10 Section 2 – Discussion Questions
Elizabeth Kryder-Reid
- Toxic heritage is deployed for multiple purposes in the readings in Section 2 of Toxic Heritage, from local officials interested in revitalization and economic development (Ch. 5) to state-sponsored oppression (Case Study 2) and settler colonialism (Ch. 6). Other examples demonstrate how disinvestment in preservation and other services (Case Study 3) follows lines of social inequality revealing political faultlines. Select one of the readings – how is heritage deployed as a political tool, and how does toxic heritage figure into that exercise?
- Transnational politics figure into the distribution of toxicity, both historically and in contemporary life. Considering the impacts of war and military activities (eg. Ch. 6, Case Study 1, Case Study 5), e-waste (Ch, 8), and mining (Ch.7), how do politics at a global scale shape the distribution and impact of toxicity? How are these environmental harms and the people affected by them shaped by nation-state politics and globalized economic systems?
