Doctoral Dissertation Research: Black Geographies and Industrial Toxicity in North Carolina

博士论文研究：北卡罗来纳州的黑人地理和工业毒性

• 批准号: 1536339
• 负责人: Sara Smith
• 金额: $ 1.6万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-08-01 至 2017-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1536339&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Black; Geographies

Across the U.S., Black communities live in environments burdened by toxic wastes. This research project investigates the relationship between race and waste in industrialized societies, through a case study of aluminum production in North Carolina. The study examines how race and waste have allowed aluminum to become a vital and valuable material in the modern U.S. The investigators will analyze how racism has shaped work, social life and politics in an aluminum company town, drawing on the insights and supporting the efforts of impacted underprivileged residents. This detailed empirical and historical study of a small town in the American South will contribute theoretical understanding to a wide range of disciplines, including critical and feminist geopolitics, historical geography, environmental studies, American Studies, and critical race studies. Collaborative and arts-based methods will make research accessible and engage broader audiences in environmental justice education. In scholarship on toxic exposure and hazardous environments, race is frequently taken for granted, included as one variable among many or an unintended by-product of larger structural issues. This research centralizes structural racism in 20th century capitalism, a period in which aluminum played a key role in establishing the U.S. as a global military and economic power. The case study focuses on Badin, North Carolina, one of the first aluminum smelters in the U.S and a segregated company town that is the site of a contemporary environmental justice struggle. Using a combination of archival and ethnographic methods to examine 100 years of Badin?s history (1915-2015), this research investigates and contributes to scholarship on waste, structural racism, and environmental justice politics. The investigators examine multiple wastes in Badin, from the chemical by-products of aluminum smelting and the unmarked toxic dumps, to the bodies of workers and environmental resources that are ?wasted? in order to make usable aluminum. They trace how different actors over the course of Badin?s history negotiated, defined and challenged what was considered valuable and what was marginalized as waste. The study explores how segregation and anti-Black racism have impacted the social life and the physical environment in Badin over time and what it means for affected communities to build political participation through suffering and illness caused by toxic exposure. Through participant-observation of Badin community negotiations to redress contamination, and drawing on interviews with key stakeholders in regional environmental justice politics, the study examines the potential for racial and environmental justice in the U.S. today.

在美国，黑人社区生活在有毒废物的环境中。本研究计画以北卡罗来纳州的铝生产为例，探讨工业化社会中种族与废弃物之间的关系。 该研究探讨了种族和浪费如何使铝成为现代美国的重要和有价值的材料，调查人员将分析种族主义如何塑造铝公司城镇的工作，社会生活和政治，借鉴见解并支持受影响的贫困居民的努力。这种详细的经验和历史研究在美国南部的一个小镇将有助于理论理解广泛的学科，包括关键和女权主义地缘政治学，历史地理学，环境研究，美国研究和关键的种族研究。协作和基于艺术的方法将使研究更容易获得，并使更广泛的受众参与环境正义教育。在有毒物质暴露和危险环境的学术研究中，种族往往被认为是理所当然的，被视为许多变量中的一个变量，或者是更大的结构性问题的意外副产品。这项研究集中在20世纪世纪资本主义的结构性种族主义，在这一时期，铝发挥了关键作用，建立美国作为一个全球军事和经济强国。案例研究的重点是北卡罗来纳州的巴丁，这是美国最早的铝冶炼厂之一，也是当代环境正义斗争的场所。用档案和民族志相结合的方法来检查100年的巴丁？的历史（1915年至2015年），这项研究调查，并有助于对浪费，结构性种族主义和环境正义的政治奖学金。调查人员检查了巴丁的多种废物，从炼铝的化学副产品和未标记的有毒垃圾场，到工人的尸体和环境资源。浪费吗来制造可用的铝。他们跟踪如何不同的演员在整个过程中的巴丁？我们的历史谈判、定义和挑战了什么是有价值的，什么是被边缘化的废物。该研究探讨了隔离和反黑人种族主义如何随着时间的推移影响了巴丁的社会生活和物质环境，以及受影响的社区通过有毒物质暴露造成的痛苦和疾病建立政治参与意味着什么。通过参与观察巴丁社区谈判，以纠正污染，并利用与区域环境正义政治的主要利益相关者的采访，研究探讨了种族和环境正义的潜力在美国今天。