkers such as Ashis Nandy, Arjun Appadurai, Vinay Lal, and Ravi Sundaram, the book projects against a seemingly monolithic and homogenous Western qualification of urban literatures and offers a truly unique and contentious presentation of Indian literature. Unfolding the urban-literary landscape of India, the volume lays the groundwork for an urban studies approach to Indian literature. It will be of great interest to scholars and students of literature, especially Indian writing in English, urban studies, and South Asian studies.

City on Fire

City on Fire

Author: Bill Minutaglio

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Published: 2014-02-15

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 0292761058

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A history of the 1947 disaster that rocked a segregated Texas boomtown and revealed disturbing negligence by the private sector and the US government. First published in 2003, City on Fire is a gripping, intimate account of the explosions of two ships loaded with ammonium nitrate fertilizer that demolished Texas City, Texas, in April 1947, in one of the most catastrophic disasters in American history. “Remarkable. . . . A terrific nonfiction work that has the narrative force of an adventure novel.” —Washington Post “[Among] the greatest life-or-death tales ever told.” —Esquire “City on Fire will stand on its own as one of the finest books ever written about Texas.” —Texas Observer “Incendiary reading. . . . A harrowing mosaic about a blaze during a time of racial divisions and environmental plundering…evocatively told. . . . The book vividly details the carnage as well as some acts of heroism and selflessness.” —Publishers Weekly “Riveting . . . Reminiscent of New York City’s rise from the askes after September 11, the chronicle of Texas City’s devastation and resurrection will strike a chord with contemporary readers.” —Booklist “History at its best, at once thrilling and illuminating. The story of ambition, hubris, tragedy, and bravery . . . is as timeless today in all of America as it was back in Texas more than half a century ago.” —David Maraniss, author of Barack Obama: The Story


Book Synopsis City on Fire by : Bill Minutaglio

Download or read book City on Fire written by Bill Minutaglio and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2014-02-15 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of the 1947 disaster that rocked a segregated Texas boomtown and revealed disturbing negligence by the private sector and the US government. First published in 2003, City on Fire is a gripping, intimate account of the explosions of two ships loaded with ammonium nitrate fertilizer that demolished Texas City, Texas, in April 1947, in one of the most catastrophic disasters in American history. “Remarkable. . . . A terrific nonfiction work that has the narrative force of an adventure novel.” —Washington Post “[Among] the greatest life-or-death tales ever told.” —Esquire “City on Fire will stand on its own as one of the finest books ever written about Texas.” —Texas Observer “Incendiary reading. . . . A harrowing mosaic about a blaze during a time of racial divisions and environmental plundering…evocatively told. . . . The book vividly details the carnage as well as some acts of heroism and selflessness.” —Publishers Weekly “Riveting . . . Reminiscent of New York City’s rise from the askes after September 11, the chronicle of Texas City’s devastation and resurrection will strike a chord with contemporary readers.” —Booklist “History at its best, at once thrilling and illuminating. The story of ambition, hubris, tragedy, and bravery . . . is as timeless today in all of America as it was back in Texas more than half a century ago.” —David Maraniss, author of Barack Obama: The Story

Ecocinema in the City

Ecocinema in the City

Author: Robin L. Murray

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-11-15

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 1351398245

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In Ecocinema in the City, Murray and Heumann argue that urban ecocinema both reveals and critiques visions of urban environmentalism. The book emphasizes the increasingly transformative power of nature in urban settings, explored in both documentaries and fictional films such as Children Underground, White Dog, Hatari! and Lives Worth Living. The first two sections—"Evolutionary Myths Under the City" and "Urban Eco-trauma"—take more traditional ecocinema approaches and emphasize the city as a dangerous constructed space. The last two sections—"Urban Nature and Interdependence" and "The Sustainable City"—however, bring to life the vibrant relationships between human and nonhuman nature. Ecocinema in the City provides a space to explore these relationships, revealing how ecocinema shows that both human and nonhuman nature can interact sustainably and thrive.


Book Synopsis Ecocinema in the City by : Robin L. Murray

Download or read book Ecocinema in the City written by Robin L. Murray and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-11-15 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Ecocinema in the City, Murray and Heumann argue that urban ecocinema both reveals and critiques visions of urban environmentalism. The book emphasizes the increasingly transformative power of nature in urban settings, explored in both documentaries and fictional films such as Children Underground, White Dog, Hatari! and Lives Worth Living. The first two sections—"Evolutionary Myths Under the City" and "Urban Eco-trauma"—take more traditional ecocinema approaches and emphasize the city as a dangerous constructed space. The last two sections—"Urban Nature and Interdependence" and "The Sustainable City"—however, bring to life the vibrant relationships between human and nonhuman nature. Ecocinema in the City provides a space to explore these relationships, revealing how ecocinema shows that both human and nonhuman nature can interact sustainably and thrive.

