Hollowell, Delia Rizpah;
(2024)
‘Silver rain’: industrial pollution, environmental conflict and emotion in Rio
de Janeiro.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
Preview |
Text
Hollowell_10200744_Thesis_sig_removed.pdf Download (27MB) | Preview |
Abstract
This thesis examines the impacts of one of the largest steel mills in Latin America. ThyssenKrupp’s Companhia Siderúrgica do Atlântico (TKCSA) opened in Santa Cruz, Western Rio de Janeiro, in 2010 and was sold to Ternium in 2017. The company’s time in the area was marked by controversy and conflict surrounding claims that it had destroyed ‘natural’ habitats, displaced families, caused aquatic and ambient air pollution, negatively impacted local peoples’ health, and compromised livelihoods based on small-scale fishing. I conducted fifteen months of ethnographic fieldwork around the factory, living two streets away from its boundaries and participating in a local group campaigning against the TKCSA (dubbed ‘Pare TKCSA’, or ‘stop TKCSA’). I also undertook participant observation in a local State-run health centre in the residential area neighbouring the steel mill. This thesis explores subject matter as distinct as trafficking and the militia, sex and relationships, corporate language and protest, and religious beliefs and friendship. However, these themes do not, in themselves, constitute the core elements of its main arguments. Instead, I have focused on emotions as they emerged in the interstices of each of these disparate topics. A growing body of recent research investigates the place of emotion as part of toxic exposure experience and environmental conflict. My findings contribute to these explorations by making use of a broad and inclusive analysis of emotion, reading feelings within the fabric of everyday life, keeping an open mind in relation to the causation of emotions, embracing the dynamism of constantly shifting emotions, and viewing affect as a productive social force. I argue that emotions must be investigated, not merely as intertwined elements of the health impacts of ambient air pollution and environmental conflict, but also as crucial forces in the very ways that environmental conflict and a polluted lived world unfold.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | ‘Silver rain’: industrial pollution, environmental conflict and emotion in Rio de Janeiro |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2024. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Anthropology |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10200744 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
