scholarly journals Toxic Gaslighting: On the Ins and Outs of Pollution

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 486
Author(s):  
Liza Grandia
Keyword(s):  
School Administrators ◽  
Central Valley ◽  
Hazardous Substances ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Public Records ◽  
Risk Manager ◽  
Chemical Abuse ◽  
Bilingual School ◽  
Green Label

Outdoor images predominate in cultural conceptions of “air pollution,” whilst indoor air quality (IAQ) is typically tenfold more contaminated.  Recent nonprofit research revealed that “green label” carpet contains up to 44 hazardous substances.  How and why do school administrators not know this?  When people speak colloquially about “toxic” schools, they typically refer to social environments whose power dynamics are manipulated by difficult people (bullies, narcissists, gaslighters, etc.). In this article, I borrow the cultural concept of gaslighting to query how and why the literal off-gassing of banal objects like carpet have escaped scientific inquiry.  In dialogue with recent innovative air studies in California that blur the boundaries of in/outdoor pollution, this auto-ethnographic paper chronicles a carpet controversy at “Beacon” Elementary, a bilingual school in the Central Valley.  Even as outdoor smoke from California wildfires in 2017 pushed PM2.5 levels past red into unprecedented magenta alerts, children were sickened inside school classrooms after new carpets were laid in 2017.  By “outing” internal school board communication through repeated public records requests, Beacon mothers discovered how a chemical risk manager on the board manipulated confusion about patterns of pollution to dismiss the mothers’ citizen science of the chemical abuse of their children.  When pollution occurs out-of-sight (in locked classrooms) or affects groups rarely studied in exposure (minors), institutions can easily deploy gaslighting techniques of doubt, denial, and disavowal of the chemical abuse of children.  Given the slow (Nixon 2011), delayed, incremental, and “gaslighted” nature of modern chemical violence, even those harmed by chronic pollution may misrecognize the symptoms; those that do recognize the symptoms may be perceived or portrayed as delusional in stories worthy of Hollywood noir.

Who Banishes? City Power and Anti-homeless Policy in San Francisco

2020 ◽  
pp. 107808742092590
Author(s):  
David J. Amaral
Keyword(s):  
San Francisco ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Public Records ◽  
Adoption And Implementation ◽  
Economic Forces ◽  
The Face ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Business District

Despite cross-disciplinary attention to laws targeting homeless behavior in cities, systematic analysis of the power dynamics behind the adoption and implementation of such laws is surprisingly scarce. This article addresses that oversight by investigating the politics of anti-homeless policies in San Francisco, a critical and revealing case. Using a mixed-methods approach that joins qualitative analysis of public records with spatial and statistical analysis of precinct-level election results, census data, and geocoded police and 311 records, it evaluates previously unmeasured claims concerning the relative influence of social and economic forces in determining policy adoption and assesses whether enforcement patterns betray preferential treatment. Findings suggest that in the face of mobilized opposition, an anti-homeless regime composed of business and neighborhood merchants, elected officials, conservatives, and homeowners each contribute resources required to pass anti-homeless laws. Contrary to past claims, enforcement practices do not appear to privilege only the downtown business district.

scholarly journals Deromanticising integration: On the importance of convivial disintegration

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fran Meissner ◽  
Tilmann Heil
Keyword(s):  
International Migration ◽  
Group Performance ◽  
Immigrant Integration ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Social Relevance ◽  
Social Fragmentation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Diversity Dynamics

Abstract In light of current experiences with migration-driven diversification, is it still conducive to think about the effects of international migration by advocating for immigrant integration? This article argues that there are key problems with European uses of immigrant integration logics that cannot be resolved through redefinitions or reappropriations of the term. Even highly refined notions of immigrant integration misconstrue the role and relevance of differences in diversity dynamics. Immigrant integration further risks concealing and perpetuating power dynamics and (colonial) hierarchies. These continue to shape the social relevance of differences. Analytically thinking about superdiversity directs us to paying more attention to disintegration, a notion that cannot be reduced and measured by way of individual or group performance. To be able to usefully engage with disintegration, we argue that it needs to be divorced from ideas about social fragmentation and social collapse. To do this, we draw on recent developments in the literature on conviviality to emphasise the relational practices, power asymmetries, and materialities that enter into negotiations of difference. Convivial disintegration aptly addresses continuously reconfiguring and uncertain social environments. Our article thus provides a deromanticised and enabling provocation for easing integration anxieties.

