Category Archives: toxicity

Pollution is Colonialism

Colonialism in Canada is an ongoing structure whereby settler society and government assert sovereignty over lands already occupied by Indigenous peoples.

Cleaning up toxic sites shouldn’t clear out the neighbors

Notions of “sustainability” and “urban greening” ought to include values of justice and equity. Otherwise, important projects like the Blue Greenway will build sustainable waterfronts for the urban elite, rather than spreading the environmental benefits of toxic cleanup to the many.

Bibliography on critical approaches to toxics and toxicity

Toxicity, toxins, and toxicants are areas of critical concern because controversies over what they mean, how they act, how they come into being and where, and what counts as evidence have high stake ramifications. These texts offer critical insights into these processes:

Community Responses to Toxic Hazards: A Reading List

A reading list of the David and Goliath story of communities versus industries, governments, and polluting infrastructures.

Call for participation: Enacting Environmental Data Justice

Held on Tuesday, August 29, this event will explore possibilities for data justice through a framework of environmental justice.

CFP: Theorizing Harm

Whether focused on toxicity, disease, disaster, violence, or malfunction, STS scholars have long studied harm. Given the great diversity of approaches and cases, this panel seeks to take an intersectional approach to theorizing harm.

Take a deep breath – here’s what 2016 revealed about the deadly dangers of air pollution

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed that 92% of the world’s urban population now live in cities where the air is toxic.

How toxic flame retardant chemicals become-and stay-ubiquitous in our homes and bodies

A new report highlights the failure of Canadian federal regulations to keep harmful flame retardant chemicals out of homes and consumer products. In fact, it argues that current regulations keep toxic chemicals *in* homes and bodies.

On Solidarity and Molecules (#MakeMuskratRight)

Deferring to molecules rather than social movements when it comes to contamination is a case of power relations.

Ethnographic Refusal: A How to Guide

Refusal is a method whereby researchers and research participants together decide not to make particular information available for use within the academy. Here are some strategies for identifying and collaborating with research refusals.