Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Ethnology /
Cultural Anthropology, grade: -, University of Zurich
(Ethnologisches Seminar), course: Krisen, Konflikte, Katastrophen:
Anthropologische Perspektiven, language: English, abstract: When,
on the 20th of April 2010, the oil platform Deep Water Horizon was
struck by a massive explosion of gas, nobody would have expected
that the consequences following the event would shake national
politics, damage an entire ecosystem, sicken local people and lead
to a chain of further negative consequences, an opening of a
Pandora's box. In this paper I would like to investigate in the
construction of scientific facts about the impacts of the spill and
the distribution and allocation of responsibility. The use of
massive amounts of toxic dispersants, which led the oil to
disappear from the surface of the sea, in consequence also led to
the slow but constant sickening of Gulf Coast residents and
clean-up workers. The debate succeeding the incident is one of
power, responsibility and construction of truth about the aftermath
of the incident. Gulf Coast locals feel abandoned by the officials
and the government. From their point of view, they don't seem
willing to acknowledge their suffering from chemical poisoning with
dispersed oil and the chemical 'Corexit', which was used in massive
amounts (ca. 6,8 million litres) by 'British Petroleum' (BP) to
dissolve the oil in the water column. A central question of the
incident and its aftermath is therefore one of responsibility in a
neoliberal society with neoliberal power structures.
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