scholarly journals Carpet Bombings

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Liza Grandia
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Indoor Air Quality ◽  
Indoor Air ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Central Valley ◽  
Regulatory Agencies ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Carpet Industry ◽  
Green Label

Outdoor images predominate in our cultural conceptions of “air pollution” even though indoor air quality (IAQ) is typically tenfold more contaminated.   New modeling of LA smog in Science suggests that source emissions from indoor and personal care products contribute more to that city’s infamous poor air quality than vehicular combustion.  In similar paradox, even as outdoor smoke from California wildfires in 2017 pushed PM2.5 levels past red into unprecedented magenta alerts, children were sickened inside school classrooms after new carpets were laid.  This auto-ethnographic paper chronicles our ongoing struggle to remove those carpets from “Beacon” Elementary, a bilingual Mexican-American school in California's Central Valley that has suffered decades of racialized neglect of its facilities. Forging through the uncertain epidemiology of environmental illness, “Beacon” mothers began documenting their children’s ailments after the new carpet installation, but the school district dismissed the mothers' citizen science.  The Superintendent continued to vouch for the carpet’s safety based on the industry’s voluntary “Green Label.”  A historical section of this article therefore recounts how and why the carpet industry invented this label in the aftermath of a scandal in which new carpets sickened a fifth of the EPA workforce at their headquarters in Washington, DC between 1987 and 1988.  Thirty years later, once again, three California environmental regulatory agencies are scrutinizing the carpet industry for hazardous ingredients.  

scholarly journals Power play: The dynamics of power and interpersonal communication in higher education as reflected in David Mamet’s Oleanna

2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-51
Author(s):  
Peter Chiaramonte
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Interpersonal Communication ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Power Of Language ◽  
Power Play

David Mamet’s play Oleanna may be infamous for reasons that do not do justice to the play’s real accomplishments. One reason for the controversy is the author’s apparent focus on sexual harassment. The play is not about sexual harassment. It is about power. And in particular the power of language to shape relationships within social environments such as universities. First published and performed in 1992 - at a time when many were outraged by the Clarence Thomas - Anita Hill debate - the playwright himself was compelled to deny his play was about sexual aggravation. Mamet’s Oleanna serves to instruct us about the power dynamics within one of our most vital institutions. The aim of this article is to take a dedicated look at this dramatic spectacle to see if we cannot uncover something about leadership and the mechanics of power and communication in higher education that is intellectually riveting, as well as socially constructive.    

Application of Electron Optics to Characterization of Particulate Pollutants

1972 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 364-365
Author(s):  
J. B. Moran ◽  
J. L. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Quality Standards ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Hazardous Substances ◽  
Fuel Additives ◽  
Ambient Air Quality ◽  
Air Quality Standards ◽  
Emission Standards ◽  
Stationary Sources ◽  
Ambient Air Quality Standards

The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970 provide the basis for a dramatic change in Federal air quality programs. The Act establishes new standards for motor vehicles and requires EPA to establish national ambient air quality standards, standards of performance for new stationary sources of pollution, and standards for stationary sources emitting hazardous substances. Further, it establishes procedures which allow states to set emission standards for existing sources in order to achieve national ambient air quality standards. The Act also permits the Administrator of EPA to register fuels and fuel additives and to regulate the use of motor vehicle fuels or fuel additives which pose a hazard to public health or welfare.National air quality standards for particulate matter have been established. Asbestos, mercury, and beryllium have been designated as hazardous air pollutants for which Federal emission standards have been proposed.

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