Toxic News

Dr Thom Davies, Research Fellow, Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, UK @ThomDavies “The single most important challenge to the safety and protection of refugees arises from populist politics and toxic public debates” – Volker Türk, UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection (UN 2015) While conducting research this summer in the so-called ‘new Jungle’ in … Continue reading Toxic Life? The Slow Violence of refugee abandonment

Dr Cynthia Wang, Research Fellow, Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, UK  The issue of realizing the right to information is far greater than one hazardous substance. Baskut Tuncak, UN Special Rapporteur (2015)  The shocking series of explosions at a hazardous goods warehouse occurred at the night of 12 August 2015, but since then Tianjin have … Continue reading A Reflection on the Tianjin Explosions

Dr Peter C. Little, Assistant Professor, Anthropology Department, Rhode Island College, USA A three hour drive northwest of New York City, in the Empire State’s Southern Tier region, is the small community of Endicott. Nestled along the Susquehanna River, it is known as the “Birthplace of IBM.” International Business Machines Corporation (IBM)—born of a marriage between the … Continue reading Toxic Struggle and Corporate Paradox in a High-Tech Industrial Birthplace

India Foster, Project Administrator, Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, UK “It is universally considered just that each person should obtain that (whether good or evil) which he deserves; and unjust that he should obtain a good, or be made to undergo an evil, which he does not deserve. This is, perhaps, the clearest and most … Continue reading My journey in environmental justice: How – or rather why – I came to work on the Toxic Expertise project…

Dr Alice Mah, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Warwick, UK In some way or another, whether up close, within polluted communities, or at a distance, as global consumers, toxic issues affect all of us. In the age of the Internet, we are constantly bombarded with news. Headlines emerge only to be buried as … Continue reading Toxic News: Editor’s Introduction