Epistemic Challenges of Chemical Geographies: Navigating toxic uncertainties, partial data and imperfect evidence 1
Type: Virtual Paper
Day: 3/1/2022
Start Time: 2:00 PM
End Time: 3:20 PM
Theme:
Sponsor Group(s):
Geographies of Food and Agriculture Specialty Group
, Energy and Environment Specialty Group
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Organizer(s):
Caitlyn Sears
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Chairs(s):
Caitlyn Sears, University at Buffalo, SUNY
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Description:
Synthetic chemical compounds are central to physical landscapes and human bodies, and indeed are woven through the body-environment (Guthman and Mansfield 2013; Krimsky 2014; Mansfield 2018). Emerging research on “chemical geographies” aims to deepen our understanding of these critical markers of the Anthropocene and to bridge discussions in human and physical geography (Romero et al 2017; Barry 2017; Bernhardt et al. 2017).
One multi-pronged challenge and critical research area for chemical geography is epistemic: how can our research creatively address the limits to scientific knowledge required to inform policy decisions? To start, paradigms of toxicity are in a state of transition as scientific advances that increase understandings of harmful effects are not yet accepted by many regulators (Silva 2015; Benbrook 2019). In addition, scholars have long documented the practices of “deceit and denial” by petro- and agro-chemical companies, which make accessing information on many chemical compounds notoriously difficult (Marowitz and Rosner 2013; Boone et al. 2014; Packer 2021). Moreover, conventional scientific data and methods are often either insufficient or inaccessible to marginalized communities who bear the highest chemical burdens (Liboiron 2021; Shattuck 2021a, 2021b). Finally, while international reporting of chemical use and trade has seen important advances (Galt 2008), national reporting appears to be on the decline. For agrochemicals in particular, while imputed, modeled, and secondary data suggest strong increases in their use (Shattuck 2021a; Tang et al. 2021; Werner et al. 2021), a growing number of governments have ceased to share official data publicly, leaving stakeholders and researchers in the dark.
We seek papers in this session that conceptualize epistemic challenges in this field, explore diverse processes and sources of knowledge and knowledge-making, or consider how these challenges condition regulatory governance and policy change at any scale.
Possible themes for papers include, but are not limited to:
Political ecology approaches to chemical geographies
Science and technology studies (STS) approaches to chemical geographies Regulatory governance in the Anthropocene
Pesticides and agrochemicals
Environmental governance
Knowledge production in the Anthropocene
Chemicals in the Anthropocene/Capitalocene
Presentation(s), if applicable
Brian Williams, Mississippi State University; Bioaccumulation: Chemical Geographies of Racial-Colonial Capitalism |
Caitlyn Sears, Indiana University; Tracing agrochemical production networks in Southeast Asia: challenges to access, interpretation and comparisons |
Diana Ojeda, Indiana University; Toxic certainties and elusive evidence: The gendered chemical geographies of glyphosate in Colombia |
Marion Werner, SUNY University at Buffalo; Global pesticide geographies: Public data failures, creative solutions and the politics of knowledge production |
Non-Presenting Participants Agenda
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Epistemic Challenges of Chemical Geographies: Navigating toxic uncertainties, partial data and imperfect evidence 1
Description
Virtual Paper
Contact the Primary Organizer
Caitlyn Sears - searsca@iu.edu
Session Sponsored By
