Toxic News

Yuanni Wang – Hohai University Loretta Lou – University of Macau, LSE From the clothes we wear to the medicines we take; chemicals are essential to modern living. While chemical products have brought many conveniences to our daily lives, the chemical industry has also caused significant damage to the environment and human health. In China, … Continue reading Can a hot spring resort coexist with a chemical industry park? The case of Jiangsu, China

Patricio Flores Silva – Department of Sociology, University of Warwick patricio-ignacio.flores-silva@warwick.ac.uk In his famous book 1984, George Orwell describes a dystopian society, a society where people are strictly controlled in every detail of their daily life. In Airstrip One, where the main character of the novel lives, it is not possible to think beyond the … Continue reading Editorial: 2020

Linda Soneryd – Department of Sociology and Work Science, University of Gothenburg linda.soneryd@gu.se In a pandemic situation, defined by the World Health Organization, WHO, as ‘the worldwide spread of a new disease’, we all need to listen to experts to know how to act for the safety of ourselves and others. Since it is a … Continue reading Expert advice in times of crisis: Transboundary risk governance and COVID-19

Abby Kinchy and Dan Walls – Department of Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute kincha@rpi.edu – wallsd@rpi.edu Like many university staff, we have watched the COVID-19 crisis unfold from the relative safety of our homes, trying to continue our research while physically distanced from the people and places that are central to our investigation. … Continue reading Deadly Exposures: COVID-19 and the Slow Violence of Lead Exposure

Sam Mason – Public and Commercial Services Union sam@pcs.org.uk The Coronavirus pandemic has thrust science and technology into the spotlight with urgent and necessary priority. In parallel, assumptions about the nature of work and what skills are valuable in society and the economy have been challenged as health and social care workers, along with many … Continue reading If we want to halt climate change, the next industrial revolution needs to be a workers’ transformative industrial plan

Nickie Charles – Centre for the Study of Women and Gender, Department of Sociology, University of Warwick nickie.charles@warwick.ac.uk According to Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, the COVID-19 pandemic ‘is a direct warning that nature can take no more’ and that ‘humanity’s destruction of nature’ must stop (Andersen, 2020). In Jane Goodall’s … Continue reading The challenges posed by the COVID-19 crisis for human-animal relations