Cities in the Urban Age

Cities in the Urban Age

Author: Robert A. Beauregard

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2018-03-19

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 022653541X

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We live in a self-proclaimed Urban Age, where we celebrate the city as the source of economic prosperity, a nurturer of social and cultural diversity, and a place primed for democracy. We proclaim the city as the fertile ground from which progress will arise. Without cities, we tell ourselves, human civilization would falter and decay. In Cities in the Urban Age, Robert A. Beauregard argues that this line of thinking is not only hyperbolic—it is too celebratory by half. For Beauregard, the city is a cauldron for four haunting contradictions. First, cities are equally defined by both their wealth and their poverty. Second, cities are simultaneously environmentally destructive and yet promise sustainability. Third, cities encourage rule by political machines and oligarchies, even as they are essentially democratic and at least nominally open to all. And fourth, city life promotes tolerance among disparate groups, even as the friction among them often erupts into violence. Beauregard offers no simple solutions or proposed remedies for these contradictions; indeed, he doesn’t necessarily hold that they need to be resolved, since they are generative of city life. Without these four tensions, cities wouldn’t be cities. Rather, Beauregard argues that only by recognizing these ambiguities and contradictions can we even begin to understand our moral obligations, as well as the clearest paths toward equality, justice, and peace in urban settings.


Book Synopsis Cities in the Urban Age by : Robert A. Beauregard

Download or read book Cities in the Urban Age written by Robert A. Beauregard and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-03-19 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We live in a self-proclaimed Urban Age, where we celebrate the city as the source of economic prosperity, a nurturer of social and cultural diversity, and a place primed for democracy. We proclaim the city as the fertile ground from which progress will arise. Without cities, we tell ourselves, human civilization would falter and decay. In Cities in the Urban Age, Robert A. Beauregard argues that this line of thinking is not only hyperbolic—it is too celebratory by half. For Beauregard, the city is a cauldron for four haunting contradictions. First, cities are equally defined by both their wealth and their poverty. Second, cities are simultaneously environmentally destructive and yet promise sustainability. Third, cities encourage rule by political machines and oligarchies, even as they are essentially democratic and at least nominally open to all. And fourth, city life promotes tolerance among disparate groups, even as the friction among them often erupts into violence. Beauregard offers no simple solutions or proposed remedies for these contradictions; indeed, he doesn’t necessarily hold that they need to be resolved, since they are generative of city life. Without these four tensions, cities wouldn’t be cities. Rather, Beauregard argues that only by recognizing these ambiguities and contradictions can we even begin to understand our moral obligations, as well as the clearest paths toward equality, justice, and peace in urban settings.

Toxic Debt

Toxic Debt

Author: Josiah Rector

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2022-02-17

Total Pages: 345

ISBN-13: 1469665778

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From the mid-nineteenth until the mid-twentieth century, environmentally unregulated industrial capitalism produced outsized environmental risks for poor and working-class Detroiters, made all the worse for African Americans by housing and job discrimination. Then as the auto industry abandoned Detroit, the banking and real estate industries turned those risks into disasters with predatory loans to African American homebuyers, and to an increasingly indebted city government. Following years of cuts in welfare assistance to poor families and a devastating subprime mortgage meltdown, the state of Michigan used municipal debt to justify suspending democracy in majority-Black cities. In Detroit and Flint, austerity policies imposed under emergency financial management deprived hundreds of thousands of people of clean water, with lethal consequences that most recently exacerbated the spread of COVID-19. Toxic Debt is not only a book about racism, capitalism, and the making of these environmental disasters. It is also a history of Detroit's environmental justice movement, which emerged from over a century of battles over public health in the city and involved radical auto workers, ecofeminists, and working-class women fighting for clean water. Linking the histories of urban political economy, the environment, and social movements, Toxic Debt lucidly narrates the story of debt, environmental disaster, and resistance in Detroit.


Book Synopsis Toxic Debt by : Josiah Rector

Download or read book Toxic Debt written by Josiah Rector and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2022-02-17 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the mid-nineteenth until the mid-twentieth century, environmentally unregulated industrial capitalism produced outsized environmental risks for poor and working-class Detroiters, made all the worse for African Americans by housing and job discrimination. Then as the auto industry abandoned Detroit, the banking and real estate industries turned those risks into disasters with predatory loans to African American homebuyers, and to an increasingly indebted city government. Following years of cuts in welfare assistance to poor families and a devastating subprime mortgage meltdown, the state of Michigan used municipal debt to justify suspending democracy in majority-Black cities. In Detroit and Flint, austerity policies imposed under emergency financial management deprived hundreds of thousands of people of clean water, with lethal consequences that most recently exacerbated the spread of COVID-19. Toxic Debt is not only a book about racism, capitalism, and the making of these environmental disasters. It is also a history of Detroit's environmental justice movement, which emerged from over a century of battles over public health in the city and involved radical auto workers, ecofeminists, and working-class women fighting for clean water. Linking the histories of urban political economy, the environment, and social movements, Toxic Debt lucidly narrates the story of debt, environmental disaster, and resistance in Detroit.

