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Surrounded by one of the largest petrochemical compounds in
Argentina, a highly polluted river that brings the toxic waste of
tanneries and other industries, a hazardous and largely
unsupervised waste incinerator, and an unmonitored landfill,
Flammable's soil, air, and water are contaminated with lead,
chromium, benzene, and other chemicals. So are its nearly five
thousand sickened and frail inhabitants. How do poor people make
sense of and cope with toxic pollution? Why do they fail to
understand what is objectively a clear and present danger? How are
perceptions and misperceptions shared within a community?
Based on archival research and two and a half years of
collaborative ethnographic fieldwork in Flammable, this book
examines the lived experiences of environmental suffering. Despite
clear evidence to the contrary, residents allow themselves to doubt
or even deny the hard facts of industrial pollution. This happens,
the authors argue, through a "labor of confusion" enabled by state
officials who frequently raise the issue of relocation and just as
frequently suspend it; by the companies who fund local health care
but assert that the area is unfit for human residence; by doctors
who say the illnesses are no different from anywhere else but tell
mothers they must leave the neighborhood if their families are to
be cured; by journalists who randomly appear and focus on the most
extreme aspects of life there; and by lawyers who encourage
residents to hold out for a settlement. These contradictory
actions, advice, and information work together to shape the
confused experience of living in danger and ultimately translates
into a long, ineffective, and uncertain waiting time, a time
dictated by powerful interests and shared by all marginalized
groups.
With luminous and vivid descriptions of everyday life in the
neighborhood, Auyero and Swistun depict this on-going slow motion
human and environmental disaster and dissect the manifold ways in
which it is experienced by Flammable residents.
Surrounded by one of the largest petrochemical compounds in
Argentina, a highly polluted river that brings the toxic waste of
tanneries and other industries, a hazardous and largely
unsupervised waste incinerator, and an unmonitored landfill,
Flammable's soil, air, and water are contaminated with lead,
chromium, benzene, and other chemicals. So are its nearly five
thousand sickened and frail inhabitants. How do poor people make
sense of and cope with toxic pollution? Why do they fail to
understand what is objectively a clear and present danger? How are
perceptions and misperceptions shared within a community?
Based on archival research and two and a half years of
collaborative ethnographic fieldwork in Flammable, this book
examines the lived experiences of environmental suffering. Despite
clear evidence to the contrary, residents allow themselves to doubt
or even deny the hard facts of industrial pollution. This happens,
the authors argue, through a "labor of confusion" enabled by state
officials who frequently raise the issue of relocation and just as
frequently suspend it; by the companies who fund local health care
but assert that the area is unfit for human residence; by doctors
who say the illnesses are no different from anywhere else but tell
mothers they must leave the neighborhood if their families are to
be cured; by journalists who randomly appear and focus on the most
extreme aspects of life there; and by lawyers who encourage
residents to hold out for a settlement. These contradictory
actions, advice, and information work together to shape the
confused experience of living in danger and ultimately translates
into a long, ineffective, and uncertain waiting time, a time
dictated by powerful interests and shared by all marginalized
groups.
With luminous and vivid descriptions of everyday life in the
neighborhood, Auyero and Swistun depict this on-going slow motion
human and environmental disaster and dissect the manifold ways in
which it is experienced by Flammable residents.
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