It puts a lot of emphasis on the relation between toxicity, lower income communities, racism and putting these groups of people who are already vulnerable in even more vulnerable situations. Seems like a safe place is also a privilege and not a right as it should be.
The image shows the demolition of a mill that has been present for a long time in the region. The ethnographer argues that the image shows the loss of a building which represents the industrial past. Told through the story of her own experience of the past, the ethnographer argues that the temporalities of the industrialization are tied to other stories of immigration, toxicity and even suggests that there are personal lived experiences that don't define the industrial past primarily as a toxic one. I am curious about what she says about the demolition as a nod to the future.
This visualization argues that the unity sculpture and the comeback of Muskegon's downtown brackets out the racial segregation in this region.
This image directly ties the author's concerns about politicization of urban aesthetics with the hegemonic forms of sexuality that are coded into urban policy. The caption and commentary shows how certain kinds of non normative bodies are categorized as risky and how this becomes enforced spatially through policies around prostitution free zones. The argument emerges more from the caption than the image per se. The image itself shows an example of urban code to crack down on prostitution and how it is made visually present on-site to people in the city. I would prompt the author to try to incorporate the argument about how regulating space also means excluding specific kinds of bodies as well; this is a powerful argument.
This image is beautiful. I was curious to hear more about what exactly the figure pictured here is doing with the rake and the algae—presumably attempting to remove the algae? Is this a common practice? Does it help alleviate the toxification of the river at all, or is it more an aesthetic effort? And what does it mean for there to be “religious stretches” of the river?
This is a strong visualization that helps further your argument that air pollution is not simply "naturally" dispersed "universally" but in fact spatially differentiated. The constructed nature of this image also reinforces another idea I think you want us to pause on, which is that air pollution is hard to see, even for the people the most concerned about alleviating unjust exposure.
As someone who also is always drawn to taking photographs of signage, like you I immediately paused for the striking juxtaposition in this mural of “food security” and “pest control.” This visualization is rich because it captures a purposeful message being communicated through a mural that seems so prominently and publicly displayed that it is hard for you or even your interlocutors to ignore.
This visualization depicts that a river that had been running for 139 years got dried in Summer 2016. Though, the reiver still carries a form of water, this time, only wastewater. The ethnographer underlines how this river has been a common source utilized by the people to meet their daily needs of water. We also learn that people has continued to approach river filled with wastewater to meet their needs... At the first sight, I felt the depseration, and then, began thinking about that "water scarcity" is not only about "lack" but also creates a form of "excess" (e.g., wastewater).
The very basic message/argument of this visualization is that maps render real climate change as an "abstract" process. The author also notes that she is developing this visualization through looking into the methods/methodologies of interactive map making so as to learn more about the forms of risk that are rendered visible while other forms are rendered invisible. Sharing data through similar maps may not open an affective space for an "outsider" but can be affective for "local people"; therefore, the question here is how an ethnographer may visualize local people's engagement with similar maps.
This picture visualises the opposition, but also the close proximity and inseperabability of the 'natural' river environment and channels of toxic industrial waste. It brings to the centre a storm water drain that may be easily overlooked otherwise.