Border Ecology

Border Ecology

Author: Ila Nicole Sheren

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-03-10

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 303125953X

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This book analyzes how contemporary visual art can visualize environmental crisis. It draws on Karen Barad’s method of “agential realism,” which understands disparate factors as working together and “entangled.” Through an analysis of digital eco art, the book shows how the entwining of new materialist and decolonized approaches accounts for the nonhuman factors shaping ecological crises while understanding that a purely object-driven approach misses the histories of human inequality and subjugation encoded in the environment. The resulting synthesis is what the author terms a border ecology, an approach to eco art from its margins, gaps, and liminal zones, deliberately evoking the idea of an ecotone. This book is suitable for scholarly audiences within art history, criticism and practice, but also across disciplines such as the environmental humanities, media studies, border studies and literary eco-criticism.


Book Synopsis Border Ecology by : Ila Nicole Sheren

Download or read book Border Ecology written by Ila Nicole Sheren and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2023-03-10 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyzes how contemporary visual art can visualize environmental crisis. It draws on Karen Barad’s method of “agential realism,” which understands disparate factors as working together and “entangled.” Through an analysis of digital eco art, the book shows how the entwining of new materialist and decolonized approaches accounts for the nonhuman factors shaping ecological crises while understanding that a purely object-driven approach misses the histories of human inequality and subjugation encoded in the environment. The resulting synthesis is what the author terms a border ecology, an approach to eco art from its margins, gaps, and liminal zones, deliberately evoking the idea of an ecotone. This book is suitable for scholarly audiences within art history, criticism and practice, but also across disciplines such as the environmental humanities, media studies, border studies and literary eco-criticism.

Designing More-than-Human Smart Cities

Designing More-than-Human Smart Cities

Author: Sara Heitlinger

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2024-06-04

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 0192884174

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Climate change, rapid urbanisation, pandemics, as well as innovations in technologies such as blockchain, AI and IoT are all impacting urban space. One response to such changes has been to make cities ecologically sustainable and 'smart'. The 'eco smart city' for instance uses networked sensing, cloud and mobile computing to optimise, control, and regulate urban processes and resources. From real-time bus information to autonomous electric vehicles, smart parking, and smart street lighting, such initiatives are often presented as a social and environmental good. Critics, however, increasingly argue that technologically driven, and efficiency-led approaches are too simplistic to deal with the complexities of urban life. Sustainability in the smart city is predominantly performed in limited ways that leave little room for participation and citizen agency despite government efforts to integrate innovative technologies in more equitable ways. More importantly, there is a growing awareness that a human-centred notion of cities, in which urban space is designed for, and inhabited by, humans only, is no longer tenable. Within the age of the Anthropocene - a term used to refer to a new geological era in which human activity is transforming Earth systems, accelerating climate change and causing mass extinctions - scholars and practitioners are working generatively by acknowledging the entanglements between human and non-human others (including plants, animals, insects, as well as soil, water, and sensors and their data) in urban life. In Designing More-than-Human Smart Cities, renowned researchers and practitioners from urban planning, architecture, environmental humanities, geography, design, arts, and computing critically explore smart cities beyond a human-centred approach. They respond to the complex interrelations between human and non-human others in urban space. Through theory, policy and practice (past and present), and thinking speculatively about how smart cities may evolve in the future, the book makes a timely contribution to lively, contemporary scientific and political debates on genuinely sustainable smart cities.


Book Synopsis Designing More-than-Human Smart Cities by : Sara Heitlinger

Download or read book Designing More-than-Human Smart Cities written by Sara Heitlinger and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024-06-04 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate change, rapid urbanisation, pandemics, as well as innovations in technologies such as blockchain, AI and IoT are all impacting urban space. One response to such changes has been to make cities ecologically sustainable and 'smart'. The 'eco smart city' for instance uses networked sensing, cloud and mobile computing to optimise, control, and regulate urban processes and resources. From real-time bus information to autonomous electric vehicles, smart parking, and smart street lighting, such initiatives are often presented as a social and environmental good. Critics, however, increasingly argue that technologically driven, and efficiency-led approaches are too simplistic to deal with the complexities of urban life. Sustainability in the smart city is predominantly performed in limited ways that leave little room for participation and citizen agency despite government efforts to integrate innovative technologies in more equitable ways. More importantly, there is a growing awareness that a human-centred notion of cities, in which urban space is designed for, and inhabited by, humans only, is no longer tenable. Within the age of the Anthropocene - a term used to refer to a new geological era in which human activity is transforming Earth systems, accelerating climate change and causing mass extinctions - scholars and practitioners are working generatively by acknowledging the entanglements between human and non-human others (including plants, animals, insects, as well as soil, water, and sensors and their data) in urban life. In Designing More-than-Human Smart Cities, renowned researchers and practitioners from urban planning, architecture, environmental humanities, geography, design, arts, and computing critically explore smart cities beyond a human-centred approach. They respond to the complex interrelations between human and non-human others in urban space. Through theory, policy and practice (past and present), and thinking speculatively about how smart cities may evolve in the future, the book makes a timely contribution to lively, contemporary scientific and political debates on genuinely sustainable smart cities.