Brinda Sarathy

Vivien Hamilton

Janet Farrell Brodie

The essays in this collection ask us to confront the toxic landscapes that pervade modern life. Taking us to sites of nuclear detonation, into neighborhoods impacted by oil drilling, and forests sprayed with pesticides, these stories ask how contaminated spaces have been created, whose health and well-being has been most impacted, and what role scientific experts have played in regulating radiation and chemical pollutants. If the proliferation of toxic spaces feels inevitable, then unraveling these hidden histories can help us to understand and resist these dynamics, and ultimately, imagine a different future.

Historical Perspectives on Contamination, Exposure, and Expertise

Inevitably Toxic

Gail Wells

Carl Wilmsen

William F. Elmendorf

Larry Fisher

Jacquelyn Ross

Participatory research has emerged as an approach to producing knowledge that is sufficiently grounded in local needs and realities to support community-based natural resource management (CBNRM), and it is often touted as crucial to the sustainable management of forests and other natural resources. This book analyses the current state of the art of participatory research in CBNRM. Its chapters and case studies examine recent experiences in collaborative forest management, harvesting impacts on forest shrubs, watershed restoration in Native American communities, civic environmentalism in an urban neighborhood and other topics. Although the main geographic focus of the book is the United States, the issues raised are synthesized and discussed in the context of recent critiques of participatory research and CBNRM worldwide. The book's purpose is to provide insights and lessons for academics and practitioners involved in CBNRM in many contexts. The issues it covers will be relevant to participatory research and CBNRM practitioners and students the world over.

Participatory Research for Community-based Natural Resource Management

Partnerships for Empowerment

Not a day goes by that humans aren’t exposed to toxins in our environment—be it at home, in the car, or workplace. But what about those toxic places and items that aren’t marked? Why are we warned about some toxic spaces' substances and not others? The essays in Inevitably Toxic consider the exposure of bodies in the United States, Canada and Japan to radiation, industrial waste, and pesticides. Research shows that appeals to uncertainty have led to social inaction even when evidence, e.g. the link between carbon emissions and global warming, stares us in the face. In some cases, influential scientists, engineers and doctors have deliberately "manufactured doubt" and uncertainty but as the essays in this collection show, there is often no deliberate deception. We tend to think that if we can’t see contamination and experts deem it safe, then we are okay. Yet, having knowledge about the uncertainty behind expert claims can awaken us from a false sense of security and alert us to decisions and practices that may in fact cause harm.

Brinda Sarathy

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